If you’ve ever worked in an office, you know there’s always at least one person whose sole existence seems to be bent on making sure that others have a hard time. Sometimes, those people are your co-workers and you can just ignore them (because what are they going to do?) or show them your disapproval by never inviting them to lunch. But sometimes, these same people become managers and end up having the power to ruin your day by instating a dress code that’s against both company policy and laws that protect cultural dress.
That’s when we need ambassadors of awesome like June Rivas to step in. Rivas works in an office which wasn’t previously governed by a strict dress code. The only rules, according to a Facebook post by Rivas, were that employees had to appear in clothing that was “clean and pressed.” Pretty simple, right? But then, Rivas’ boss decided that she didn’t like that Rivas showed up to work with her hair in pigtails. Ponytails were out, too. All of these looks, Rivas claims, were deemed unprofessional. And it only got worse when Rivas filed a complaint against said manager for harassing her about the way she presented herself.
According to Rivas’ Facebook post, her manager responded to the complaint by creating a new dress code for the office. Not only would pigtails and side ponies be out, but “straps, hats, sandals, cleavage, back out, lace, and even (and I quote) ‘cultural head wraps'” were suddenly non-permissible during regular business hours. If that sounds like it’s a lawsuit, you’re not wrong. Rivas has filed a complaint with the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission, but getting a result on that will take some time.
So Rivas decided to follow the letter of the dress code, if not the spirit. Check out some of those pictures! Sure, Rivas’ boss may think that pigtails are unprofessional, but her memo said nothing about showing up dressed as Padme from the Star Wars universe:
Or Sue Storm of the Fantastic Four:
Or Storm from X-Men:
Or Doc McStuffins:
Those are braids, which means it’s totally fine, right?
In all, Rivas posted over 20 pictures of her following the new and improved dress code. She doesn’t appear to have been fired yet — it’s like people don’t care what you wear as long as you’re clean! — and her post was shared over 20,000 times (before it went dark). While some may criticize her flouting of the rules as wanton, there’s a lot to be said of Rivas’ protest. Not only is she fighting rules that came out of nowhere based on what appears to be a personal vendetta, but she’s also drawing attention to the many, many, many arbitrary rules of dress that women are subjected to in the workplace.
Let’s hope she wins this one. If not, though, she might have a promising career in modeling hairnets. Bring those bad boys out from behind the lunch counter and start bravely wearing them in the streets!
(Via Mic)
