Employer suggesting the introduction of a uniform

LegacyUser

Hello,

I work in a small solicitor's office in a small town. There are 4 support staff, 2 partners and 1 solicitor.

When I began working in the office I was told that I would be expected to dress a certain way, professional and well presented. This was and is no problem as I have worked in corporate offices and know the dress code.
I take pride in my appearance and have spent my hard earned cash on my work wardrobe, something that was encouraged by my employer, who regularly reminds all staff in the office that we are expected to always look well groomed etc. Indeed, I was told on one occasion that they pay a good wage and that is why they expect the staff to look well.
Clothes that I wear to work I would never wear outside of work, like most people I keep my work clothes for work and I don't like wearing them outside of work.

Recently my employer put it to the 4 support staff that they are thinking about introducing a uniform for us. Both myself and the woman I share an office with are very opposed to this and made our feelings heard. We both dress well, are always well groomed and have both spent money on clothes that we only wear to work. The uniform they are suggesting would be trousers and a shirt/blouse in 3 different colours from a particular shop and we would have to pay for it ourselves.

I am opposed to it for 2 main reasons. The first being that I have spent money on clothes that I only wear for work, have been told to spend this money by my employer and now they are trying to put a further expense on me that would make all of my other work clothes useless. The second reason is that we are all adults. I am the youngest in the office, at 26, and we are all grown women, none of us go around with our boobs or bums out and we all dress well and appropriately for our jobs.

I am just wondering can my employer force this uniform on us? Do we have any ground to stand on considering past conversations with our employer in relation to telling us they want us to dress and look a particular way and now changing their mind? Can our employer force us to pay for this uniform?

Any advice appreciated.

uniformissue

uniformissue wrote: »

The uniform they are suggesting would be trousers and a shirt/blouse in 3 different colours from a particular shop and we would have to pay for it ourselves.

Sounds a bit like a place I used to be. We found out later that the "particular shop" which was the exclusive retailer was owned by the boss's brother.

And no, they never gave a flying fcuk whether anyone wore it or not. They just made a big song and dance about it on day one to make sure that everyone had paid for it out of their own pockets. After that you could go wash your fuppin' car with it as far as the boss was concerned, he just wanted to force us all to spend our wages in his brother's shop.

You might want to look into that.

Or at least spread the rumour around the office!:pac:

dobman88

If your employer pays for the uniform, then you would be expected to wear it imo. But because he is making you pay for it I agree with your stance on it, especially as you have already gone out and bought your 'uniform'. I was in a similar situation before when my employer wanted us to buy a uniform off him. We all firmly but poplitely refused to buy it because we all dressed how we were told to and bought the clothes with our own money. He ended up giving us the uniform for free and we were all happy to wear it then. And then we had some nice clothes in our wardrobes

Just tell him (politely) that you have spent a lot of money on good clothes and you are dressing appropriately. I don't think he could have a problem with that. If someone else in the office agrees with you, all the better.

Bandana boy

I would ask for some assistance on purchasing the first set of uniforms and agree to pay your self for future replacments.

In the long term your uniform will be far cheaper than sourcing your own clothes not including the work in putting together your non-standard uniform

Teyla Emmagan

What do the other 2 dress like? He must think someone is bringing the place down or he would hardly be suggesting this. I find the whole idea very odd for a small office based company. It's certainly not the norm in my experience of similar partnerships. I would also find this objectionable. To me uniforms are to make staff readily identifiable or to cope with a lot of wear and tear. None of those apply to support staff in a solicitor's office. I would stick to my guns and protest if I were you.