DammitjanetFeb 27
MissConstrue

@AncTreat5358 @trouble @geospacedman @kibcol1049

One of the "funniest" is when I worked on supercomputers at 3InitialCorp, which was a very buttoned down, blue suit red tie kinda place, but I worked in the servers, so I dressed like a geek; concert tshirts, jeans, doc martins, visible tattoos, weird hair. I was young...early 20s...so about 40 years ago, pre dotcom.

I got a typed letter, hand signed by an executive, which I still have somewhere, which "reminded" me that the dress code for women was knee length skirts, panty hose, heels, well coifed hair, and manicured nails.

And I invited the executive & HR down to the pit with it's wire grate walkways, and pointed up and said "You're telling me to wear skirt and heels and walk around on that? You wanna run that past your lawyer first, or should I call mine?" They changed the dress code to casual for my dept.

And people want to know why there weren't a lot of women in tech in the beginning. Huh. Weird, that.

Feb 27 at 6:17pmWeb
Show threadCedar Fen Farm Cedar Fen FarmFeb 27

@MissConstrue @AncTreat5358 @trouble @geospacedman @kibcol1049

Excellent. 😂

Show threadMissConstrueFeb 27

@oldoldcojote @AncTreat5358 @trouble @geospacedman @kibcol1049

I think it's really important to state here that I recognize how much privilege played into this scenario. If I had not been a reasonably attractive white-looking woman with an educational background that signified a certain class level, I would have just been fired.

A Black woman in the late 80s, with my same academics, experience, CV, wouldn't have even gotten an interview, much less been able to push back against the C suite.

Show threadCedar Fen Farm Cedar Fen FarmFeb 28

@MissConstrue @AncTreat5358 @trouble @geospacedman @kibcol1049

Curious what part of the country this was. I got far worse treatment from north carolina and alabama bosses than minnesota and wisconsin. I got fired by a north carolinian boss about 5 years ago for dying my white hair dark blue. Then he tried to deny me unemployment for insubordination. The state unemployment referee laughed at him and made them pay. I also am white appearing and was 62 at the time. It was a professional engineering job. Some of them just can't deal with modern women.

Show threadMissConstrueFeb 28
@oldoldcojote @AncTreat5358 @trouble @geospacedman @kibcol1049 Texas. One the last bastions of full suit workplaces. Three initial corps kept suits for a lot of workers into the 90s, when they realized that GenX would hop jobs like kangaroos because we’d watched our parents get fucked by the end of pensions and whatnot, and knew corps had the loyalty of vipers, and so we never felt like we owned them any.
There’ve been multiple points in my career where I’ve said “yeah, I’ll go back to being a bartender before I put up with any of this.”
Show threadJürgen SchieweFeb 28
@trouble @MissConstrue @oldoldcojote @AncTreat5358 @geospacedman @kibcol1049 i recall a project just about 20 years ago when we were required to wear suits from Monday to Thursday and Friday was „Business casual“.
Show threadTim LavoieFeb 28
@j_sci @trouble @MissConstrue @oldoldcojote @AncTreat5358 @geospacedman @kibcol1049
My old manager tried implementing business casual on _alternate_ Fridays. Naturally, my memory as to which Friday the current one was was quite faulty, 50% of the time. Eventually he gave up.
Show threadwoe2youFeb 28
@MissConstrue @AncTreat5358 @trouble @geospacedman @kibcol1049 I didn't even know they made heels with steel toecaps.
Show threadMissConstrueFeb 28

@woe2you @AncTreat5358 @trouble @geospacedman @kibcol1049 OMG! Do you realize how big the market for those would be? Drag queens alone could float the business. Now, the heels have to be reinforced steel too though, so when someone grabs you, and you stomp down on their instep, it really makes an impression, as it were.

Defensively armored, tactical assault heels....yes, yes I think it could work!

Show threadLarryFeb 28
@MissConstrue @woe2you @AncTreat5358 @trouble @geospacedman @kibcol1049
I'd think minimizing the area of the lower end of the high heel would be sufficient.
Show threadJürgen SchieweFeb 28
@MissConstrue I assume that minimum heels height was also mentioned.
Show threadMissConstrueFeb 28
@j_sci I don't remember a minimum, but 3" was the highest "allowable" height, lest we stray into "loose woman" territory. Ha.