Dress Code

We have very little dress code at work. Since we work after hours, and on the phone, my boss used to joke that it was ok to wear anything but pajamas, as long as we wore hosiery underneath it.

That was before one of the operators showed up in her jammies. Well, specifically, pajama bottoms, but still, they were sleepwear. Since then, I believe that virtually anything goes on their side of the call center. The nurses, however, are still not supposed to wear denim during the day, except on Fridays and weekends.

All of those billboards and commercials showing the nurse line nurse talking to you in starched whites, and maybe even with a cap on her head? They are all a lie. It's much more likely that she's sitting back in her chair with a Mountain Dew and some chocolate or a bonbon, wearing a pair of jeans, whilst her feet are propped up on the desk. Of course, some of us may have BARE feet propped up on the desk, since one of my co-workers ditches the shoes the minute she gets there. One girl sits wrapped in a blanket all day, because it can get pretty cold in there. The home agents are probably in jammies and bunny slippers.

Most of us probably don't even know where our nursing caps are. I think mine is in the attic somewhere. I lost my nursing pin within a few months of graduation, when it went down the laundry chute attached to my scrub top. I don't think I've worn white hose since clinicals, when we were sentenced to pink and white pinafore dresses, white hose, and white shoes -- no tennis shoes. I remember getting those stinkin' pinafores, and that the laundromat got a big black stain in the middle of one of my two uniforms very early on in school. Since those uniforms were so expensive, I took some white nail polish and painted over it as best I could, and made it through the rest of nursing school like that.

Hubby, on the other hand, wore plain white pants and button front shirt when he went through nursing school. I tried to convince him that he really needed to get a nursing cap, so we could put them on the shelf next to each other, but he thought I was nuts and didn't ask for one. He most certainly didn't have to wear pink.

So my sweet revenge for the pink is that I wear jeans to work every day now, with either my "Rehab is for Quitters" or my "If you aren't appalled, you aren't paying attention" shirt. And sometimes I don't even wear hosiery.

But for something really special to wear, take a look at this gorgeous gold rayon evening dress, from Alley Cats Vintage, on Main Street. Imagine me wearing that whilst taking calls, with one of those glamorous old phones, and boudoir slippers with marabou trim. Of course, if it was me, I'd be chatting about vomiting or diarrhea, but I could wiggle my slipper off my foot while my feet were on the desk, and it'd sure look good with the bonbons.