Uniform code.

Something I haven't seen posted much, if at all. Starting around January, Wal-Mart will be changing their "dress code". Now, I use the phrase "dress code" loosely, since the day I was hired, we were told that blue jeans were strictly disallowed as a single example. But pretty much every day since I started the job, several people around the store have been wearing blue jeans in various conditions. Now, they said other colors were okay, with specific mention towards black, which is the color I wear to work every day because I don't want to ruin my nice khakis. However, come January I won't have a choice. The company will be handing out a pair of blue Wal-Mart shirts for each employee, and all associates will be required to wear khakis to work. Think Target or K-Mart, but with blue. I don't necessarily have an issue with this, except that it's gonna be a bit more laundry than I do now. The thing that bugs me most is that I'll be losing all my pockets. I can't keep anything in khaki pockets. Small stuff falls out, rigid objects poke into my legs, and everything else gets crushed. I'm afraid of what will happen to my box cutter. I like my vest just since I have places to put stuff where it generally won't be falling out when I sit down. I do take some issue with having to provide my own pants, since if they're enforcing a particular style of dress, I think they should be responsible for providing at least a couple outfits worth. if they're giving out the shirts, they should hand out a matching number of suitable pants, and after that leave it up to each person to provide more if they feel it's needed. I can just imagine what my khakis will look like after an evening of scooting along the floor under all the liquid and powder detergents, portions of which over the years have built up a very thin yet seemingly impenetrable slick coating on the floor of the aisle as various spills, leaks, and carelessness have exposed innumerable combinations of chemicals that probably shouldn;t be mixed in the first place. I often joke how I could probably build a decent explosive with nothing but the contents of my aisle. I guess I have MacGyver aspirations.

My other deal here is that while I do wear jeans to work out of practicality, I wear black jeans to make it appear as though I make some effort, and I wear nice, collared shirts, always tucked in unless they've thrown me back to unload a truck, a belt, and fairly nice looking shoes. I try to look decent, and I do seem to get treated with a bit more respect as a result. Of course, I have many fewer and at least less severe social quirks than many of my coworkers, such as the 26 year old lady working on her sixth kid, engaged to someone who's not the father, and probably doesn't even know who all the different fathers are. In any case, this whole uniform business seems like it's going to mess me up pretty well in trying to project a semi-professional appearance. Maybe I should go ahead and grab a couple more pair of khakis so I can get as much good "credit" in as I can before we all look alike.