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Woman in tears over boss' comment about her appearance: 'Leave'

A waitress said she was left crying for hours after her new boss approached her with a sheet from the employee handbook, schooling her on her appearance at work.

The woman set the scene on a Reddit thread, saying she works as a server at a restaurant, working open until close most of the time, meaning she spends a lot of her days at work.

Woman taking an order at a restaurant
A waitress said she was left in tears after her boss asked her not to wear so much makeup. Photo: Getty Images

“I’ve been there for 3 years and have always had fun experimenting with makeup and matching my eyeshadow to my jewelry and stuff,” she wrote.

However, things took a turn when a new manager was hired a month ago and has already decided to lay the law down on what they believe to be an appropriate amount of makeup in the workplace.

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“He came up to me and gave me a sheet from our employee handbook that says employees can only wear light neutral makeup,” the woman continued.

“He told me I’m not allowed to wear colored eyeshadow or much eyeliner anymore.”

The woman said she “cried for hours over this after work because work is my only excuse to do my makeup since I’m there every day”.

Makeup table with different coloured makeup
The woman said she bonds with her customers over her makeup. Photo: Getty Images

She went on to say: “I bond with customers over makeup often, and it’s how I express myself in an otherwise boring uniform. I’m really upset.”

People were quick to slam the woman’s boss, with one person saying: “Leave. Right now is a really good time for restaurant workers looking for work. You'll probably get a better job and more pay if you jump ship.And when you leave, remind them that people don't leave bad jobs, they leave bad managers.”

“An inherently sexist policy suddenly being enforced by a new male manager?” another person wrote, saying it sounds like he is trying to exert his power.

“I had that happen to me. I work as a bartender in a nightclub so I would have a bit of glitter and neon liner every so often,” another person wrote. “Got new manager that said I couldn’t wear it. Owner came in and pretty much told her to f**k off its a club.”

Others weren’t so sympathetic, with one person telling the woman that if it’s company policy, she will most likely have to abide by the rules or leave.

“Let him/her know that you get that they might think it’s not a big deal, but it really matters to you and it might make you quit. Your manager might soften the rule or not. But then at least you haven’t quitter if they’re willing to compromise. It’s possible that the manager was having a bad day or whatever and made a bad choice and might correct it. Probably not, but maybe,” they added.

Another person wrote: ​​”Some places just have a work dress policy. It's not always "appropriate" to have blue winged eyeliner going out to your temples. A lot of professional places only allow neutral makeup, or at least just not makeup that is super heavy on crazy colors. My mom just started a job where they don't allow non-natural hair colors. My grandma and aunt worked at a place where they couldn't have colored nails.This is reality.”

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