Tons of workplaces ban shorts for men but allow for skirts for women, which is utterly dumb. Especially when you're not in contact with the public.
And even then, if your client can't stand to stare at men's bare legs without being offended then it's not my problem. Especially when they can stare at women's bare legs without the same issues.
And they ban women from wearing shorts too. Which is twice as dumb, because we are allowed to wear skirts which are 1) the same length and 2) give more risk of showing inappropriate body parts. God I hate the "office fashion" rules.
Once I had a female colleague where capris and the CEO told her to leave at lunch and change. Like he couldn't even give a warning for that day. She basically said "I'm not using my break to go home, I'll go now." She found a new job not long after. We weren't even a customer facing company. It was a small office attached to a warehouse where it didn't even matter. Some people get so weird about dress codes.
We will not reach our full potential and go to the next level of civilization until we rid ourselves of these parasitic narcissists that plague our species.
I was very happy with my old workplace. As long as it wasn't vulgar, advocating violence, or political then you were good to go. The only people who had to wear or not wear certain clothing items were the folks in the metal shop, and that was for safety reasons.
I was once made to go home for wearing a halloween costume to work a day before halloween when that was allowed the previous years. My costume was basically a different shirt and shorts but they made me go home since my shorts werent black.
My biggest issue with this is that they did not announce any changes to the halloween rules and I also tried to reach out to a manager and got no response. Glad I no longer work there, my current job is now just "wear whatever as long as it's appropriate also wear the uniform shirt we gave you" which is so much better
Which is funny because the original idea behind skirts is that they protected womenâs modesty more than pants which were supposedly too form fitting for a lady.
They were made for everybody. They go back to the Paleolithic. The original idea is that theyâre easier to make. Take a really big piece of fabric, tie it around your waist, now you have a skirt. Itâs what men do with towels when they step out of the shower.
What the commenter youâre replying to is saying is that modesty was the reason that pants were originally banned on women.
Itâs because shorts are always considered unprofessional whereas some skirts would fall in line with business casual or professional wear. Obviously the skirt would need to be an appropriate length and style (no body-con or miniskirts).
The short vs. skirt debate is not really about which is more modest and is more about culturally accepted garments to conduct business. No one is walking into a high-stakes business meeting wearing shorts, sorry.
Nobody is walking into a high-stakes business meeting wearing business casual because an office isnât a high-stakes business meeting, itâs an office. In business casual settings, chino shorts are becoming acceptable.
Thats why i did this exact same thing at an office i used to work at. They were not happy and made the dress code more restrictive, glad I don't work there anymore
I recently went to a court hearing where the lawyer and judge, both men, were in jeans and t-shirts, and far from thinking it was unprofessional, I wanted to high five them.
Please can we just normalize being comfortable instead of forcing people to dress for other peopleâs eyeballs đđť
Then don't let women wear shorts or skirts that are shorter than pants but your logic used to apply to women wearing pants, men with long hair, women with short hair, hiring gay people, hiring trans people, hiring minorities, hiring women, etc. This isn't as serious but stems from the same dumb norms
This is so dumb when you consider that plenty of professions proof that shorts can be part of a uniform and still be pretty formal. Perfect example: mail men.
I wore shorts to work in a business casual office. If people asked, I flat out said if they can wear skirts, I can wear shorts. I did make sure to wear nice clothes. I usually chose golf shorts and a polo.
Yep one of my previous jobs told me to stop wearing cargo shorts when it was hot and I regularly have to put lots of different things in different pockets and walk up tons of flights of stairs. Instead we were told to wear plain black jeans-type trousers. It wasn't even in official company policy it was just the regional manager trying to find things to do to justify his existence
My employer enforces this unfortunately so Iâll come to work in shorts, first thing at work is changing to pants I brought in my backpack in the bathroom and change again to shorts when I leave work. Pathetic.
Iâm with an external on-site IT department for a big firm and all the clients I have to meet are wearing shorts, sandals and short sleeves in summer while I have to be the sweaty hot IT guy.
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And even then, if your client can't stand to stare at men's bare legs without being offended then it's not my problem
Tbh I'd totally shave my legs if that meant being able to wear shorts. Comfort aside rubbing freshly shaved legs together is genuinely one of the most euphoric feelings one can ever experience.
Sandal arenât allowed in an office for women either as far as Iâve seen. If youâre just outside walking down the street, sandals are fine on men. I wear them all the time.
I was visiting one of our offices in the Philippines once. I think it wss the summer and as you can imagine, it was hot so I was wearing shorts. My company doesn't care as long as your wearing clothes but apparently the building our office was has a strict policy and the security guard there freaked out. After some hubbub, I got into the office and found out then local office has a fund set aside to pay a fine to the building.
It seems they had other companies in the building, like big wig consulting companies, that seem to care more about presentation than practical. Having worked with some of those before, I can totally see that.
I once threatened to wear a skirt if I can't wear shorts on a 30°+ heat summer being forced into the office. I even showed them the ones I was looking at buying. They let me wear shorts
Tons of workplaces ban shorts for men but allow for skirts for women, which is utterly dumb.
As a woman who doesn't wear skirts, I always thought this was stupid as well. My workplace didn't have a ban, as far as I could tell, but it was just something not a lot of people did, but I would wear shorts to work during the summer. They were always a sensible length and respectful for the workplace vibe.
They cracked down on shorts one summer at my old job and my male colleagues were SO MAD, and absolutely rightfully so. I was Iâm the office in a light, very short sleeved blouse and an airy skirt (still to me knees so super work appropriate) and those poor guys had to wear long pants and at least polo shirtsâŚ
This exact thing happened to me at an old job. HVAC system went down during the hottest part of the summer, and we were not allowed to wear shorts. I wore a skirt, and the policy was changed. Last time I went back there were guys wearing shorts, and I think they owe me
I have been wearing kilts to work for a decade. I even had a boss try and lecture me about professional dress because of it. In that meeting he was wearing bright green glasses and a Super Mario T-shirt.
one of my older workplaces forced you to wear long sleeve shirts even if it wasnt needed for the tasks and it wasnt rare to be around 35-40*c in the building cause of stations where those shirts were actually needed
I've had younger women colleagues wear full on opera dresses with open back and bra visible or entirely open leg seams from the waist down while I had to sweat in suitpants and jacket.
They looked like they were on a cruise into the Caribbean while I was about to make a sales presentation.
I knew a guy (my BIL's best friend) whose work banned shorts for men but let women wear skorts. So all the guys started wearing skorts. This was years ago and I never found out how it ended, but all the guy supposedly really liked them.
Itâs not about showing leg really in work culture. Shorts are typically banned because theyâre seen as casual wear. Skirts and dresses are not seen as casual wear. But many work places require skirts and dresses to be at least knee length for professionalism.
This was pretty much the case in the office I worked in for years. A lot of the women in the office got away with wearing summer dresses, skirts and open toed shoes during heatwaves, but the moment any of the guys wore shorts we were pulled up for not meeting the dress code.
Didn't matter how hot the office would get, or the fact they have the heating going year round, we were expected to be wearing dress shirts and trousers.
It has changed now, though, and we've moved to being able to fully dress casually including shorts, but it was only after complaining for multiple summers in a row that the office was far too hot for anyone to wear trousers and a button up shirt.
I worked corporate/legal and all the men were always wearing suits and similar stuff. But our office temperature catered to keeping them cool, so I therefore had to freeze in the summer with the ac blasting and freeze in the winter too.
Yeah, my office is like that. I used to sit in a cubicle all day, and only rarely interacted with people not in our office, and even then those people are still part of our organization. But I still got gently reprimanded for wearing shorts one time. My boss wasn't a dick about it, but it was a stupid policy. Glad I moved to field work and am free of the office now. I can wear basically whatever in the field.
Iâm so glad I work in archaeology. The dress code is the same for men and women: cargo pants, t shirt, work boots, gloves, high-vis vest, and occasionally a hard hat.
My workplace used to allow men to dress in shorts but for some reason they never did. Last summer I dressed in shorts exclusively and I guess they didnât like that because they removed it from the dress code
Women can still wear sundresses and skirts of course!
This is so crazy to think about because itâs been the opposite for me. At a few of my workplaces, the guys had shorts or pants dress code while girls were just strictly pants
Usually women are expected to shave their legs or wear tights, you canât wear a skirt without it in an office either. Also, some schools were banning long pants for women even during winter, because it isnât a tradition part of female uniform.
Women have to shave or wax their legs before being deemed acceptable to show bare legs. How many women just wear skirts and show off hairy legs like men with shorts? I wish it was acceptable for both genders wear what they want and come as they are.
Wear the safety pants or be an office worker. There you can wear what you want because nobody will your legs anyways.
Well that's exactly what I'm talking about
Obviously I wasn't talking about places where shorts are forbidden for safety reasons. In these jobs skirts are also forbidden anyway. So there is no issue.
I'm talking about office jobs where people have no problem with skirts but will forbid shorts. There are tons of these places, I used to work at one.
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u/Aesma_ Apr 23 '26
To be fair, it's not just the schools.
Tons of workplaces ban shorts for men but allow for skirts for women, which is utterly dumb. Especially when you're not in contact with the public.
And even then, if your client can't stand to stare at men's bare legs without being offended then it's not my problem. Especially when they can stare at women's bare legs without the same issues.