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selenayI had a minor revelation this morning.
Last summer on the first hot day, I wore a skirt to work. A perfectly decent, just below the knees length skirt. A colleague (who shall henceforth be known as Obnoxious Ex-Colleague) made a comment about my legs that made me feel very uncomfortable for the rest of the day.
And that was it for me wearing skirts last year. I stuck strictly to long trousers no matter how hot it got.
It hadn't really occurred to me just how much his remarks had affected me until this morning when I was trying to decide what to wear. My hand went instinctively to the nice, safe long trousers that promised to asphyxiate me in the heat. Then I hesitated as I remembered that Obnoxious Ex-Colleague got fired just before Christmas (for his unwillingness to work, not his ability to be a nasty person).
And I pulled out a (long) skirt and came to work.
Now I kind of wish that I'd said something when HR was doing the fallout interviews from his firing, but it's a bit late. Thing is, I think the reason I didn't say anything at the time (or anything about other things he said) is because it's not exactly the first time I've had to deal with that crap in my professional life and I just shrugged it off as being something I have to live with because I'm a woman. We don't complain or make a fuss because we're conditioned not to and that attitude is allowing things like this to continue. So the next time someone makes a remark about my body that makes me uncomfortable like that, I need to remember it's not the price I should be paying for being female in the workplace. It's out of order and I need to say something.
Today I got into work in my skirt and the only comment I got was a coworker noticing I'd had my hair cut and coloured and complimenting me on how it looks. Which I'm more than OK with :-D
Last summer on the first hot day, I wore a skirt to work. A perfectly decent, just below the knees length skirt. A colleague (who shall henceforth be known as Obnoxious Ex-Colleague) made a comment about my legs that made me feel very uncomfortable for the rest of the day.
And that was it for me wearing skirts last year. I stuck strictly to long trousers no matter how hot it got.
It hadn't really occurred to me just how much his remarks had affected me until this morning when I was trying to decide what to wear. My hand went instinctively to the nice, safe long trousers that promised to asphyxiate me in the heat. Then I hesitated as I remembered that Obnoxious Ex-Colleague got fired just before Christmas (for his unwillingness to work, not his ability to be a nasty person).
And I pulled out a (long) skirt and came to work.
Now I kind of wish that I'd said something when HR was doing the fallout interviews from his firing, but it's a bit late. Thing is, I think the reason I didn't say anything at the time (or anything about other things he said) is because it's not exactly the first time I've had to deal with that crap in my professional life and I just shrugged it off as being something I have to live with because I'm a woman. We don't complain or make a fuss because we're conditioned not to and that attitude is allowing things like this to continue. So the next time someone makes a remark about my body that makes me uncomfortable like that, I need to remember it's not the price I should be paying for being female in the workplace. It's out of order and I need to say something.
Today I got into work in my skirt and the only comment I got was a coworker noticing I'd had my hair cut and coloured and complimenting me on how it looks. Which I'm more than OK with :-D
