Almost all jobs require you to adhere to a dress code, whether you have strict uniform guidelines or have simply been told to follow a smart casual theme in an office setting.
But one woman was left questioning her workplace's implementation of its dress code after she was told by her manager that the dress she was wearing was "inappropriate" - despite it conforming to the guidelines.
The woman said she wore a knee-length dress that wasn't fitted and was horrified when she was told by a male manager that he would be "monitoring her attire" from now on because he didn't think her dress was suitable for the office.
In a seething post on Mumsnet, the woman wrote: "I got pulled into an 'informal meeting' today with a male manager because apparently my dress is too short and he will be monitoring my attire going forward.
"What I'm wearing isn't against the dress code guidance (which is just 'smart casual'). This dress covers my knees and is not a fitted style so it isn't riding up. I have worn it to work many times before and no issues were raised previously."
The woman also pointed out that other people in the office were breaking the dress code by wearing shorter dresses or items deemed too casual such as jeans and hoodies - but none of them were spoken to about their outfits.
She added: "Am I being unreasonable to be annoyed about being spoken to about this? Other people not only wear dresses the same length as me, but shorter things. Some are literally wearing things directly against the dress standards such as jeans, trainers, t-shirts and hoodies today. They aren't being spoken to.
"I feel like it's personal and nitpicking to raise this. Particularly as it's also 20 degrees outside and the heating is ON inside, so everyone at work is profusely sweating while working through headache-inducing heat."
In further updates, the woman insisted the dress code at her workplace was not "applied equally", and said that even the manager himself wasn't following guidelines as he was wearing a hoodie.
Commenters were firmly on the woman's side, with many of them pointing out that it seemed inappropriate for a male manager to "monitor" the outfits of his female employees.
One person said: "This is so creepy. Is he going to stand with a clipboard each day and tick pass or fail?
"As previously said, [send an] email including line managers and HR. I would say that you feel uncomfortable about the meeting and what it means going forward. That the style of the meeting was inappropriate, especially if there is no written documentation and a formal meeting is required with HR where he can clarify the policy, what breach there was and the plan going forward."
While another added: "I would go straight to HR and make a formal complaint. If he has only picked on you, and not told others, and others are blatantly not adhering he is picking on you."
And a third wrote: "My head is really blown that some women have to put up with this in 2023. I would really encourage you to massively blow this up with HR formally."
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