Struggling Worker Living On Cupcakes From The Employee Break Room Gets Fined $5 A Day For Wearing The Only Pants She Owns
"I just feel like such a failure of a person and I don’t want everyone to know about it!"
MAYA LAB | Shutterstock When her corporate company banned jeans, a struggling employee was left out to dry.
Writing to the work-related advice column called "Ask a Manager," the unnamed worker admitted that, due to some financial troubles, she only owns three pairs of pants — all jeans. Now she's facing a fine if she wears them to the office.
The worker living on cupcakes from the breakroom got fined $5 a day for wearing the only pants she owned.
"Last winter, I made a big geographical move across the country from a town where the economy is always booming to a large city where job opportunities are more far and few between," she began her post. "Long story short, I was getting out of a bad marriage, and the environment of my hometown was a toxic backdrop to that; the move was necessary."
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Yet, that doesn't mean it was easy. She found a job at a medium-sized non-profit, making half of what she did before the move in a "boring" position that she is "overqualified" for. Still, she admitted she was far happier than she had been in years.
"Our agency is a member of a much larger charity, and thus every fall we have tons of workplace activities to raise funds for the 'Mother' charity," she continued. "The problem is that we have also designated the agency a ‘jeans-free’ zone, so our usually very casual dress code will now exclude jeans AND ‘require’ a $5 donation for every violation."
While she claimed to usually be a charitable person, after bills, child support payments to her ex, her monthly transit pass, and student loan payments, she has $0 in her bank account. She hasn't even been able to buy basic expenses, like shampoo, food, or feminine products in several months.
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"I am living off food my co-workers bring to share and meals my roommate brings home from her German grandmother," she admitted. "I also have three pairs of pants, all of them jeans."
"I don’t know how to deal with my lack of non-denim pants and my lack of paying the toll without exposing my humiliation to my coworkers," she concluded, asking Alison Green for advice.
Many workers are struggling to make ends meet despite having full-time jobs.
According to PwC's 2023 Employee Financial Wellness Survey, more than half of employees, 57%, said that finances were the top cause of stress in their lives.
The money concerns stretch across all pay scales as well. While 28% of all workers said they run out of money between paychecks all or part of the time, 15% of those earning at least $100,000 said the same thing. So many working-class Americans, despite having full-time jobs, aren't making enough money to survive, just like this woman.
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Charging employees who violate the dress code is an extremely questionable practice.
If they want to enforce a jeans-free zone, so be it, but the consequences shouldn't be monetary, especially when she and likely other workers at this company aren't making a sustainable wage. It's also a bit demeaning that she'll most likely be called out for wearing the only pants she owns each time she's told to put $5 into the donation.
The woman ended up confiding in another one of her co-workers about the jeans policy at work.
Green advised the woman to check Good Will and the Salvation Army, borrow from a friend or roommate, or ask a local church for help. Ultimately, she decided to confide in one of her colleagues.
"My co-worker was very sympathetic and secretly pre-paid for all my jeans-wearing days," she shared in a follow-up post on "Ask a Manager." I did talk with my supervisor about it afterward because I felt it was the right thing to do in case anyone else in the office was in a similar situation."
From her original post, she received a bunch of thoughtful cards, pants, and monetary gifts from readers that she used to replace household items and other necessities. Three years later she wrote another post to share her gratitude.
"The financial support I received was incredibly humbling, but it was the genuine kindness that so many people showed my son and I that kept my spirits afloat through a very dark time," she gushed, adding that she's now in a happy and healthy marriage and recently celebrated the birth of her youngest son.
"Even a small act of kindness can have a huge impact on someone else’s life," she stressed. "I think most people have trouble asking for help, so never be afraid to offer it where you think it is needed."
Nia Tipton is a Chicago-based entertainment, news, and lifestyle writer whose work delves into modern-day issues and experiences.