By David Futrelle
There’s a little bit of drama going on in the Am I the Asshole subreddit, where Redditors who suspect that they might just possibly have behaved a teensy bit improperly (but probably not) go to tell their stories and get a ruling on their asshole status from their peers.
Yesterday, a fellow calling himself TheCrocDude reported in with this leading question: “AITA [Am I The Asshole] for wearing “crocs” to work? (Serious, I may have just been denied a promotion)”
It was pretty clear from the outset that he expected Redditors to weigh in on his side.
Huh. That was a pretty quick jump from “I didn’t get the promotion because I dress like a slob” to “maybe I’m being oppressed as a man!”
First, as many people pointed out, Crocs — while tacky — may be perfectly appropriate office wear in a casual office, especially for someone who works out of sight of the public, or for some non-office jobs that require people to be on their feet all day. (In my exceedingly casual home office, where my only work colleagues are cats, I’m barefoot most of the time, and so are they.) But people in management at tech companies are generally expected to not wear giant cartoon rubber shoes.
And, no, CrocDude, the woman who got promoted over you would not have been able to get away with Crocs because she’s a woman. There’s no such thing as a “Croc Pass” that applies only to the ladies.
But the petulance of CrocDude’s post — I’m not going to call him by his real name, as he is an embarrassment to all Davids — and his belief that he was somehow discriminated against in his tech job for being a man suggest that the Crocs are really only the symptom of his unpromotability problem, not the cause.
And his other comments in the thread more than confirm this judgement. For, in the least surprising development since my cats starting to pester me for dinner an hour before it’s usually served, it turns out that CrocDude kind of a creepy misogynistic douchebag
When one Redditor asked him how exactly “wearing goofy footwear relate[s] to gender bias,” CrocDude offered this, er, observation:
Dude you can see she wears thong panties under her dresses, that’s unprofessional
Wait, what? Maybe she’s the one who should be going to HR, not you.
When another Redditor wondered why exactly he was monitoring his co-worker’s ass at work, he responded “Why are they looking at my feet?”
I dunno, dude, maybe because you’re wearing giant neon-colored clown shoes?
And then there was the whole George R. R Martin question. In response to a question from another Redditor that’s since been deleted — presumably for being offensive — Mr. Croc complained that his office rival is
the “quirky hot girl” who claims to love GoT but couldn’t identify GRRM in a police line up.
That’s right. He apparently thinks she shouldn’t get the promotion because he’s convinced himself that she’s a FAKE NERD in addition to being a thong-wearer.
Jeez, dude, you’re making Croc wearers look bad.
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I know nurses who wear Crocs. They say they’re comfy.
This guy’s speculation/assertion about his colleague’s undies is creepy, OTOH. Is there a chance that factored into management’s decision? Not that Creepy Crocs would understand, of course.
How can see a woman’s underwear when she wears a dress without bending down to look her upskirt like some creepy pervert? Is he just assuming it? As she mentionned it at some point. Is she 9 foot tall? If so, I’m certain she has lots of problem with all sorts of ceiling, not just the glass ceiling.
@Katherine: I’ve heard they can be very easily cleaned too (as in “run through a dishwasher’s sterilize cycle”), which is important in some messy hospital situations.
I’m not sure most GoT fans could identify George R. R. Martin in a lineup. I don’t think I could. In my head, I just keep seeing Peter Jackson.
When every step you take
And every move you make
Is along a painted line
When every single lieu
To which you wanna go
Has got somebody cryin’
When every single day
You wish she’d go away
You claim you’re oh-so-blue
But I’d like you to think
Just for a wink
That the problem just might be you
Between every word that’s spoken
And through every moment of the day
You barely think there’s a problem with you
But what would someone else say?
Your boss was hardly torn
On that eventful morn’
I’m willing to bet you now
He made his excuse
But your implicit abuse
Must’ve made him cry, “Holy cow!”
Dude is really gonna complain about a pantie line sierously.
Echoing Epronovost: How can this Croc-of-you-know-what know his co-worker is wearing thong panties under her dresses? Isn’t one of the positives of thongs, that there’s no VPL (visible panty line)? Don’t know; I only tried to wear them once, and couldn’t stand the feeling.
Is this where Croc Dude goes on about “miniskirt power”, only it’s thongs? And why the hell is he looking there, of all places?
(Rhetorical question. Of course the poor bastard is being discriminated against just for being male, not a sexist nincompoop…she said, dripping snark all down her pants.)
@Sarah
Martin’s beard has more grey, that’s the way to tell.
The Crocs nurses and other medicos wear are not the sandal version full of holes, but a proper closed in shoe. And yes they are very comfortable.
My guess, from how he’s taking this, is that her superior professionalism applies to more than just her clothing.
Perhaps too speculative, but the manager Croc-rocker mentioned saying “don’t let’s go over this, please” also tends to indicate there’s more to it than simply the shoes, and that they’re a convenient out for dealing with a sensitive situation.
Absolutely this is antimale bias. The tech industry is rife with this kind of bigotry. By all means, go to HR. Wear your roomiest Crocs when you do — the ones with Barney on them.
Don’t know about anyone else, but I’m not going to be doing my best work if I keep busting out laughing every time I look at someone.
Bet he buys shit from Skymall, too.
The closest thing to anti-male bias that I can see is that his manager was probably too scared of endless entitled unproductive whining to really tell him why he wasn’t promoted. THAT might be gendered in that the manager would possibly have been less scared to give critical feedback to a woman, and also gendered in that sexism means less women feel deserving of promotions because of their knowledge of irrelevant pop-culture trivia.
Crocs sandals are just flip flops. They don’t look different from any other flip flops. They are not the clogs. https://www.crocs.com/c/men/footwear/sandals
You are not being discriminated against because you’re a man who wears crocs, dude.
Croc fact time!
(Well, possible fact, I never verified it, but like the story)
I once was told by someone who worked in an oitdoor gear store that Vrocs were originally invented for whitewater rafting: they’re waterproof, with holes to make sure they don’t fill up with water, and since the likelihood of getting a shoe knocked off is pretty high, they’re also light enough to float and brightly coloured so they’re easy to find later. So all these things that annoy people were originally useful features.
CrocDude, on the other hand, is just annoying.
Especially considering how much more pressure there is on women to look “professional” (but not too professional, you don’t want to seem intimidating!), and fewer things they can get away with clothes-wise. It’s telling that the only thing he could come up with was her freaking underwear – and of course, it’s also telling that he’s staring at her ass. Ugh.
@ Dormousing_it
Thongs don’t really show a pantie line. What she’s probably wearing is some cheeky underwear (Yes that is the name. Cheeky. It’s a pun and also accurate) I wear thongs when I perform because they don’t show lines in my costumes. But I wear cheeky underwear when I just wear dresses and they show a lot of panty lines. I doubt this guy sees a lot of women underwear so he probably can’t tell the different.
@penny
That is actually some very fascinating croc history. The shoe finally makes since now.
I mean, REAL NERDS™ care so much about the fandom they did this thing, so I gotta say, I’ll hang out with my FAKE NERD© friends over here and give those dudes a wide berth.
Note the “I was passed over”. Not “I didn’t get the promotion”. No, he was denied the promotion that was rightfully his! He would have gotten it, but they “passed over” him to give it to a woman. A woman who, according to his own story, was identically qualified.
Everyone knows, of course, that in such a situation he’s obviously first in line because he’s a man. Why would they skip him? It must be that pervasive anti-male bias.
I’ve never worked in an office before, but if the dress code is casual it sounds unlikely he would be passed over because of wearing Crocs. It sounds like we’re not getting the whole story and there are some behavioural issues he’s not mentioning. If he’s really this clueless about his situation then he should have pressed his boss so he can improve his chances of getting a promotion next time. That’s what I would do.
Come on, stranger, you’re letting down the people who wear Crocs for comfort and aren’t assholes.
(There are bound to be several. They do seem like the kind of thing that would help certain physical/sensory issues.)
I wore Crocs when I was pregnant because they were comfy and I could put them on without bending, and I now keep several pairs as slippers for me and my guests. That said, this dude is an ass. I seriously doubt the problem with him is really his choice of footwear.
There are a lot of people with serious anti-Croc bias. I was one of them until I actually wore some Crocs. Soooo comfy.
However, if I had two candidates for a job who were neck and neck on all other issues, I’d choose the non-Croc wearing candidate. Every Single Time. By and large they don’t belong in an office environment.
I have no issues with nurses wearing Crocs, given that the current ‘scrubs’ wearing culture means they’re basically in pyjamas anyway. But hey if your work lets you wear pyjamas or cut-offs and a ratty t-shirt, then Crocs are probably not an issue.
True story: I accidentally wore Crocs to my office job one day. The shame. I was mortified, especially when I was called to join in on a client meeting. I now keep a spare pair of ‘meeting worthy’ shoes in the office.