I started a new job so that I could WFH, graduating from retail.
Lasted 2.5 months, now they're sending us back to office starting next week. I don't have the “dress clothes” required for the position, so I have to show up in jeans and a t-shirt tomorrow. Mind you, I generally don't have a lot of clothes. I have like three jeans, a few plain black t-shirts, two of which are long sleeve, and like two graphic tees. I cannot afford to drop money on the dress-code clothing they want of us once my wage meets my bills. So I'm going to show up tomorrow as is and tell them “This is me, should've given us more than three days notice.” but also, I'm probably not going to be able to get the clothes to support their desires if I wanted to.
How can I combat them in a way that isn't me straight up getting written up and fired?
It's also not a client or customer facing position. It's just the coworkers, all in office, in their own working space. It's an inbound customer support call center. My outfit will not limit my ability to do my job, so I don't think this should be an actual issue. I'm not looking forward to the conversation though. All of the onboarding stuff put a lot of stress on feeling expendable and like they're happy to toss you at the first sign of noncompliance.