Woman's Coworkers Tell Her She's A 'Show Off' After Wearing A Bikini On A Work Trip—She's Worried She Was Unprofessional
All of her other colleagues were dressed in casual clothes, but two of her coworkers felt she was not in appropriate clothing by wearing her bikini.
Krakenimages.com / Shutterstock / pixelshot / EastPhoto via CanvaPro "I work for a rather small firm. There [are] 12 employees total. Since we exceeded our yearly goals for 2022, we were treated to a weekend stay at a golf resort," a woman started a confessional, posted to the subreddit "r/AmItheA--hole" (AITA). The subreddit is an online forum where users try to figure out if they were wrong or not in an argument or situation that has been bothering them.
While at the resort for a work event, the 31-year-old woman was chastised for her attire, despite technically being on a vacation.
She was accused of trying to 'show off' by some of her coworkers for wearing a bikini during the work trip.
In her Reddit post, she explained that at the resort she was staying at with her coworkers for the weekend, there was a pool, tennis court, gym, and a few other amenities. However, she decided to take advantage of the pool and took some time to relax.
"On Saturday, I took some me time to lay out by the pool and have some cocktails. I was told that we would all be eating a late lunch at the poolside restaurant. I met everyone there," she recalled.
When she showed up at the restaurant, still wearing the swimsuit she had been in when lounging by the pool, the other two women at the company she worked for took offense at the fact that she showed up wearing a bikini.
They told her that she had serious guts to wear what she was wearing. Confused, the woman pointed out that her bikini wasn't inappropriate in the slightest, and covered up most of her body except for her stomach.
"I was wearing a rather athletic bikini. The bottom was full coverage and was almost like shorts, and the top resembled a sports bra more than anything else." Unfortunately, her coworkers didn't share the same opinion and argued that she should be old enough to know what is considered appropriate when at a work event, although their other colleagues were all dressed in casual clothing.
They even accused her of attempting to "show off" to the other men in their company who were on the trip. After hearing the criticism, the writer of the post began thinking that maybe she shouldn't have shown up in a bikini, even though she made sure to throw on a cover-up before sitting down for lunch, and instead should've changed into something else entirely.
"Maybe I didn’t think this through. But I purposely bought this suit for this trip. I thought it was as plain Jane as can be," she added, questioning whether or not it was really "inappropriate" of her to show her stomach.
Most Reddit users had mixed reactions to whether or not she should've shown up in a bikini.
Under the woman's Reddit post, many people went back and forth on if she was the one in the wrong, or if her coworkers were unnecessarily picking on her for no apparent reason.
"I personally couldn’t bring myself to wear a bathing suit on a work trip at all, but that doesn’t mean other people have to adhere to my boundaries," one Reddit user wrote. "It’s silly in this day and age to be so uptight about it. They’re all adult coworkers, it shouldn’t be an issue."
Another user pointed out the double standard, adding, "I'm an older woman, and I believe if men can expose their torsos so can women without it being a freaking thing."
However, a third user chimed in, writing that it probably wasn't a good choice to show up to lunch with work colleagues in a bikini. "We all act a bit more conservatively when around coworkers and showing up to lunch in a bathing suit and coverup, when everyone else is going to be fully dressed, is a bad look."
A fourth user agreed, commenting, "You should have changed into more professional clothes to rejoin everyone for lunch."
"Your swimwear would be appropriate if it was a company yacht party or pool party, but you were clearly the odd one out wearing just swim attire to lunch."
Nia Tipton is a writer living in Brooklyn. She covers pop culture, social justice issues, and trending topics.