Before college I (f, at the time 19) used to work for a sales personnel agency. We had a pool of offers of short term jubs of various types, mostly quick easy gigs. A shop needs a few extra hands for a big event, giving out samples or gifts bags, receptionist at a conference, that kind of stuff. It was easy, low commitment and paid well, an awesome job for hectic times before a move.
One day I got a brif about a jub in a restaurant. They were opening a “costumers club” and wanted someone to sell it to people and handle the paperwork for the first week of it's run. That part is very normal. What wasn't normal was the dress code required – business formal: a dark knee length pencil skirt and a white blouse, hair in a neat bun, clean makeup and nail polish either red or franch. Heels are preferable but any elegant shoes in black will do.
It's worth saying i would sometimes work in very formal or fancy events and venues, so it's not the first time I had a dress code. But this was the most detailed one I have ever seen. My manager said it might be a very fancy restaurant, but they asked for me to come for the lunch rush, which didn't fit. And what kind of super fancy restaurant even have a costumes club?
When I got to the place I was sure I had the wrong address, It was a sandwich shop in the middle of an industrial district. The shop's manager, a man in his 40s, welcomed me in and and said my jub was to offer the new club to whoever came to the shop and add them to the system. It was a quick process so I had basically nothing to do most of the day. I felt absolutely ridiculous looking like a receptionist for a law firm, just standing there infront of blue color costumes in work clothes when everyone alse were working hard behind the counter and in the kitchen (wearing jeans and t shirts, the shop didn't have uniforms).
The other workes of the shop took pity on me. They were all really sweet mid 20s guys and they could see how uncomfortable and board I was. We talked and after the manager left in the afternoon they showed me how to work the register so I would have something to do. I was getting paid very well either way so I didn't mind. After that it was a pretty easy fast food jub, just in heals.
The next day I returned, dressed far more formal than I would wish for a gig at a sandwich shop, but less than the day before. Slacks, a nice blouse and a resnabole pair of shoes. The morning was fine, there was no issue working the register and doing the club work simultaneously. But when the manager arrived he got very upset. He didn't like it that I was on the register, which is fair, but he was mostly upset about how I looked.
I was scolded infront of the other workers that I was dressed inappropriately for this jub. I was wearing jub interview clothes and was told by a man in a grease stained nirvana t-shirt that the way I look is unprofessional and unbecoming for a representative of his sandwich shop.
That man paid a 19yo girl 200% the minimum wage to stand in his shop and do nothing while dressed like a srewardess. Surrounded by older man wearing everyday cloths dirty from the work. It made me feel sick. I think the other workes felt uncomfortable as well.
I called my manager in the agency and she agreed that this is creepy and if I felt uncomfortable returning she will terminate the contract with him. I never came back for a third day.
I can't shake the feeling that I was hired to participant in a weird sexual/power fantasy. I don't know if He wanted the power to tell a young woman what to wear, or maybe he liked the image of a fancy looking woman srounded by dirty from physical labor older man. But in any case he abused his power as an employer, and I am just grateful he wasn't employing me directly.