Davina "Ok No idea why they put emphasis on him being a Gay man... A man gets sent home from work on a hot day for wearing shorts .. this is surely rediculous as hes in a call centre his legs under the desk.. will seeing his legs distract women or other men? are his legs so hidiious that they need to be covered lets me check its 2021 and men are sent home from work for wearing shorts? ... so he returned in a dress que the music.."
He was protesting the double standard that requires men to wear long trousers while women can wear short skirts. A young British man’s workplace protest went viral after he showed up to work in a dress. Joey Barge, a 20-year-old call center employee, arrived at work on a recent hot day wearing shorts.
“If women can wear skirts/dresses at work can I wear smart shorts like so?” he asked on Twitter before heading out to work on a day that reached the high 80s. It wasn’t long before he got his answer: Nope. That sartorial choice, despite its practicality, violated the companies dress code and Barge was sent home to change. Frustrated by a dress code that treats men and women differently in a line of work where customers never see the workers — he returned to the office wearing a black and pink dress. While he didn’t share the immediate reaction to his dress, he was at work at least long enough to take a selfie in the elevator. And his protest seems to have had some impact, if not as much as he’d hoped.
His employer sent out an email informing staff that due to the “extremely warm temperatures” gentlemen are permitted to wear “3/4 length shorts” in neutral colors like black, navy, and beige. But these double standards don’t just negatively impact men. Barge also retweeted a post that highlights the impact of gendered dress codes on transgendered people and women. Such dress codes these days invite lawsuits, aside from suggesting that employees can’t be trusted to dress themselves.
And if staff aren’t seen as capable of picking out their own clothes, how can employers trust them to do their jobs?
Davina "Seems mad to me that the guy was sent home for wearing shorts and the loss of productivity this caused.. i wonder who sent him home was it another man or a woman? does this matter? and in the workplace today with "Diversity and Inclusion" where does a business stand with these dress code rules"
I know if i wanted to I could go to HR and my boss and say look I've crossdressed all my life and you may think I'm kidding and you may think I'm nuts and you may never imagine in a million years that I would be the type of person who would dress as a woman but work is driving me to stress levels causing me to feel unwell and work has a policy on stress, mental and physical wellbeing and diversity and inclusion so I'm going to be dressed as a woman from time to time working from home and you won't know any different but i have the right not to put on my web cam on video calls when I'm crossdressed as I have the right if i so choose to come into work presenting fem or appear on the web cam as fem.. I wouldn't do this but i would have the option of doing this.. Esme is dead against this and its not something I've considered but I know in the Nation wide industry I work in there are a few who have done this and now work presenting female and some who have gone all the way and had the op etc..
Diversity and Inclusion and mental health can go hand in hand.
Wearing shorts to work shouldn't be a send home offence in 80 deg heat..
Davina
Funny enough one of the news reports (that bastion of journalism the Daily Mail) does not mention he is gay. But I agree with you, what does his sexuality matter? His protest was sensible and right, not sure if I would have the guts to do the same! I have dealt with questions from people at work regarding the law on temperatures in the workplace, and basically the law is very weak and vague, there is no maximum or minimum temperature for good reasons. Working in a blast furnace making molten steel it is impossible to lower the temperature, whilst in an industrial freezer you can't raise them! We have a dress code (smart and tidy basically) but in warm weather many of my colleagues wear shorts and T-shirts (not me I shave my legs!). One thing is true, his protest changed the rules, but if there are redundancies coming up I doubt he will be there after them!