Hi, I’m a 22M in the US. I work at an animal hospital. We are understaffed, underpaid and overworked. My coworker (“Sarah”) and I have worked there a year and 4 months. My boss, who is also the only Doctor and the owner of the practice, told us in the beginning that there weren’t really any restrictions on uniforms, just that we had to wear a scrub top and pants that weren’t jeans or leggings. We never had a problem with this, Sarah wears scrub tops and track pants or other athletic material pants (never skin tight). I wear scrub tops and track pants or cargo joggers. This week, Boss told Sarah “no more track pants”. She hasn’t said anything to me yet and I didn’t hear the conversation, but apparently she told Sarah that she would have to go buy scrub pants at Walmart if she couldn’t afford nice ones.
Scrub pants are $30-50 depending on brand. Having had Walmart scrubs before, they’re essentially paper. I used to wear them but had to stop because I was buying so many replacements.
Our boss is adamantly against providing us uniforms and she has never mentioned providing us a uniform allowance. But now all of the sudden she is changing her uniform requirements and forcing us to buy a whole new wardrobe of pants, how would you respond in this situation? It feels so stupid and unfair because the pants we wear provide ease of movement and they are not in anyway inappropriately fitting or colored/designed. They’re all black. A couple pairs of adidas with the white stripe.
Also, all the Walmarts near me do not sell mens scrubs. My only options would be to buy online, or buy the “unisex” (they’re women’s) cheap pairs that rip constantly. Or go to a uniform store and spend $$$ on quality scrubs.
Again, my boss hasn’t said anything about this to me yet. But she randomly texted the group chat today asking for a meeting after work on Friday. So I know the conversation is probably coming. I guess I’m just looking for advice on how to deal with it. Am I just gonna have to drop a bunch of money on new pants? Is there anything I can do in this situation? Thank you for reading.