A Costco employee has gone viral after sharing a video in which she reveals that despite following the company’s dress code, she was told that the shape of her body was inappropriate for the workplace.
Isha Mason posted a TikTok last month taken in a Costco bathroom where she explains, “So I’m borderline p***ed. I got called into the office because I’m following dress code, but my body shape is too much for my job. I don’t get it, like, I’m following dress code, but because I might have people following me around at work… How is this my fault?”
In her caption, she elaborated, adding, “I was called into the office and told that ALTHOUGH I have on the right attire, I have the wrong body shape to wear it. I AM IN DRESS CODE… but because the men keep looking at me, I have to come to work in bigger clothes… That’s body shaming, harassment and it’s just plain wrong!!
She finished with, “Costco needs to focus on much more important things than my body shape. I am embarrassed, this is embarrassing.”
Mason is wearing a form-fitting burgundy Costco shirt and what look like grey sweatpants. Many commenters pointed out that the material of her pants may have been the problem, and suggested she wear jeans instead. This suggestion, while attempting to be helpful, ignores the fact that Mason was told to come to work in bigger clothes — jeans would be form-fitting and presumably not satisfy her manager’s request.
One commenter, who claims to work for Costco as well, said they were told jeans or dress pants during orientation, meaning Mason’s pants wouldn’t have complied with the policy. Another commenter maintained that Costco’s dress code actively forbids yoga pants, leggings, sweatpants and activewear, but that she doesn’t know what pant style Mason’s pants would fall under exactly.
Whether or not Mason’s pants do or don’t conform to the dress code doesn’t appear to have been the basis of her manager’s complaint — rather, the way the clothes sat on her body was the issue, and the fact that male customers look at and potentially even follow her around was also blamed on Mason (as opposed to, you know, the men harassing her at her place of work).
Mason recorded a later meeting with her managers, taking advantage of New Jersey’s status as a one-party consent state. In the meeting, a manager says that the pants didn’t adhere to the dress code because they didn’t have pockets, which Mason claims isn’t mentioned in the employee handbook.
Dress code or no dress code, this all seems like a naked attempt by Mason’s managers to make up the rules as they go.
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