Train drivers in Sweden have taken an unconventional approach to getting around dress-code restrictions to battle the heat.
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In response to shorts being prohibited, male employees of Stockholm’s transit company Arriva have donned skirts in protest, Forbes reported.
The record-high temperatures in Stockholm (35 degrees Celsius) prompted employees to find an alternative to long pants. While shorts were forbidden, women employees were allowed to wear skirts, so the men adopted these, too.
“The employees knew that this would make it into the press,” Lena Norrman, a Swedish language instructor at the University of Minnesota, told Forbes. “And all Swedes would agree that the employer did not think this through.”
The meaning certainly wasn’t lost on Arriva, who have since changed their policy to allow men to wear shorts. However, male employees wearing skirts certainly doesn’t bother them. “If a man wants to wear a skirt, that’s ok … If a woman wants to wear pants, that would be ok too,” Thomas Hedenius, spokesperson for Arrivia, said.
Norrman added that the protest had a very Swedish attitude to it, in that it made light of a situation instead of causing confrontation.
Transit employee dress-codes have also caused a stir closer to home, as reported previously by HC.
