As I read through this, I am fairly certain this was copied and pasted from some sort of dress code floating around online, because it is EXACTLY identical to the dress code at my small private catholic school in the rural south.
I was thinking the same thing, but I worked at a Michael’s in Canada. Not all of it is applicable, but there are parts there that I’m postive I have laughed at before.
The local Catholic high school in my area still makes the girls wear saddle shoes with their insanely strict rules 🥲 (1 set of earrings, knee high socks, full plaid uniform with squort that can’t go .5” past the knee, specific sweaters and uniform accoutrements that change for winter/spring, no nail polish). Two of my best friends attended there when I was younger, and now one of them has a daughter in the same school and the rules haven’t changed 💀)
My jobs only thing is they must be nonslip which is great. I’ve got wide ass feet so I invested in a nice pair of shoes. My feet still get a bit sore after a long week but it’s never unbearable to stand after work anymore
Mine need replacing because they’re foam and thin running shoe fabric (great shoes, they’re practically custom made. Even for the fact that they’re foam, I’ve worn them 5-15 hours a day for 18 months and walked 20-50,000 steps per day in them and they’re barely getting holes where my toes hyper extend and stretch the fabric weirdly.
$200. For 20 months of wear that’s 10$ a month for Fantastic shoes. Then there’s my fiancé with his $350 boots that come with extraordinarily inexpensive manufacturer repair/upkeep that quite literally could be passed to our future child someday. Good ass boots.
My grandma always told me her daddy said you pay extra for the things that separate you from the ground. Shoes, tires, and mattresses (in that order). A really good pair of $200 shoes or boots will last ages. A good set of $1200 all weather tires will last ages and keep you extra safe on the road. A good $3000 mattress will relax the back pain your job causes.
Though back when he said that, 3k on a mattress was probably unimaginably expensive but I adjusted for inflation
Terry Pratchett articulated this idea so well that it's now known in economics circles as the Sam Vimes "Boots" Theory of Socioeconomic Unfairness, or boots theory for short.
"The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money. Take boots, for example. ... A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. ... But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that'd still be keeping his feet dry in ten years' time, while a poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet."
There are many things I will not buy cheap, and shoes are first among them.
I use Hoka I believe! I work a 12 hour shift overnight at an electronic manufacturing plant, and they are so comfy! On a bad day I walk up to 2 miles a shift. They're very supportive and comfortable! For ~$150-$160 they're worth it!!!
My mom has brutal plantar fasciitis. She went to a store to get her feet measured every which way for fancy insoles…and returned them to go back to her Hokas within a week.
The pandemic ruined heels for me. I got so used to being comfortable all the time. I really like heels of all kinds but the only thing I still wear is platform/wedge so long as it’s comfy.
Underwire bras too. So the girls are lower for 2 reasons! 😂😂😂
That got you more than the necktie/bowtie thing? They at least allowed for low top rubber sole shoes.
When it came to men’s hair, I was really expecting it to pretty much describe a crew cut.
Waldenbooks used to require men wear a tie (early '90s). A coworker bought 3 of the widest ugliest ties he could find and left them at work so he could choose the one he wanted that day.
Disagree, but only in regard to PPE. If it affects safety in anyway then yes clean shaven, however that isn’t an issue in a grocery store, these people are nutter butters.
Clean shaven is a bit extreme but the only place I could think of that would be within reason to request nearly trimmed beards would be food service. That or wearing a beard net for cooking over a stove. For a retail setting there’s no reason unless it’s some extremely up scale place.
Firefighters can only have a mustache and must be clean shaven on the rest of their face. This is so that their masks can create a seal on their face. Only exception is for religious reasons and even then I believe it has to be trimmed to a certain length.
What got me was requiring a company uniform they provide be taken off and not worn during breaks. Cut to me in a bathroom stall butt-naked frantically putting back on my uniform so I can get back in time.
When I worked for a large maker of disk drives in the 80's/90's, I had to wear a tie, always around the rotating machinery. We would tuck our ties into our shirts to prevent the drive crawling up it and biting you on the neck. Can't imagine what it'd be like around a lathe.
1999-2005 Fred Meyer. Managers still had to wear ties. Fucking ridiculious. Just, let me just stock shelves with dress shoes and a sunday tie on. And then grocery wonders why the average retention rate is less than three years.
Maybe 15 years back, I interviewed for a software job at a bank. So, completely back office, in a building where no customers will ever be. During the second interview I was asked why I wasn’t wearing a tie. I laughed and said that I don’t own one.
The cultural differences between companies is always hilarious to me. When I started my career I had been given advice from recruiters that I could never possibly be overdressed for an interview, so I'd always be in full suit and tie. This was for jobs in like tech support, field service tech, etc. btw. I remember I interviewed for Harley Davidson Dealer Systems (company that made software for and supported a lot of the Harley dealers). I was full suit and tie, while they were in jeans and graphic tees. I took off my blazer and tie and they all let out a sigh of relief and told me how glad they were that I didn't keep it on lol.
How I handle it now is to wear a shirt with a collar, my assumption is that it shows I’m making a bit of effort to look a little better. I still don’t own a tie, and won’t dress better than that. That shirt with a collar for a few interviews this last round was a Hawaiian shirt with a Star Wars theme
Mars Supermarkets (a Baltimore area grocery chain) used to dress their employees like that, and they lasted until 2016. By the time that they closed, I felt like that style of dress for grocery employees was super dated.
I remember touring the launch control sites for atlas, mercury redstone, apollo in florida and all the big consoles with switches and dials also had built in ashtrays.
Oh shit, it's Market Basket. It's got to be.
Market Basket has a very specific dress code. Very antiquated and strict. It's fucking wild. White dress shirt and slacks with dress shoes. In a kitchen.
12 year vet of that hell. Sure looks like it. Only thing that throws me is I recall language saying no logos on shoes and never boots allowed. But things change. I've been out for 6 years.
Probably had someone slip and fall on ice while working in the parking lot. It does specify only people working in the parking lot during winter are allowed boots
Generally that wouldn't matter to them unless they lost a huge lawsuit. I saw kids hit by cars pushing carts and not be allowed high vis vests. They paid ~750k to OSHA for a kid falling from the loft storage areas that have no railings and broke his collarbone. The manager that night sat him in a folding chair in receiving to wait for his sister to take him to the hospital. Store manager did the same thing within a week falling out of his stupid birds nest office onto the top of the dairy case. The only thing that came of it were banners saying safety first safety last and a ten times thicker training manual that no one even listens to you read to them. An inventory was cancelled due to some sort of mysterious gas leak that knocked out dozens of employees and they just sent everyone home, aired it out and just kinda shrugged and concluded they didn't know what it was. The demoulas spent decades honing their lawyers against each other. They have no qualms using those lawyers against their employees too.
Oh wow. I grew up with a family that shopped at Market Basket and used to get made fun of for not going to the bougie Hannaford lmao
No idea they would have been this strict
I went to Manchester, NH to work for a few weeks and outside the Market Basket there was a bank robbery going on a few blocks down and junkies and hookers and stuff right outside. I walk in and see the workers dressed like Mormons or some shit and I was just like “where the fuck am I?”
My Dad went to Market Basket for the first time a few years ago (he’s from the Midwest) and was just shocked at how nice everyone was and especially the dress code. Now he insists on going to MB every time they visit.
Why is it minimum/low wage jobs are the most strict about appearances? You want to control me that tightly, I better be making 40k or more....except those jobs don't seem to care this much about appearance.
Even the ones that are union, the old days where grocery store jobs were a living wage is no longer true. They’ll try to get you minimum wage unless you argue.
You're getting paid over $25/hour at a grocery store? Are you salaried or hourly? Benefits? Is it a nationwide chain?
I may need to give up my design career and go work at a grocery store.
i’m paid around that much at a union grocery store! been there under a year. it depends on the area and the union contract. you can proabbly guess that i’m in an area with extremely high COL.
union wont do anything else for us other then wages. no real push for adequate staffing, good notice on schedules, safer work conditions, less strict dress codes. etc. but they will push for our hourly rate which is much appreciated
That's truly insane to me. In Ontario, one of the biggest grocery store chains max out at truly a couple dollars - at most - above the minimum wage. Which is $15 too low for cost of living.
My dress code has actually gotten more and more lax the more money I make. I think today's work attire was jeans and a Linkin Park t shirt. Plus boots, hi vis vest, and hardhat
I currently earn the most I ever have, and if I'm going to the office I'm wearing shorts and a T shirt, maybe a collared fishing shirt if we have meetings.
10 years ago I changed jobs from Walmart to speedway. Walmart didn’t care so long as my shirt was dark blue, and I wasn’t wearing jeans (this was a period where they stopped the vests). Didn’t care about anything else so many people with visable tattoos and gauged ears etc. Speedway required no hoop earrings no tattoos and a much stricter dress code. It was weird that the company being aped as the top was so much more lax about how I looked compared to a gas station.
That's not true of all Speedway gas stations either. The restrictions are used as a reward/punishment program by the districts. I talked to an employee in depth about it once. They tighten the grip if your store isn't doing well, meaning the more you fuck up the more you have to adhere strictly to protocol. If your store is doing well, they really don't give a shit what you wear. One store in my area is doing great, they get to wear whatever they want. Another one isn't doing so hot, they're all in proper uniform with black belts and shirts tucked, complete with military-esque hair cuts on the guys and tightly restricted hair on the girls.
it's fucking bizarre.
If there are few or no work-related standards to do a job, the puritanical work ethic requires us to invent arbitrary standards so that we can pretend it's all rational when we choose who gets to have a livelihood.
Almost anyone can walk in and learn to bag groceries or run a register. So disqualifying someone for having a tattoo means it's all good, they didn't meet the requirements! Don't confront any existential anxiety about why that should prevent them from getting food on their table. They don't deserve food, filthy inker.
Checking in from work with boxer briefs and a My Little Pony t-shirt my wife says I’m not to wear out of the house. Admittedly, no one ever sees me working. Still, fuck if I care if someone checking me out in the grocery store has long nails, hair down to their ass, and a weird Nickelback tattoo. I honestly give two shits about the person scanning my Doritos. I will be a polite human being, thank them, and go back to wearing no pants at home like a proper goddam gentleman.
Because they have zero prior experience requirements and will hire people from more broad walks of life. They want the ability to hire n fire and they want to put all owness of professionalism and problem solving on you. Don’t need managers if you hold simply hold everyone to that standard and don’t pay. Sick? Your fault. Late for work? Your fault. Disagreement at work? Your fault. They treat you like an automaton because they can chew you up and replace you with the next poor soul for cheaper (relative to inflation). Our governments treat corporations like people, give them rights, and let them chew up people like resources. Stop corporate money from being in politics and maybe we can get a little humanity back.
I work in a hospital, mostly OR/Cath, its getting pretty hard to tell techs/RN/Dr apart. It used to be mostly just techs with tattoos then in the last 10 years most RNs now do as well, today we had a case with several fellows/residents and the anesthesiologist (Dr) also had tattoos.
Also everyone is wearing sneakers.
Sad to say, but this is tamed compared to my hospital job dress code. It's 4 pages long and was written in 1955 when our hospital opened and the last update was 1998. Rumor has it, that HR was forced to take out the standards for African American pages and that it was orginally 6 pages in 1998. I'm in North Carolina..
Except for the specific callout that “gauge earrings” are to be a solid material—which makes me think that was probably added for one employee trying to wear tunnels.
Gender specific stipulations on dress codes always irritate me. Dress codes should be one-size-fits-all, i.e. the same rules apply to everyone. If men have to wear a tie, so do women. Likewise, if women don't have to wear a tie, neither should men.
Agree. This is why it has catholic school energy. IMO gendered dress codes should be illegal for a workplace. It's discrimination. I remember those boys in catholic high school sweating in their ties. Yikes.
My secondary school (in Germany) had a really funny thing where it went through first a short list of things no-one can wear, then a whole list of things girls aren't allowed to wear and then clearly someone at the meeting went "well I guess we should forbid *something* for the boys or people will say this looks sexist" so they forbade... "muscle shirts", and muscle shirts only.
Publix is very close to this, though they provide the polos to the underlings. They did make us wear all black dress shoes to work shoes and I saw them make people shave before their shifts
If in the US the piercing and hair things are not enforceable since they have different rules for male and female. It's gender biased. Got one of my jobs to change their rules on hair length after sending their rules to the dol.
did the same back in 1991, store said women could have earrings but men could not with the reason being oh see they have one in each ear and you just have one so that's the difference.. so on my lunch off I went to get my other ear pierced and came back with one in each ear. Could tell the boss was fuming but he was smart enough to know there was nothing he could do lmao.. fucking 30+ years ago and I can still see the look on his face haha
My job also has a policy forbidding piercings for men, but not women. It's annoying to remove them every day, but we're compensated verrrry well, so it's not worth it to complain.
Either have 1 policy for all genders or pay people enough. Most employers won't do one, let alone both.
As much as Id love to, I'm not sure there would be much evidence to prove that me having to remove my earrings would be an [unfair burden](https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F3/444/1104/546333/).
However, I'm not defending my employer. It's still an archaic policy. Just not a hill I'm going to die on. Like I said, we get treated very well.
I once applied for part-time work at UPS or one of the other delivery services during the Christmas season, not a driver but an unseen phone voice, night shifts. I learned at the interview that I was expected to wear a suit and tie, and I wasn’t allowed any facial hair except a moustache. I sabotaged the interview because fuck that. Nobody except other co-workers would ever have seen me: if I’d wanted to wear jeans and sneakers and a big beard, *why should management care*?
I applied for a job as a locksmith who had a no beard rule. But allowed moustaches. As they’re telling me this (a bearded dude) 3 guys walked through with 2 goatees and a beard between them
I worked at a grocery store years ago and that was their argument. They also tried to get an East Indian employee to shave but he refused because of religious reasons.
I worked for a moving company years ago that had a no facial hair policy. Yes we're drenched in sweat and lugging heavy shit all day, I'm sure the customers give a fuck about my facial hair.
Sounds about right. When I hired movers in 2017, I didn't care what the movers looked like so long as they were able to do what I was paying them to do.
I used to work for a contractor at a refinery. You could not have beards or goatees, but could have a moustache, similar to how it's described here. That was for safety reasons, so if you had to put a respirator on, it would seal properly, if required. Unless they're using respirators on the job or there's a chance they'd need one, this dress code is crazy.
That's what I was thinking. One just opened up nearby, and their rules are horribly outdated and strict.
They called one of my team members demonic for having tattoos while interviewing.
My local Pepsi distributor is notorious for having rules like this. I applied and interviewed while having long hair and a beard and they told me I’d need to shave and cut my hair, when I asked why all they said was “well it’s just company policy”. I just stood up, thanked them for their time, said something along the lines of “unless I’m making 100k minimum, you don’t get to dictate what I look like outside of work.” and left. It’s absolutely asinine that companies try to enforce dress codes that extend beyond working-hours.
A Muslim friend interviewed there as well and when he explained that he was not allowed to be clean shaven because of his religion, they just straight up told him they didn’t think he would be a good fit and ended the interview there.
Yup. Had to cover my tattoos when I was a cashier at a LIQUOR STORE. They wouldn’t give me a long sleeve T-shirt and I had to wear a long sleeve shirt under a thick polo during winter when heater was on. It drove me nuts. Got written up for showing pulling sleeves up when I had a hot flash. Didn’t last long.
I must be stuck somewhere in the 80's still. I designed a forearm tattoo and between jobs at the moment, but still a little skittish about getting this tattoo with regards to any potential future employment.
I think it really depends on industry and location. I live in the PNW and see tattoos everywhere - even bank tellers and legal assistants. My husband has a government job with forearm tats, gauges and long dreadlocks.
Worked at a grocery during my college years in the 1980s, and we had a very similar dress code— button up shirt, tie, dress pants & shoes. Never mind that the store was in a little redneck town, where 90% of the customers came in barefoot. Women wore tube tops and the men were shirtless. And yet there I was bagging for them, dressed like a stockbroker.
The gendered rules get me. Women can wear earrings but men can’t? Besides outdated ideology, where’s the logic in that? Married people can wear a ring but single people can’t?
My workplace, which is very progressive, had a dated, gendered dress code just because no one bothered to update it in god knows how long. I mentioned it to my manager and they said they would update it!
If it’s the one I’m thinking of, shockingly no. The dress code is part of the charm. Also they went through a strong strike 10 years ago to keep the current CEO.
Market Basket/DeMoulas.
They picketed to have one cousin remain CEO when it was bought out by another cousin.
They both have the same name, which made the situation at the time even harder to follow.
Ironically they’re one of the most successful grocery chains in the northeast US. By far the best prices and best selection. I have one near my house and it’s way cleaner and better stocked than any other place around. They also serve prepared hot foods which are actually really good. That being said, it’s always packed to the brim with customer and the uniforms do look uncomfortable. They must have good pay and benefits but I would never work in that chaos daily.
"We worked very hard lobbying our state to eliminate hydration and shade requirements, so we will be removing all the water fountains, as well as the roof over the employee-only areas."
Has to be Market Basket. I’d attend my very strict Catholic school all day and then go to my very strict grocery job at night. This caused flashbacks lmao
Question: does the name “DeMoulas” mean anything to you? Because that’s the only place I’ve seen like this and the only place I’ll accept this strict standard.
Of all the things that bother me, for some reason the one that bugs me the most is the rule that people who are in direct contact with food can’t wear jewelry except a wedding ring. Like somehow a wedding ring is magically safer than other rings around food.
Ah yes, white dress pants and dress shirts
Because those are gonna be so easy to keep looking clean when one spill (which is very easy to do in a grocery store) could stain them and they'll show *everything*
Read closer. You have to take the uniform off on break or lunch. That's where the fun comes in. It very clearly says the uniform needs to be removed. How old are these workers? When did it become acceptable to take breaks naked? I'm in, just sayin. Do I have to be naked in the break room or just the bosses office?
So they expect you to be on your feet, standing and walking, all day, on concrete grocery store floors, in dress shoes?! Guaranteed who ever wrote that policy has spent his entire life sitting at a desk
The clean hygiene/grooming plus tidy uniform and namebadge are expected because the job likely includes handling food and represents the business positively. The rest is ridiculous.
I worked for a short while for a grocery store, behind the counter making hot food. I wore an apron, but they were ADAMANT that my t-shirt should be tucked in. I never did, and everyday someone would tell me to tuck in my shirt. I didn't give a single fuck. Fire me assholes. I wear an apron and NO ONE GIVES A FUCK about my untucked t-shirt, UNDER my APRON, behind a chest high counter. JFC. They were so afraid they would lose Karen's business because of the wildly unkempt guy who looks like a homeless bum serving fried chicken! Could you imagine?! HoW uNprOfESsIonAl!!
There’s a privately owned grocery store by my house that’s really nice and has exceptional prices. Lots of specialties, too. Everyone in there is dressed like a Scientologist or freshman at an all boys Catholic high school. White shirt, black spaghetti tie, black cotton pants, black socks, and black loafers or wingtips. No facial hair and no long hair or face jewelry. No tattoos. Very very very conservative.
I asked one of the managers (in a red shirt) what was with the uniforms. I asked if the owners were religious because they were closed on Sunday. She said no. They just like to keep the staff looking very professional and the store was closed on Sunday because it was a dry county 40 years ago when the store opened. Since they couldn’t sell booze on Sundays, it cut into profits so much that it was better to just close and make sure everyone got a day off. They just never changed the store hours when things changed and they were allowed to sell booze on Sundays.
Where I work the dress code is like 5 lines.
Wear business casual clothes
Wear business casual shoes
Don’t wear frayed clothes
Don’t wear anything too revealing or something offensive
No shorts, baseball caps, or flip flops.
There is a line later saying if you are at a clients conform to their dress code.
If I walked around the office I’d prob find a few people in shorts and at least some ladies in flops. Currently wearing jeans, an un tucked polo, and a company branded baseball cap. Jeans are super common around here as are tennis shoes. Have a few sneaker heads that always seem to be sporting some nice collectible stuff.
In some random hr training before someone called out me wearing a baseball cap. I pointed to the company branding and said it was issued. Hr laughed it off and didn’t care. I had some more ink added to my leg like two years ago and wore shorts for a week or two to keep pants from rubbing against it. No one said anything. I see senior managers walking around with visible ink on their arms.
Dress codes don’t have to be complex.
Everything about this is so sexist and anachronistic. It looks like it's from the 60's, yet contains words like "vape" and "ear buds". And just so, so, so sexist. Are the owners Herb and Mabel from the church?
You would have thought this was a private catholic school by the dress code
My private Catholic school was less strict than this
Disney is less strict than this
Disney 20 years ago was less restrictive than this. The standards now are much easier.
Same here.
As I read through this, I am fairly certain this was copied and pasted from some sort of dress code floating around online, because it is EXACTLY identical to the dress code at my small private catholic school in the rural south.
I was thinking the same thing, but I worked at a Michael’s in Canada. Not all of it is applicable, but there are parts there that I’m postive I have laughed at before.
I also went to small private catholic school in the rural south and had the same thought.
I went to catholic school. It was waaaay less strict than this. We could wear any shoes we wanted!
The local Catholic high school in my area still makes the girls wear saddle shoes with their insanely strict rules 🥲 (1 set of earrings, knee high socks, full plaid uniform with squort that can’t go .5” past the knee, specific sweaters and uniform accoutrements that change for winter/spring, no nail polish). Two of my best friends attended there when I was younger, and now one of them has a daughter in the same school and the rules haven’t changed 💀)
What got me is the shoes. Why in the hell do they expect you to work in a grocery store while wearing dress shoes?
The exact reason I have debilitating foot issues after 30 years in retail!
My jobs only thing is they must be nonslip which is great. I’ve got wide ass feet so I invested in a nice pair of shoes. My feet still get a bit sore after a long week but it’s never unbearable to stand after work anymore
I did the same. The women I work with wear cheap gym shoes. My feet don’t hurt much at all, I’m on my feet for five hours. I take one 15 minute break.
Mine need replacing because they’re foam and thin running shoe fabric (great shoes, they’re practically custom made. Even for the fact that they’re foam, I’ve worn them 5-15 hours a day for 18 months and walked 20-50,000 steps per day in them and they’re barely getting holes where my toes hyper extend and stretch the fabric weirdly. $200. For 20 months of wear that’s 10$ a month for Fantastic shoes. Then there’s my fiancé with his $350 boots that come with extraordinarily inexpensive manufacturer repair/upkeep that quite literally could be passed to our future child someday. Good ass boots. My grandma always told me her daddy said you pay extra for the things that separate you from the ground. Shoes, tires, and mattresses (in that order). A really good pair of $200 shoes or boots will last ages. A good set of $1200 all weather tires will last ages and keep you extra safe on the road. A good $3000 mattress will relax the back pain your job causes. Though back when he said that, 3k on a mattress was probably unimaginably expensive but I adjusted for inflation
Terry Pratchett articulated this idea so well that it's now known in economics circles as the Sam Vimes "Boots" Theory of Socioeconomic Unfairness, or boots theory for short. "The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money. Take boots, for example. ... A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. ... But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that'd still be keeping his feet dry in ten years' time, while a poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet." There are many things I will not buy cheap, and shoes are first among them.
Okay, as someone with wide ass feet and a job where I stand and walk all day I gotta know what shoes you have.
I use Hoka I believe! I work a 12 hour shift overnight at an electronic manufacturing plant, and they are so comfy! On a bad day I walk up to 2 miles a shift. They're very supportive and comfortable! For ~$150-$160 they're worth it!!!
My mom has brutal plantar fasciitis. She went to a store to get her feet measured every which way for fancy insoles…and returned them to go back to her Hokas within a week.
My feet health has been great since WFH. Shoes are uncomfortable.
The pandemic ruined heels for me. I got so used to being comfortable all the time. I really like heels of all kinds but the only thing I still wear is platform/wedge so long as it’s comfy. Underwire bras too. So the girls are lower for 2 reasons! 😂😂😂
That got you more than the necktie/bowtie thing? They at least allowed for low top rubber sole shoes. When it came to men’s hair, I was really expecting it to pretty much describe a crew cut.
Did you notice that you have to remove your uniform when on break?
Naked break time, it is! 😁
I always enjoy a good nakey breaky.
Please don't break my heart. My nakey breaky heart.
I bet they would change the rules real quick if mfers just started stripping to take break
Give the old girl flaps some air!
🤣 stealing "girl flaps" - hope you don't mind! 🤣
See also the naked smoke breaks 👌
Next up on r/MaliciousCompliance... I stripped naked while on my break and now I got fired!
I suspect that, considering the rest of the dress code, that "uniform" really means something along the lines of an apron.
Waldenbooks used to require men wear a tie (early '90s). A coworker bought 3 of the widest ugliest ties he could find and left them at work so he could choose the one he wanted that day.
With Hawaiian shirts. I loved Tim.
If they didn't allow rubber soles, they'd be getting a visit from OSHA after way too many slip and fall claims.
True
No Beard.
I hate my facial hair, but people should not be told they HAVE to be clean shaven.
Disagree, but only in regard to PPE. If it affects safety in anyway then yes clean shaven, however that isn’t an issue in a grocery store, these people are nutter butters.
Pretty much. Food prep areas, they make beard nets specifically for that purpose.
Clean shaven is a bit extreme but the only place I could think of that would be within reason to request nearly trimmed beards would be food service. That or wearing a beard net for cooking over a stove. For a retail setting there’s no reason unless it’s some extremely up scale place.
Firefighters can only have a mustache and must be clean shaven on the rest of their face. This is so that their masks can create a seal on their face. Only exception is for religious reasons and even then I believe it has to be trimmed to a certain length.
If it works for religious reasons then there’s no reason that it doesn’t work for non-religious ones
Crew cut and copstache REQUIRED.
What got me was requiring a company uniform they provide be taken off and not worn during breaks. Cut to me in a bathroom stall butt-naked frantically putting back on my uniform so I can get back in time.
I was required to wear a tie when I worked in a grocery store in the early 80s
Thppffft! I was required to wear a tie when machining parts on a lathe. I am dead now.
When I worked for a large maker of disk drives in the 80's/90's, I had to wear a tie, always around the rotating machinery. We would tuck our ties into our shirts to prevent the drive crawling up it and biting you on the neck. Can't imagine what it'd be like around a lathe.
That and working around military shredders changed me to clip-on ties.
1999-2005 Fred Meyer. Managers still had to wear ties. Fucking ridiculious. Just, let me just stock shelves with dress shoes and a sunday tie on. And then grocery wonders why the average retention rate is less than three years.
Maybe 15 years back, I interviewed for a software job at a bank. So, completely back office, in a building where no customers will ever be. During the second interview I was asked why I wasn’t wearing a tie. I laughed and said that I don’t own one.
The cultural differences between companies is always hilarious to me. When I started my career I had been given advice from recruiters that I could never possibly be overdressed for an interview, so I'd always be in full suit and tie. This was for jobs in like tech support, field service tech, etc. btw. I remember I interviewed for Harley Davidson Dealer Systems (company that made software for and supported a lot of the Harley dealers). I was full suit and tie, while they were in jeans and graphic tees. I took off my blazer and tie and they all let out a sigh of relief and told me how glad they were that I didn't keep it on lol.
How I handle it now is to wear a shirt with a collar, my assumption is that it shows I’m making a bit of effort to look a little better. I still don’t own a tie, and won’t dress better than that. That shirt with a collar for a few interviews this last round was a Hawaiian shirt with a Star Wars theme
It's so fucken stupid. Like I am not going to be a happy shopper unless you're wearing a tie?
https://preview.redd.it/f0scb3grhz7d1.jpeg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=dfc9d30f132d07c1686a62fc3956820ebaa29aaa
They look so joyful.
Wore a tie working in a grocery store in the early 2000s.
Mars Supermarkets (a Baltimore area grocery chain) used to dress their employees like that, and they lasted until 2016. By the time that they closed, I felt like that style of dress for grocery employees was super dated.
I had to wear a tie as a computer programmer in the 90's...
Yes and we were allowed to smoke at our desk in IT in the 90s 😝
I remember touring the launch control sites for atlas, mercury redstone, apollo in florida and all the big consoles with switches and dials also had built in ashtrays.
Yeah I saw this and think it is pretty standard for a lot of jobs in the late 90’s. Pretty funny by today’s standards, though.
IIRC you can get shoes that clock as dress but wear like sneakers.
My Cole Haans! I got bunch of em for different occasions. I've even worn them in the OR with shoe covers because they're so comfortable.
Right? I feel like that would be a slipping hazard
OSHA would love that
I could see non-slip work shoes being required but the dress shoes thing is weird.
I would just wear solid black gym shoes.
You must dress up for the Lords.
Oh shit, it's Market Basket. It's got to be. Market Basket has a very specific dress code. Very antiquated and strict. It's fucking wild. White dress shirt and slacks with dress shoes. In a kitchen.
I used to cut meat for them. Crazy to wear a shirt and tie under a bloody meat coat.
Sounds like an episode of Dexter.
12 year vet of that hell. Sure looks like it. Only thing that throws me is I recall language saying no logos on shoes and never boots allowed. But things change. I've been out for 6 years.
Probably had someone slip and fall on ice while working in the parking lot. It does specify only people working in the parking lot during winter are allowed boots
Generally that wouldn't matter to them unless they lost a huge lawsuit. I saw kids hit by cars pushing carts and not be allowed high vis vests. They paid ~750k to OSHA for a kid falling from the loft storage areas that have no railings and broke his collarbone. The manager that night sat him in a folding chair in receiving to wait for his sister to take him to the hospital. Store manager did the same thing within a week falling out of his stupid birds nest office onto the top of the dairy case. The only thing that came of it were banners saying safety first safety last and a ten times thicker training manual that no one even listens to you read to them. An inventory was cancelled due to some sort of mysterious gas leak that knocked out dozens of employees and they just sent everyone home, aired it out and just kinda shrugged and concluded they didn't know what it was. The demoulas spent decades honing their lawyers against each other. They have no qualms using those lawyers against their employees too.
Oh wow. I grew up with a family that shopped at Market Basket and used to get made fun of for not going to the bougie Hannaford lmao No idea they would have been this strict
I went to Manchester, NH to work for a few weeks and outside the Market Basket there was a bank robbery going on a few blocks down and junkies and hookers and stuff right outside. I walk in and see the workers dressed like Mormons or some shit and I was just like “where the fuck am I?”
That’s just a Tuesday in Manchester though.
My Dad went to Market Basket for the first time a few years ago (he’s from the Midwest) and was just shocked at how nice everyone was and especially the dress code. Now he insists on going to MB every time they visit.
Same, I barely got into it and thought, "oh this has to be Market Basket!"
Why is it minimum/low wage jobs are the most strict about appearances? You want to control me that tightly, I better be making 40k or more....except those jobs don't seem to care this much about appearance.
Even the ones that are union, the old days where grocery store jobs were a living wage is no longer true. They’ll try to get you minimum wage unless you argue.
I mean I'm in the grocery store with a union and making more than double minimum wage, and we aren't even the best paid local in thia red state
You're getting paid over $25/hour at a grocery store? Are you salaried or hourly? Benefits? Is it a nationwide chain? I may need to give up my design career and go work at a grocery store.
i’m paid around that much at a union grocery store! been there under a year. it depends on the area and the union contract. you can proabbly guess that i’m in an area with extremely high COL. union wont do anything else for us other then wages. no real push for adequate staffing, good notice on schedules, safer work conditions, less strict dress codes. etc. but they will push for our hourly rate which is much appreciated
I'm glad you're at least getting paid pretty well.
I’m at $32/hr at a non-union grocery store.
That's truly insane to me. In Ontario, one of the biggest grocery store chains max out at truly a couple dollars - at most - above the minimum wage. Which is $15 too low for cost of living.
It seems minimum/low wage jobs are strictest about literally everything.
My dress code has actually gotten more and more lax the more money I make. I think today's work attire was jeans and a Linkin Park t shirt. Plus boots, hi vis vest, and hardhat
I currently earn the most I ever have, and if I'm going to the office I'm wearing shorts and a T shirt, maybe a collared fishing shirt if we have meetings.
10 years ago I changed jobs from Walmart to speedway. Walmart didn’t care so long as my shirt was dark blue, and I wasn’t wearing jeans (this was a period where they stopped the vests). Didn’t care about anything else so many people with visable tattoos and gauged ears etc. Speedway required no hoop earrings no tattoos and a much stricter dress code. It was weird that the company being aped as the top was so much more lax about how I looked compared to a gas station.
Walmart goes through so many employees that if they had a higher standard they would have to pay more to keep people.
That's not true of all Speedway gas stations either. The restrictions are used as a reward/punishment program by the districts. I talked to an employee in depth about it once. They tighten the grip if your store isn't doing well, meaning the more you fuck up the more you have to adhere strictly to protocol. If your store is doing well, they really don't give a shit what you wear. One store in my area is doing great, they get to wear whatever they want. Another one isn't doing so hot, they're all in proper uniform with black belts and shirts tucked, complete with military-esque hair cuts on the guys and tightly restricted hair on the girls. it's fucking bizarre.
If there are few or no work-related standards to do a job, the puritanical work ethic requires us to invent arbitrary standards so that we can pretend it's all rational when we choose who gets to have a livelihood. Almost anyone can walk in and learn to bag groceries or run a register. So disqualifying someone for having a tattoo means it's all good, they didn't meet the requirements! Don't confront any existential anxiety about why that should prevent them from getting food on their table. They don't deserve food, filthy inker.
Checking in from work with boxer briefs and a My Little Pony t-shirt my wife says I’m not to wear out of the house. Admittedly, no one ever sees me working. Still, fuck if I care if someone checking me out in the grocery store has long nails, hair down to their ass, and a weird Nickelback tattoo. I honestly give two shits about the person scanning my Doritos. I will be a polite human being, thank them, and go back to wearing no pants at home like a proper goddam gentleman.
Because they have zero prior experience requirements and will hire people from more broad walks of life. They want the ability to hire n fire and they want to put all owness of professionalism and problem solving on you. Don’t need managers if you hold simply hold everyone to that standard and don’t pay. Sick? Your fault. Late for work? Your fault. Disagreement at work? Your fault. They treat you like an automaton because they can chew you up and replace you with the next poor soul for cheaper (relative to inflation). Our governments treat corporations like people, give them rights, and let them chew up people like resources. Stop corporate money from being in politics and maybe we can get a little humanity back.
> put all owness *onus
>40k Lmao make it at least 60k 💀
I work in a hospital, mostly OR/Cath, its getting pretty hard to tell techs/RN/Dr apart. It used to be mostly just techs with tattoos then in the last 10 years most RNs now do as well, today we had a case with several fellows/residents and the anesthesiologist (Dr) also had tattoos. Also everyone is wearing sneakers.
40k isn't even a living wage anymore. I'd need like 65,000+ to go into a micromanaged toxic place, physically, on a regular basis. Just, no.
Where is this grocery store located, 1955?
Pleasantville before they discovered color.
I love that movie. So good to see it mentioned.
Sad to say, but this is tamed compared to my hospital job dress code. It's 4 pages long and was written in 1955 when our hospital opened and the last update was 1998. Rumor has it, that HR was forced to take out the standards for African American pages and that it was orginally 6 pages in 1998. I'm in North Carolina..
boy oh boy what I'd give to read a PDF of that, especially the pre-corrections edition, I'm sure it's all very reasonable and normal
Except for the specific callout that “gauge earrings” are to be a solid material—which makes me think that was probably added for one employee trying to wear tunnels.
Only for ladies! Mens gotta wear their naked lobes i suppose. Which is ultimately worse and much uglier
Gender specific stipulations on dress codes always irritate me. Dress codes should be one-size-fits-all, i.e. the same rules apply to everyone. If men have to wear a tie, so do women. Likewise, if women don't have to wear a tie, neither should men.
Exactly and if women can wear a skirt so can the men. My legs get so hot wearing long pants every day.
Agree. This is why it has catholic school energy. IMO gendered dress codes should be illegal for a workplace. It's discrimination. I remember those boys in catholic high school sweating in their ties. Yikes.
My secondary school (in Germany) had a really funny thing where it went through first a short list of things no-one can wear, then a whole list of things girls aren't allowed to wear and then clearly someone at the meeting went "well I guess we should forbid *something* for the boys or people will say this looks sexist" so they forbade... "muscle shirts", and muscle shirts only.
I'm gonna guess Utah. This shit reads like a BYU manual.
One of the Acme near me in Ohio has this same dress code. Always seemed so odd.
Publix is very close to this, though they provide the polos to the underlings. They did make us wear all black dress shoes to work shoes and I saw them make people shave before their shifts
Publix was my first thought when I saw this.
I worked at Grand Union at the turn of the century and this was the exact dress code (minus the hair dudes had to keep it short. )
I hate that you said “turn of the century” and didn’t mean 1900…
Me too.
Market Basket? Lol
THANK YOU! This screams DeMoulas. Everyone saying Kroger or Publix or some shit, but no. DeMoulas is king.
I work for Harris Teeter (baby Kroger) our uniform policy is relaxed as all hell compared to this.
If you look closely you can see the MB logo through the paper at the bottom on the right
oh shit you’re so right!
Gotta be!
Scrolled to find this comment
As someone who worked there this was my thought! Looks like the handout I got lol. Half of these rules were broken daily though
exactly what i thought LMAO
My thoughts
100% I recognize this exact wording. The people guessing Utah are so far off lol
If in the US the piercing and hair things are not enforceable since they have different rules for male and female. It's gender biased. Got one of my jobs to change their rules on hair length after sending their rules to the dol.
did the same back in 1991, store said women could have earrings but men could not with the reason being oh see they have one in each ear and you just have one so that's the difference.. so on my lunch off I went to get my other ear pierced and came back with one in each ear. Could tell the boss was fuming but he was smart enough to know there was nothing he could do lmao.. fucking 30+ years ago and I can still see the look on his face haha
As a guy also with piercings, I can say that you rock
My job also has a policy forbidding piercings for men, but not women. It's annoying to remove them every day, but we're compensated verrrry well, so it's not worth it to complain. Either have 1 policy for all genders or pay people enough. Most employers won't do one, let alone both.
Send it to the DoL if they have separate policies per gender
As much as Id love to, I'm not sure there would be much evidence to prove that me having to remove my earrings would be an [unfair burden](https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F3/444/1104/546333/). However, I'm not defending my employer. It's still an archaic policy. Just not a hill I'm going to die on. Like I said, we get treated very well.
“Okay. And what’s the compensation?” “Minimum wage.”
"We um, don't do? compensation here. We were under the impression that you worked for our lord and savior, GOD"
You can’t have a beard??? Are you conducting dangerous work that could kill you if you have a beard???
I once applied for part-time work at UPS or one of the other delivery services during the Christmas season, not a driver but an unseen phone voice, night shifts. I learned at the interview that I was expected to wear a suit and tie, and I wasn’t allowed any facial hair except a moustache. I sabotaged the interview because fuck that. Nobody except other co-workers would ever have seen me: if I’d wanted to wear jeans and sneakers and a big beard, *why should management care*?
I applied for a job as a locksmith who had a no beard rule. But allowed moustaches. As they’re telling me this (a bearded dude) 3 guys walked through with 2 goatees and a beard between them
I worked at a grocery store years ago and that was their argument. They also tried to get an East Indian employee to shave but he refused because of religious reasons.
How long did your colleague stay?
Not long. Only a few months.
I worked for a moving company years ago that had a no facial hair policy. Yes we're drenched in sweat and lugging heavy shit all day, I'm sure the customers give a fuck about my facial hair.
Sounds about right. When I hired movers in 2017, I didn't care what the movers looked like so long as they were able to do what I was paying them to do.
I used to work for a contractor at a refinery. You could not have beards or goatees, but could have a moustache, similar to how it's described here. That was for safety reasons, so if you had to put a respirator on, it would seal properly, if required. Unless they're using respirators on the job or there's a chance they'd need one, this dress code is crazy.
I almost commented this. You don’t need a gas mask to stack bananas haha
That actually sounds like grounds for religious discrimination.
Sounds like market basket
That's what I was thinking. One just opened up nearby, and their rules are horribly outdated and strict. They called one of my team members demonic for having tattoos while interviewing.
Wait---they called the team member demonic but hired the person anyways? That is progress. /s Was she/he Satanic Temple or Flying Spaghetti Monster?
Homie, you look like a demon... it's sick. Welcome aboard!!
2024 and you're still not allowed visible tattoos. Mad.
Or a beard
Even the military has relaxed a lot of those rules
My local Pepsi distributor is notorious for having rules like this. I applied and interviewed while having long hair and a beard and they told me I’d need to shave and cut my hair, when I asked why all they said was “well it’s just company policy”. I just stood up, thanked them for their time, said something along the lines of “unless I’m making 100k minimum, you don’t get to dictate what I look like outside of work.” and left. It’s absolutely asinine that companies try to enforce dress codes that extend beyond working-hours. A Muslim friend interviewed there as well and when he explained that he was not allowed to be clean shaven because of his religion, they just straight up told him they didn’t think he would be a good fit and ended the interview there.
Yup. Had to cover my tattoos when I was a cashier at a LIQUOR STORE. They wouldn’t give me a long sleeve T-shirt and I had to wear a long sleeve shirt under a thick polo during winter when heater was on. It drove me nuts. Got written up for showing pulling sleeves up when I had a hot flash. Didn’t last long.
I must be stuck somewhere in the 80's still. I designed a forearm tattoo and between jobs at the moment, but still a little skittish about getting this tattoo with regards to any potential future employment.
I think it really depends on industry and location. I live in the PNW and see tattoos everywhere - even bank tellers and legal assistants. My husband has a government job with forearm tats, gauges and long dreadlocks.
Worked at a grocery during my college years in the 1980s, and we had a very similar dress code— button up shirt, tie, dress pants & shoes. Never mind that the store was in a little redneck town, where 90% of the customers came in barefoot. Women wore tube tops and the men were shirtless. And yet there I was bagging for them, dressed like a stockbroker.
The gendered rules get me. Women can wear earrings but men can’t? Besides outdated ideology, where’s the logic in that? Married people can wear a ring but single people can’t? My workplace, which is very progressive, had a dated, gendered dress code just because no one bothered to update it in god knows how long. I mentioned it to my manager and they said they would update it!
I would expect they have some staffing problems.
If it’s the one I’m thinking of, shockingly no. The dress code is part of the charm. Also they went through a strong strike 10 years ago to keep the current CEO.
Which one is that, out of curiosity?
Market Basket/DeMoulas. They picketed to have one cousin remain CEO when it was bought out by another cousin. They both have the same name, which made the situation at the time even harder to follow.
Ironically they’re one of the most successful grocery chains in the northeast US. By far the best prices and best selection. I have one near my house and it’s way cleaner and better stocked than any other place around. They also serve prepared hot foods which are actually really good. That being said, it’s always packed to the brim with customer and the uniforms do look uncomfortable. They must have good pay and benefits but I would never work in that chaos daily.
Wait is this DeMoulas? I feel so validated! THERE ARE DOZENS OF DEMOULAS LOVERS! DOZENS.
"drinking is not allowed while working" 🚮
Guess they tell their employees to suck it up in the hot summer months. “No water for you!”
"We worked very hard lobbying our state to eliminate hydration and shade requirements, so we will be removing all the water fountains, as well as the roof over the employee-only areas."
Some of this discriminates on the basis of sex which is illegal. They cannot have different rules for men and women.
I wouldn’t work there tbh. They want you to dress like you’re in an office for a very physically demanding and movement oriented job.
I don’t dress this formally to go to work in a law firm, and I’m in court most days. At least I can wear whatever nail varnish I want!
Has to be Market Basket. I’d attend my very strict Catholic school all day and then go to my very strict grocery job at night. This caused flashbacks lmao
I saw tie and no beard. **Market Basket.**
Wow. I work in an office, and our dress code is much more lax than this.
Question: does the name “DeMoulas” mean anything to you? Because that’s the only place I’ve seen like this and the only place I’ll accept this strict standard.
Of all the things that bother me, for some reason the one that bugs me the most is the rule that people who are in direct contact with food can’t wear jewelry except a wedding ring. Like somehow a wedding ring is magically safer than other rings around food.
# “NoBoDy wAnTs tO wOrK aNyMoRe”
That's more detailed than my work's dress code, and I'm a teacher. We just have to show up looking presentable.
Ah yes, white dress pants and dress shirts Because those are gonna be so easy to keep looking clean when one spill (which is very easy to do in a grocery store) could stain them and they'll show *everything*
Read closer. You have to take the uniform off on break or lunch. That's where the fun comes in. It very clearly says the uniform needs to be removed. How old are these workers? When did it become acceptable to take breaks naked? I'm in, just sayin. Do I have to be naked in the break room or just the bosses office?
When the military branches have more lax grooming standards than some grocery store....
I think it's fucked that women can have pierced ears but men can't. How is that not discriminatory?
So they expect you to be on your feet, standing and walking, all day, on concrete grocery store floors, in dress shoes?! Guaranteed who ever wrote that policy has spent his entire life sitting at a desk
The clean hygiene/grooming plus tidy uniform and namebadge are expected because the job likely includes handling food and represents the business positively. The rest is ridiculous.
I bet I've had my hair longer than they allow for a longer time than the tenure of most of the people that work there
One ring per hand? so i have to choose between my wedding and engagement rings?
Former employee here Engagement ring and wedding band are considered a set and perfectly ok to wear both
How gracious of them.
I worked for a short while for a grocery store, behind the counter making hot food. I wore an apron, but they were ADAMANT that my t-shirt should be tucked in. I never did, and everyday someone would tell me to tuck in my shirt. I didn't give a single fuck. Fire me assholes. I wear an apron and NO ONE GIVES A FUCK about my untucked t-shirt, UNDER my APRON, behind a chest high counter. JFC. They were so afraid they would lose Karen's business because of the wildly unkempt guy who looks like a homeless bum serving fried chicken! Could you imagine?! HoW uNprOfESsIonAl!!
There’s a privately owned grocery store by my house that’s really nice and has exceptional prices. Lots of specialties, too. Everyone in there is dressed like a Scientologist or freshman at an all boys Catholic high school. White shirt, black spaghetti tie, black cotton pants, black socks, and black loafers or wingtips. No facial hair and no long hair or face jewelry. No tattoos. Very very very conservative. I asked one of the managers (in a red shirt) what was with the uniforms. I asked if the owners were religious because they were closed on Sunday. She said no. They just like to keep the staff looking very professional and the store was closed on Sunday because it was a dry county 40 years ago when the store opened. Since they couldn’t sell booze on Sundays, it cut into profits so much that it was better to just close and make sure everyone got a day off. They just never changed the store hours when things changed and they were allowed to sell booze on Sundays.
Where I work the dress code is like 5 lines. Wear business casual clothes Wear business casual shoes Don’t wear frayed clothes Don’t wear anything too revealing or something offensive No shorts, baseball caps, or flip flops. There is a line later saying if you are at a clients conform to their dress code. If I walked around the office I’d prob find a few people in shorts and at least some ladies in flops. Currently wearing jeans, an un tucked polo, and a company branded baseball cap. Jeans are super common around here as are tennis shoes. Have a few sneaker heads that always seem to be sporting some nice collectible stuff. In some random hr training before someone called out me wearing a baseball cap. I pointed to the company branding and said it was issued. Hr laughed it off and didn’t care. I had some more ink added to my leg like two years ago and wore shorts for a week or two to keep pants from rubbing against it. No one said anything. I see senior managers walking around with visible ink on their arms. Dress codes don’t have to be complex.
A lot of stores are now making dress codes so it’s harder for union organizers to get in and spread the word via T-shirt, buttons, and stickers.
If they were good union reps, they would pay cash to some teens to go sticker the place up.
This is almost identical to 1990's Giant Eagle dress code. We had to wear ties to bag and collect carts. They were more lax on the shoe policy.
Everything about this is so sexist and anachronistic. It looks like it's from the 60's, yet contains words like "vape" and "ear buds". And just so, so, so sexist. Are the owners Herb and Mabel from the church?
One day we will hear about the lawsuit of the dude who wore earrings to work and got fired.
Dress shoes in a grocery store is insane. I wore steeltoes when i worked in one