Women

<p>Today in workplace sexism: a 21-year-old woman who works in PR found herself in a hairy situation (if you hate puns, please report me to HR) when her boss confronted her about not shaving her legs at work. When she refused, she was sent to HR.</p><p>So the woman <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AmItheAsshole/comments/ct8w0a/aita_for_not_shaving_my_legs_for_work/" target="_blank">posted on Reddit</a> to find out if she&#39;s wrong for refusing to drag a razor (that cost twice as much as a men&#39;s razor) over her legs in order to appease her weird co-workers who can&#39;t stop staring at her stems.</p><p>&quot;AITA* for not shaving my legs for work?&quot; she asked.</p><p>*Am I The A**hole</p><h2>She explains that she&#39;s &quot;not a hairy person at all&quot; and that her leg hair is &quot;barely&quot; visible.</h2><p>She writes:</p><blockquote> <p>So I&rsquo;m a 21 year old female. I feel like I should say these thing about myself because these are usually what people ask or say when they find out I rarely shave my legs. I&rsquo;m straight, I&rsquo;m very feminine, and I just don&rsquo;t like to waste my time or money on shaving my legs. Also I&rsquo;m not a hairy person at all! You can barley see my leg hair, arm hair or even my god damn eyebrows. The only time I shave is when I&rsquo;m dating a new guy in my life and I&rsquo;ve been with my current BF for 3 years now. Also he doesn&rsquo;t give a rats ass if I shave my legs.</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><h2>She works for a promotion company and was recently called into her boss&#39; office, where he awkwardly confronted her about &quot;hygiene.&quot; He claimed that not shaving her legs was &quot;against company policy&quot; and that &quot;a few people complained.&quot;</h2><blockquote> <p>So I work for a promotion company where I travel and work at event and festivals. But today I had to go into the office to grab some materials and my boss was there in his office so I stoped to say hi before I left out.</p> <p>When I ducked in he awkwardly asked me if we could talk about something. I said sure and came in and he shut the door. He was so red and stuttering but finally he told me we needed to speak about hygiene. I was in literal shock. I was so embarrassed and asked him what he meant. My boss then proceeded to tell me that a few people complained I didn&rsquo;t shave my legs and they said it went against company policy that I wasn&rsquo;t being hygienic. I was even more shocked.</p> </blockquote><h2>The woman pushed back, saying she &quot;didn&#39;t understand&quot; the problem, asking her boss if he shaved his legs (LOL), and refusing to discuss it further unless HR was there.</h2><blockquote> <p>I told him I didn&rsquo;t understand what that had to do with me shaving my legs and he was just absolutely quiet. I asked him if he shaved his legs and he still said nothing. I then stood up and said if we were gonna keep talking about this I&rsquo;d prefer HR to be there and he just told me that we didn&rsquo;t need to discuss it any further.</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><h2>Then she got an email from HR asking to &quot;talk further&quot; about the matter, which made her &quot;freak out.&quot;</h2><p>Because a job is a job, even if your co-workers are creeps. So she asked Reddit if she&#39;s &quot;the a**hole&quot; for refusing to shave even after her boss asked.</p><blockquote> <p>Later today I just got an email from HR saying that they would like to set up a meeting for next week to talk further about the discussion that happened today. I&rsquo;m freaking out and it&rsquo;s making me so anxious. AITA for not shaving my legs for my job?</p> </blockquote><h2>Commenters came to her defense and attacked her boss for crossing a line in calling her out for such a personal and irrelevant matter.</h2><p>Many are pointing out the sexist double-standard, since a male employee would not be called out for this.</p><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Cosmic_Hitchhiker/">Cosmic_Hitchhiker</a> writes:</p><blockquote> <p>NTA This is some sexist bullshit. Wow. Absolutely incredibly ridiculous. Would they ask a male employee to shave his legs? How is it unhygienic for you but not for any man who has leg hair? I&#39;m honestly aghast.</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/ThroWingitallAwaY173/">ThroWingitallAwaY173</a>: writes:</p><blockquote> <p><span style="font-size: 1.1rem; letter-spacing: -0.01em;">It&rsquo;s such an insult to pretend this has anything to do with &lsquo;hygiene&rsquo;</span></p> </blockquote><p>And <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/RedditSkippy/">RedditSkippy</a> writes:</p><blockquote> <p>NTA. I hope HR wants to talk with you to let you know that your boss&rsquo;s comments were sexist and wrong. There&rsquo;s no need to freak out because you&rsquo;ve done NOTHING wrong.</p> <p>The only thing I would do to prepare for your meeting with HR is to write an account of the meeting with your boss in your own words. If HR starts to agree with your boss, you could rhetorically ask if they&rsquo;re planning on making the men shave as well.</p> <p>It would also do you good to have the name of a good employment law attorney in your area.</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><h2>Surprisingly, she came to her boss&#39; defense, saying he&#39;s usually a &quot;very chill and nice guy&quot; and that she had &quot;worked there 8 months with no incident.&quot;</h2><blockquote> <p>EDIT: So people giving my boss hate i understand but I&rsquo;m not mad at him and don&rsquo;t blame him. Im not sure but I feel like someone was in fact pressuring him to talk to me about this because he is a usually very chill and a nice guy who usually doesn&rsquo;t even force dress code and stuff. But also I really have no clue what really brought this on all of a sudden since I&rsquo;ve worked there 8 months with no incident.</p> </blockquote><h2>Commenters are also urging her not to freak out since she&#39;s probably not at risk of losing her job. Most think the HR meeting is just the company doing cleanup to protect themselves and prevent her from taking legal action.</h2><blockquote> </blockquote><p> </p><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/mortimer5/">mortimer5</a> writes:</p><blockquote> <p>NTA. And don&#39;t freak out: HR probably wants to cover their ass. Your boss probably told them what happened and they want to make sure you don&#39;t sue.</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><p>And <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/bassbby12/">bassbby12</a> writes:</p><blockquote> <p>Yeah he messed up big time by approaching her alone in a room. This could be portrayed as harassment and discrimination, at one point my job required a female witness for all interactions like this. OP, good call asking if he shaved his legs.</p> </blockquote><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/ChunkyDay/">ChunkyDay</a> adds:</p><blockquote> <p>It&#39;s more likely he went to HR to nip it in the bud rather than somebody complaining to HR.</p> <p>He&#39;s probably freaking out as much as you are b/c he knows. he <em>knows</em> what he said was out of line and a mistake. I think it&#39;s safe to say that if you mentioned HR at all he assumes you&#39;re going to talk to them. And they know if they try to fire you for not shaving your legs, especially these days, that&#39;s ripe for a lawsuit and lawyers would LOVE to try that case.</p> <p>I work in an at will state, so whenever I&#39;ve had one of &quot;those&quot; meetings w/ my boss and HR, I pull out my phone, place it on the table, hit record and state you&#39;re recording this meeting so you have a record of what was said. It&#39;s too easy for the company to say &quot;well we didn&#39;t say that&quot; if they&#39;re firing you for one thing or another.</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><p>And <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/ParasiticDaemon/">ParasiticDaemon</a> writes:</p><blockquote> <p>NTA. See this one to the end. Dont be nervous about the meeting with HR, just be honest about what happened. This is a pretty righteous hill to die on IMO.</p> </blockquote><p>If we&#39;ve learned anything from this story, it&#39;s this: smash the patriarchy! Throw out your razors! If you&#39;re blonde, dye your leg hair brown to draw attention to it!</p><p>IT&#39;S TIME FOR A REVOLUTION/I actually just really hate shaving and have been waiting for the right excuse to stop.</p><div className="ad-splitter"></div>

Woman asks if she's wrong for refusing to shave her legs for work after her boss confronts her.

Today in workplace sexism: a 21-year-old woman who works in PR found herself in a hairy situation (if you hate puns, please report me to HR) when her boss confronted her about not shaving her legs at work. When she refused, she was sent to HR.So the woman posted on Reddit to find out if she&#39;s wrong for refusing to drag a razor (that cost twice as much as a men&#39;s razor) over her legs in order to appease her weird co-workers who can&#39;t stop staring at her stems.&quot;AITA* for not shaving my legs for work?&quot; she asked.*Am I The A**holeShe explains that she&#39;s &quot;not a hairy person at all&quot; and that her leg hair is &quot;barely&quot; visible.She writes: So I&rsquo;m a 21 year old female. I feel like I should say these thing about myself because these are usually what people ask or say when they find out I rarely shave my legs. I&rsquo;m straight, I&rsquo;m very feminine, and I just don&rsquo;t like to waste my time or money on shaving my legs. Also I&rsquo;m not a hairy person at all! You can barley see my leg hair, arm hair or even my god damn eyebrows. The only time I shave is when I&rsquo;m dating a new guy in my life and I&rsquo;ve been with my current BF for 3 years now. Also he doesn&rsquo;t give a rats ass if I shave my legs. She works for a promotion company and was recently called into her boss&#39; office, where he awkwardly confronted her about &quot;hygiene.&quot; He claimed that not shaving her legs was &quot;against company policy&quot; and that &quot;a few people complained.&quot; So I work for a promotion company where I travel and work at event and festivals. But today I had to go into the office to grab some materials and my boss was there in his office so I stoped to say hi before I left out. When I ducked in he awkwardly asked me if we could talk about something. I said sure and came in and he shut the door. He was so red and stuttering but finally he told me we needed to speak about hygiene. I was in literal shock. I was so embarrassed and asked him what he meant. My boss then proceeded to tell me that a few people complained I didn&rsquo;t shave my legs and they said it went against company policy that I wasn&rsquo;t being hygienic. I was even more shocked. The woman pushed back, saying she &quot;didn&#39;t understand&quot; the problem, asking her boss if he shaved his legs (LOL), and refusing to discuss it further unless HR was there. I told him I didn&rsquo;t understand what that had to do with me shaving my legs and he was just absolutely quiet. I asked him if he shaved his legs and he still said nothing. I then stood up and said if we were gonna keep talking about this I&rsquo;d prefer HR to be there and he just told me that we didn&rsquo;t need to discuss it any further. Then she got an email from HR asking to &quot;talk further&quot; about the matter, which made her &quot;freak out.&quot;Because a job is a job, even if your co-workers are creeps. So she asked Reddit if she&#39;s &quot;the a**hole&quot; for refusing to shave even after her boss asked. Later today I just got an email from HR saying that they would like to set up a meeting for next week to talk further about the discussion that happened today. I&rsquo;m freaking out and it&rsquo;s making me so anxious. AITA for not shaving my legs for my job? Commenters came to her defense and attacked her boss for crossing a line in calling her out for such a personal and irrelevant matter.Many are pointing out the sexist double-standard, since a male employee would not be called out for this.Cosmic_Hitchhiker writes: NTA This is some sexist bullshit. Wow. Absolutely incredibly ridiculous. Would they ask a male employee to shave his legs? How is it unhygienic for you but not for any man who has leg hair? I&#39;m honestly aghast. ThroWingitallAwaY173: writes: It&rsquo;s such an insult to pretend this has anything to do with &lsquo;hygiene&rsquo; And RedditSkippy writes: NTA. I hope HR wants to talk with you to let you know that your boss&rsquo;s comments were sexist and wrong. There&rsquo;s no need to freak out because you&rsquo;ve done NOTHING wrong. The only thing I would do to prepare for your meeting with HR is to write an account of the meeting with your boss in your own words. If HR starts to agree with your boss, you could rhetorically ask if they&rsquo;re planning on making the men shave as well. It would also do you good to have the name of a good employment law attorney in your area. Surprisingly, she came to her boss&#39; defense, saying he&#39;s usually a &quot;very chill and nice guy&quot; and that she had &quot;worked there 8 months with no incident.&quot; EDIT: So people giving my boss hate i understand but I&rsquo;m not mad at him and don&rsquo;t blame him. Im not sure but I feel like someone was in fact pressuring him to talk to me about this because he is a usually very chill and a nice guy who usually doesn&rsquo;t even force dress code and stuff. But also I really have no clue what really brought this on all of a sudden since I&rsquo;ve worked there 8 months with no incident. Commenters are also urging her not to freak out since she&#39;s probably not at risk of losing her job. Most think the HR meeting is just the company doing cleanup to protect themselves and prevent her from taking legal action.  mortimer5 writes: NTA. And don&#39;t freak out: HR probably wants to cover their ass. Your boss probably told them what happened and they want to make sure you don&#39;t sue. And bassbby12 writes: Yeah he messed up big time by approaching her alone in a room. This could be portrayed as harassment and discrimination, at one point my job required a female witness for all interactions like this. OP, good call asking if he shaved his legs. ChunkyDay adds: It&#39;s more likely he went to HR to nip it in the bud rather than somebody complaining to HR. He&#39;s probably freaking out as much as you are b/c he knows. he knows what he said was out of line and a mistake. I think it&#39;s safe to say that if you mentioned HR at all he assumes you&#39;re going to talk to them. And they know if they try to fire you for not shaving your legs, especially these days, that&#39;s ripe for a lawsuit and lawyers would LOVE to try that case. I work in an at will state, so whenever I&#39;ve had one of &quot;those&quot; meetings w/ my boss and HR, I pull out my phone, place it on the table, hit record and state you&#39;re recording this meeting so you have a record of what was said. It&#39;s too easy for the company to say &quot;well we didn&#39;t say that&quot; if they&#39;re firing you for one thing or another. And ParasiticDaemon writes: NTA. See this one to the end. Dont be nervous about the meeting with HR, just be honest about what happened. This is a pretty righteous hill to die on IMO. If we&#39;ve learned anything from this story, it&#39;s this: smash the patriarchy! Throw out your razors! If you&#39;re blonde, dye your leg hair brown to draw attention to it!IT&#39;S TIME FOR A REVOLUTION/I actually just really hate shaving and have been waiting for the right excuse to stop.

Today in workplace sexism: a 21-year-old woman who works in PR found herself in a hairy situation (if you hate puns, please report me to HR) when her boss confronted her about not shaving her legs at work. When she refused, she was sent to...