Look at the state of you! Scruffy lot...

[sensaes]

'Lecturers have been told they will be sent home to change if they come to work in jeans or scruffy trousers. The UCU lecturers' union is protesting against Birmingham Metropolitan College acting like the "fashion police". The dress code for staff requires tidy hair, business suits and skirts, no visible tattoos, no slogans on T-shirts or "

Comments

[gobsmacked]

This makes me laugh. Years ago, one of my friends was told by someone who was *not* an academic that she didn't "dress like a professor". She always wore skirts. She then retorted "In that case, should I wear sweatsuit pants or cargo pants? That's what the two senior female faculty in my department always wear" (I knew the two profs in question. One was 60 and the other 50.)

[niemandsrose]

And god help your department if your subject matter can't be taught in a business suit. (Performing arts shoutout yo.)

[niemandsrose]

True! And haven't they traced lots of clinical infections to items like neckties being worn by doctors?

[cheez_ball]

These people have obviously not seen What Not to Wear. Don't they know about dress-up jeans? *snick*

[sporkgoddess]

[theredrighthand]

I was JUST thinking about what the WNTW crew would think of this. Words that come to mind: boring, boxy, unfeminine, uninteresting. This idea probably won't get a Shut Up! from Stacey.

[iluvpokeystix]

I think, perhaps, I would sew suit pieces together and turn it into a front-zip coverall. Then I could zip in and out of it at will, with normal clothing underneath. There isn't a clause there about proper tailoring, so perhaps as long as it looks like a suit, it would work.

[sensaes]

If you're going to go to that much trouble, the least you could do is to wear a superhero costume underneath. ;o)

[makd]

I don't see a problem. Maintaining a professional image is part of the job. Professionalism always. We do "represent". If we don't "look" the job, then maybe there are other parts of the job about which we won't follow through.

Our college has an informal dress code. What's the code? It's business casual/business, which means no jeans, no t-shirts, no visible tats, no "unusual" hair (trans: no Mohawks, no blue/purple/green/multi-colored hair, etc.)

Interestingly, I've worn denim skirts without complaints, but a colleague who consistently wore denim jeans was "spoken to". I do know that there have been occasional "chit-chats", followed by "make-overs" of clean clothes, tidy hair, and a spending spree of business casual

[makd]

It was the SAME jacket, the SAME trousers, the SAME shirt, the SAME tie. They were rumpled; they smelled like mothballs. It was ....off-putting.

Even now, 40 years later, I can see that damned blue uniform that he wore. And worse: I can smell the paradichlorabenzene!!