Fed up. That is how I would describe myself today. It's a day off from work but I don't feel chilled out. At all. Stressed!
So you may be wondering (or not, your call), why all the angst? It's been an age since my last post and I can assure you that entire time as not been filled with stress. It's mostly the last couple of days. Our area manager visited. I was off that day but apparently she was in a Foul Mood. She picked holes in everything, then sent an email to my manager outlining all the things that were wrong. This included the dress code. Which is funny because we weren't aware there was one. When we started back on October, I had to ask twice for the email she promised me with details of the job, including the very important what to wear section. When I finally received it just a few days before starting, it said merely 'trendy office'. Having never worked in an office, I went off to look for something that fit the rather sketchy description. Now, 10 months down the line, she sends us the Dress Code. She claims, of course, we have seen it already. None of us has ever seen it. If we had, wouldn't we follow it? Then she blamed the fact we hadn't seen it on someone who had since left the company! How convenient! She is the area manager. Isn't it her job to make sure we know everything we need to know? We're all really annoyed. It doesn't help that the dress code itself is completely contradictory to what we do. It's a fashion jewellery company. We were told, when started, that as long as we were smart and fashionable, and didn't wear leggings, jeans, sportswear, flip-flops, ugg boots or trainers, we could wear anything. This dress code states that we should wear the following:
*Tailored skirts/dresses. Knee length in black, grey, navy or brown
*Tailored trousers. Black, grey, navy or brown
*Blouses/shirts. If white, must be crisp white. Tucked in.
*Tops should not be low cut. Vest tops only as layering piece.
*Clothes must not be too baggy. too tight or ill-fitting.
*Make sure your underwear is properly concealed.
*Look to your manager for guidance and inspiration on current trends for tucking-in of clothing. (Honestly, it actually says this!)
That's just the main points. How depressing. Those colours! Brown, ugh. So they want us to be fashionable - then lay out a bunch of restrictions! And to claim we knew all along is ridiculous. It should have been sent out with our contracts, or be part of the handbook. Except it's not. I am actually properly angry about it. I'm even wondering if it's worth taking up with HR as we feel we're being unfairly treated. My manager called the AM about it and told her we didn't know, and like I said, she shrugged off any responsibility. She was also informed that everyone had taken a pay cut to come and work there, and therefore could not afford to replace our entire wardrobes. Not sure what came of that. I just don't see what's wrong with what we wear now. My working wardrobe consists mainly of printed dresses which are quite smart. And I bought most of them specifically. What pisses me off the most I think, is that she's had 10 months to send us this and she leaves it until now. I've spent out a load of money on clothes for work which I'm now being -indirectly - told are not appropriate. It's so frustrating and if I speak to her and she mentions it, I might not be able to keep my mouth shut. Not that she would as we are convinced she doesn't like confrontation.
And while we're on the subject of the job, I may as well go ahead and say it - I'm looking for something else. Not because of the clothing thing. It's more to do with the money. It's absolute pants. We recently had to do a review and in the box marked 'what do you dislike about working for the company' I was dying to put 'the money sucks'. Except I didn't in the end. Wish I had. It made me think though and I've started looking online for visual merchandising roles. It's probably going to be further afield but if the money's good then it might be worth it.
Speaking of 'further afield', we are seriously considering moving to Edinburgh. BF spoke to my dad about it and he apparently said to go for it. So while we're there we may do a spot of hunting around. No time like the present right? Job opportunities are not great here, so maybe a move to Scotland is finally in order. I know BF hates living in this town and wants to go back up north. It would be a major upheaval but if it's right, then it's a good thing.
Apologies for the excessive rant but sometimes it's necessary!
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