Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Excuse Me, Your Spanx Are Showing


I dropped my laundry off for wash & fold on Sunday. I hadn't done laundry in about two weeks, thus limiting my clothing choices until I had time to pick my $18.00 worth of wash & fold at 8:55 tonight, right before closing. 

Monday, I wore my Working Girl best for an event at work with a popular fashionista (more on that later this week). This morning, I didn't have any clean cami's and I ran out of comfortable underwear three days ago. 

That left me this:

Yes, it's cute, but not for work. A navy dress that I probably should have realized was too short for work, a brown wrap, and brown boots. Oh and Spanx because of the whole no-clean-underwear thing (if you look closely, you can see them). Being a Spanx virgin, I figured you're supposed to wear them without underwear, right? There is no way a pair of underwear would fit between all that Lycra and my tush. I also figured that because I was wearing a short dress the short-like Spanx would make me feel more comfortable. Not the case. 

Walking to the bus stop, I began to feel self-conscience. The Spanx felt funny and I noticed how short my dress actual
ly is as it flew up in the wind. It didn't end there. All day I felt awkward and more and more self-conscience. I pulled my dress down as much as I could each time I got up from my desk. I checked to be sure my Spanx weren't showing every minute as I walked around the office. Every time I went to the bathroom I asked whoever was in there if they thought my dress was too short. They said "no," I'm pretty sure they were lying. All my assistant friends knew I was having a bad clothing day (and bad hair day, but that's another story). 

I should probably point out that then men in my office, all five of them, are uber awkward and I felt more awkward in my outfit in front of them. It didn't help that four of the men have desks or offices within a two-yard radius of my desk. I'm pretty sure at least one of them caught me adjusting my Spanx when I thought no one was looking. I was seriously contemplating taking them off, it's not like I haven't done it before. I couldn't wait for the day to be over. But before it was over, I had to have a meeting with my two bosses (male boss and female boss). 

I was asked in the early afternoon by my male boss if I could meet with them both at five. Having no idea what they wanted to talk about and knowing that they just had a department status meeting about improving the department, I was nervous. Promptly at five, Female Boss called me into her office with Male Boss. I grabbed my notebook and pen (I never go anywhere without those two items) and sat down in her office. 

"Ok, this isn't a scary meeting," Female Boss said. 

"Oh, good," I nervously giggled. 

"Actually," Male Boss began, "we wanted to know who said you could wear that type of outfit to work?"

I was mortified and it definitely showed. But before I could lift my chin off the floor and pull my dress over my knees, Female Boss informed me that he was kidding. He was, I think. Or I thought. Until I started writing this post, I thought he was kidding. But the more I think about Male Boss and his sense of humor and the things I've heard him say to my co-workers (for example: "What's with your hair? Are you sure that's the color you asked for?"), I'm realizing that he was at least 35% serious about my outfit.

It turned out that our meeting was about my work load and future responsibilities, not my short navy dress and Spanx (more about that meeting later). 

15 comments:

Susel said...

Oh god! thank god he was kidding..you think..hmm haha

Anonymous said...

oh gosh! I would have been mortified too! at least you have clean laundry now and you survived the day.

Marianne said...

Oh no, I feel your pain, there's nothing worse than feeling inappropriately dressed at work. Boys just don't understand that kind of thing.

Auburn Kat said...

I've had stuff like that happen to me before, it's awful!!!

FB @ FabulouslyBroke.com said...

Umm yea....

Generally speaking I don't even own outfits that short LOL so I can't even wear them to work

But .. it was kind of his little way of telling you that you should dress more appropriately especially with Spanx showing under the dress...

At least he has bit of a sense of humour.

I've only worn a dress to work ONCE in all the years I've ever had a job. And the attention was too much - I just stick to pants now

FB @ FabulouslyBroke.com said...

Oh and it was a knee length wrap too LOL

Yvonne said...

hilarious.

Working Girl One said...

Just for the record, the Spanx were not showing like they are in the picture. Could you imagine? Oy!

well-intentioned heartbreaker said...

Hah, this sounds vaguely familiar to my Monday wardrobe..
"Excuse me Working Girl, your shirt is extremely see-through and our clients can see your pink bra."
Oops.

Lauren said...

Wow! I Would have freaked out if my bosses called me in like that!

Anonymous said...

LOL!!! "Spanx"

Wow, you might as well have been in a dream where you went to work naked! Yikes, that had to be a painful day.

I wouldn't worry about 'Male Boss' - I bet he enjoyed your outfit ;)

LOL!!!

Alexandreena said...

That does look like a very short dress. I never wear dresses or skirts to work as I work with all men, so I get enough attention as it is. No need adding fuel to the fire. I try to be extra-conservative with tops too, but I have large boobs so it's not easy...

Anonymous said...

I was just thinking - I bet he was 1/3 serious. So awkward. Man, I don't know anything about this meeting and I consider(-ed, before our new positions and different lunches) good friends. DETAILS!

Riiana Doon said...

I can actually relate to having SPANX showing.:P I wore my Slim-Cognito with some pretty short shorts, umm... bad idea.:P

Anonymous said...

a bad dress day is disaster as much it is a head ache !! had one once n i was so good to be back !!!