I was dress-coded at a work retirement dinner – I was so embarrassed I left, people are staggered by my choice of shoes
AN EMPLOYEE who was in hot water over her shoe style wasn’t going to let anybody walk all over her.
She was so demoralized by the after-work dress code disaster that she left the event and didn’t come back.
“I was recently invited to a work dinner as one of my colleagues is retiring. It was being held at a little barbecue restaurant in town. I was told that the dress code was smart casual,” said Reddit user (ok-training3714).
Her attire, however, didn’t work for the after-work event.
The employee, who said she wore a nice skirt and button-up, along with a pair of Crocs, couldn’t understand where her wardrobe choices all went wrong.
“I live in a hot climate and lots of people such as myself wear sandals/crocs/flip flops everywhere,” she said.
She is still stunned by the strict policy.
“When we got to the restaurant, it turned out they had a dress code, and the hostess loudly told me I couldn’t come in wearing Crocs.”
Seeing as it wasn’t a particularly fancy establishment, she was left especially mortified by the mishap.
“It was extremely embarrassing in front of my co-workers. I don’t really understand the problem because there were people wearing sneakers, Converse, etc., and that’s fine but Crocs aren’t?” she asked.
Still, she couldn’t face the shoe situation despite one of her co-workers urging her to change her shoes and then return to the dinner.
“I was so distraught I ended up just going home and not coming back. I suffer with anxiety and the whole experience just made me meltdown,” she said.
But the drama over the dress code didn’t end there.
“My co-workers are now collectively angry at me for leaving and not coming back. My boss told me the event wasn’t about me and I should have sucked it up.”
She asked others to weigh in on whether she was the a**shole – and most people were left shocked by her shoe choice.
“As someone who bought non-slip Crocs for work, there is never a point in time where I am wearing them where I ever think ‘yes I am well dressed and ready to go out”. Never,” said one Reddit user.
“I have fuzzy ones for house slippers but never would I wear them to a restaurant, even to McDonald’s,” said another user.
Still, others had empathy for her final decision following the debacle.
“I would never think this was appropriate to go somewhere with a dress code, but being refused entry to a work event over my outfit would be humiliating and I totally understand not wanting to come back after going home,” wrote one platform user.
It is perfectly legal in the U.S. for restaurants to enforce a dress code as the establishment is private property.