When you leave the house in the morning to go to work, look in the mirror and ask yourselves these questions:
1. Do I look like I'm heading to the beach?
2. Can you see my underwear?
If you answered yes to one or both, congratulations! You've qualified for a job in the Netherlands!
Yes, it's absolutely baking here right now. Yes, it's a pain having to find clothes that are both smart and work-appropriate. Yes, cycling makes that even harder -- particularly if you want to wear a skirt. But there are two simple rules that everyone should follow: Cover the shoulders and cover the thighs. And a tip: a simple cotton shirt is considerably cooler than a skin-tight nylon stretch top.
Skimpy vest tops, plunging, cleavage-baring dresses, and shorts/mini-skirts just aren't suitable office wear. Is it unreasonable of me to expect people to try to dress relatively appropriately? My colleagues here seem to manage, being the exceptions that prove the rule. But I passed so many people cycling to work this morning with expanses of leathery chest and thigh on display, bra straps visibly cutting deeply into tanned flesh, and flip-flops. On men. Perhaps they're all carrying work clothes with them to change into after the commute, but I doubt it. More likely is that they're all going to knock off at 3 and head for the beach. But it's not just the Dutch: The British have no idea how to dress in the summer, either. I remember two girls turning up for work on the first hot day of summer at a major insurance company, wearing just tiny shorts and vest tops. It didn't even occur to them that this wasn't exactly office wear, until someone took them aside and pointed it out.
Perhaps I'm being unfair. If companies today expect their employees to take their work home -- work mobile phones on 24/7, checking email at home and on weekends, and traveling away from home for a third of the year (hi, PJ, where-ever you are!) -- perhaps it's only right and proper that employees start bringing their personal life into the office. Even if it takes the form of strapless top.
2 comments:
I agree with you 100%, but I'm wondering is it about the companies being to lenient or people in general lacking self respect? I was taught at a very young age that there was a place and time for everything, and that applied to the way one dresses as well... and I guess I remember that lesson. =^..^=
It's a bit of a riddle to me as well. Why, just because there's a huge allowance for bad taste, people feel inclined to exercise it.
I choose to fondly remember, and even, at times, emulate, our former friends, enemies (albeit few in number), and colleagues back in Central Asia. Your rules on coverage apply perfectly well there. Though it's often 40 degrees in summer, dignified adults respect themselves and do not wear mid-thigh-length anything. Anywear. (But in the privacy of their own home) It's just not considered very modest or appropriate. Though I'm no prude and will be the first to admit that the human body is indeed a beautiful thing that should be admired and celebrated, I don't believe that a constant display of one's own flesh in public heightens the mystique or allure in any way. On the contrary it detracts. Leaving something to the imagination can be very appealing. I have to admit that, in general, the sight of a Kyrgyz village woman, wearing an ankle length Indian dress and modest jewelry is far more attractive than her thigh-bearing, cleavage-displaying European counterpart, exhaling thick clouds of smoke and babbling idiotically into a cell phone. I'm not talking burqas here. Just a bit more self restraint.
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