The head of the public agency I work for called 100% of staff back to the office 5 days a week and is reportedly very concerned about the outward appearance of our bodies and work spaces. He wears a full suit to work every day, and there have been stories of him screaming at IT staff for being in jeans when they showed up to help him fix the cables under his desk and glaring at people with excessive facial hair in the cafeteria.
His lackeys have also been crawling around the building, writing down the names of individuals with especially messy cubicles. And a push to “rebrand” our organization with a new logo and standardize everyone's email signatures. So he and his admin are obviously very concerned about “professionalism” and appearances in very typically boomer fashion.
So can another boomer who shares his views on work etiquette please explain to me why it's so important that I “present myself professionally” by dressing in Banana Republic button downs and only dying my hair in neutral colors, but it's somehow not unprofessional for me to hear my boss dropping wet ass turds in the toilet after her 9am coffee?
Our building is super crowded and only has two bathrooms for every few hundred people, so I already know which of my nearby coworkers doesn't wash their hands, is a “sprayer or a dribbler,” leaves pubes on the toilet seat, etc. I don't understand why I have to show up everyday just to sit in front of the computer for 8 hours in uncomfortable clothes and shit side-by-side with the Karen from accounts payable. Fucking gross.