Generally, companies are free to require employees to dress in a particular way, including wearing a uniform, as long as those requirements aren't discriminatory or illegal. Also, federal law allows employers to deduct the cost of supplying and maintaining a uniform (having it mended or cleaned and pressed) from a worker's paycheck, as long as their wages don't fall below the minimum wage after said deduction.
But just because businesses are allowed to do something doesn't make it automatically right. Don't you think it's rather funny that a multi-million-or-even-billion-dollar organization won't even dress their recruits to show up? Redditor u/pacify-the-dead does. Recently, they made a post on the subreddit r/AntiWork about a meeting with their company's regional director. She told u/pacify-the-dead that their staff looks unprofessional and that everyone on the team better buy the uniform.
Turns out, there are plenty more people who go through this stuff. The post quickly went viral, and as of this article, it has nearly 3K comments, many of which are similar stories from other Reddit users. We thought it was an interesting topic, so we went through all of the replies and picked the most interesting ones. Continue scrolling and check them out.
#21
This is so infuriating. I once had a boss who wanted me to talk to my staff member about her "professional appearance." My staff member was making $35K before taxes and living w/her parents and siblings to help support that household. My boss was making well over $300K at the time. I'm sorry, but not everyone can afford a wardrobe from Bloomingdale's!
53points
#22
That's literally illegal, the company must provide the uniform AND if they expect them to be clean the company must also pay to clean the uniform. They might be able to get away with providing multiple. The last uniformed job I had gave me 6 shirts so I didn't have to waste my money on excessive laundering. The job before washed our uniforms for us on site. Fire department washed our uniforms for us on site. Current job doesn't have uniforms because it's a real job not a costume party
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49points
#23
I got a waitress job that required we wore a company shirt to work and provided us with only 1 shirt. We were encouraged to purchase backup shirts for $25 each. We were also only allowed to wear company branded hoodies if we got cold, ofcourse they didn't provide any and they were available for purchase at $35. What a joke. I lasted maybe 4 days with the cheap bastards.
49points
#24
I had a packing job at a supermarket for four years. It was part time and didn't pay enough. They had uniforms, but said it was fine for me to wear a black polo because we weren't customer facing and started after the store had already closed. So I did, for almost my whole employment there. After a year they kept trying to get me to buy their shirts but I refused as they could never point to a rule that said I need to have one especially when the store is FREAKING!!!! CLOSED!!!!!
At around the 4 year mark they brought in new rules and made us get these scratchy cheap dress shirts that were synthetic and not breathable which was a horrible idea for a stocking job. They still didn't provide the uniform, we had to buy it. So I wore my trusty black polo to their big inspection with upper management, being the only odd one out, yet the only one not also getting heat exhaustion. I quit with no notice a few days later to start working my current job which also happened to be my managers dream job. To say he was annoyed and jealous was an understatement. I skipped out of there that last night in my black polo and never looked back.
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48points
#25
Owner of a restaurant I used to work for would make me buy his $45 merchandise shirts to wear if I accidentally spilled bleach on them while cleaning for $2.33/hr.
47points
#26
I used to work for Healthcare services group. Managing housekeeping, largely doing housekeeping, cleaning toilets, the works. It was like 5 years ago they stopped making us wear ties. Many ties got dipped in toilets.
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45points
#27
Reminds me of a loooooong time ago when I was assistant manager at Structure (now Express for Men) and my manager said that I needed to wear the current season’s clothes being sold. I said when then you are going to have to pay me more because I cannot afford spending that much money on clothes every three or four months. She didn’t like that and I didn’t stay there for very long.
Another funny story was while working at Stricture late at night doing an inventory count someone asked me when I was going to get my own place (now that I was “supposedly” making money, it was $19K/yr). Without even thinking I said “when I get a real job and make real money…” It was a long night after that.
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42points
#28
I had to buy a work shirt for $40 , my manager told me to buy 3 and 2 scrub pants. I only bought one shirt and wash it every Wednesday night. Ridiculous how uniforms aren’t provided.
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41points
#29
I get told all the time my department issued uniform is mandatory. I get that. They issue everything but the work boots and have the audacity to say the $200 boots I bought out of pocket is department issued and threatened to write me up.
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38points
#30
I started a new job last week and got 5-7 shirts of various kinds (long sleeve, short sleeve, 3/4 zip fleece, etc) dropped off to me. All company branded, not mandatory yet for my department. Not one of them fits, as they didn’t bother to ask me my sizes, and they are mostly all a horrible slippery non-cotton fabric that I can’t stand. (I’m in the shipping/receiving department, so lots of running dirty packages around and getting sweaty.) I can dress appropriately professional all on my own. It’s not like anyone is going to question whether or not I actually work for the company if I’m not wearing a shirt with the name on it. Planning to see if I can swap the shirts out for something in my size in a style/fabric I’ll actually wear.
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36points
