Woman gets pulled up at work over her skirt after sitting cross-legged in front of a man — what her female coworkers said left her mortified
Narrow-minded and dramatic perspectives can make their way even through an ordinary work meeting. On Wednesday, September 2, 2026, a woman who goes by u/mTop-Chemist-7536 on Reddit said she was recently pulled up by a female colleague over her outfit. Writing about the experience online, she explained that she had been wearing a dark, patterned long skirt that fell well past her knees. During a meeting, she was sitting across from a male colleague and mindfully crossed her legs. Yet her coworker’s comment completely caught her off guard.
I have been told I was inappropriate towards a male colleague and I can't understand why?
by u/mTop-Chemist-7536 in TwoXChromosomes
There was nothing unusual about her outfit or the way she was sitting. But after the meeting, her female colleague approached her and suggested that her appearance had not been appropriate because she had been sitting with her legs crossed in front of a man and was not wearing tights. The accusation felt absurd, especially since she had worn shorts, was well-covered, and aware of how to sit. What made the situation worse was that the woman did not keep the observation between the two of them. She allegedly went on to mention it to other workers. Soon, the employee found herself at the center of office conversations about something she had never imagined would become an issue. After that, coworkers made their own remarks. They said they could "see where she’s coming from," before becoming moral judges about the simple setting.
Rather than simply brushing the incident off, she found herself replaying the meeting in her head, wondering whether the angle of her skirt had somehow made the situation look different from what she had intended. She even began worrying about whether her male colleague might have been able to see the dark pink safety shorts she was wearing underneath. “I literally can't stop overthinking it,” she wrote, describing herself as “upset, embarrassed and mortified” by what had happened. "Am I being unreasonable here or are my coworkers being absurdly nitpicky over basic seating posture?" she asked. Commenters assured her she was not in the wrong. u/FdUpLoco wrote, "I would take it to HR." u/Calliope79 added, "Your colleague is harassing you and bringing other people into it." u/cwthree remarked, "Your female colleague is being weird."
Many women are objectified and judged even at the workplace for simply choosing comfortable or preferred clothing. Simple choices like a dress, heels, etc., are deemed inappropriate because others fail to treat female colleagues with basic respect. In another incident, an employee at a County Clerk’s office said older female coworkers accused her of deliberately dressing “seductively,” even though she wore simple blouses and dress pants to work. Rather than argue with them, she began wearing deliberately “modest” outfits featuring pastel colors, teddy bears, and even ponytails to make a tongue-in-cheek response that left her coworkers with little to complain about. Her goal was to look like an "overgrown toddler," to shut them up, and in the process, she began falling in love with her new bright and colorful wardrobe.
You can follow u/mTop-Chemist-7536 on Reddit for more content on work-life and lifestyle.