THE ROMANTIC OFFICE SAGA: PART 89

THE ROMANTIC OFFICE SAGA: PART 89

“Oh! Yes, come in, once you are done take the keys back to IT.” I told her and I left Loveynna there with her sister Carol.

As soon as I settled in my office Luke came and told me there was something he wanted to tell me.

“Yes, Luke, what is it that you wish to tell me?” I asked him.

“I wanted to make a proposal that every morning before we begin our work, we should be praying then going on with our day.” Luke told me.

“Well, I will share that idea, we shall vote for it and if the majority are for it, we shall implement it, if not, we shall not.” I told Luke.

“But in religion there are no matters of democracy but doing what is right regardless of the number of people who support the idea.” Luke insisted. 

“Luke, but this is an open organization and it is not just doing what we feel is right, but what majority will be comfortable with. If most are the idea, we will go with it. I assure you.” I told Luke but he did not seem contented with the idea.

“All right, no problem.” Luke told me.

“Is there something else you wish to share with me?” I asked Luke. He moved on his seat as if preparing to tell me something unusual.

“Yes, I don’t know how you will take it, but I feel there is a lot of sexual immorality in this company. I wish you would talk to people. Their manner of dressing, their manner of behaving, how they talk; it is all about sex, sex and more sex. Like today, see how Carol and Letisha came wearing. I am not comfortable with it at all. At least they should emulate Madam Sally who always wears decently.” Luke said and I felt proud that he thought Sally was the standard setter in the company for dress code. I thought that would be too sensitive for me to handle and I would have to engage Sally perhaps to talk with the ladies. But I was amused at how Luke was so keen about it.

“I will talk to Madam Sally and see the way forward with that. I hope you are comfortable with men.” I told Luke, he smiled and said, “Yes, I am all right with men, but ladies here have a habit of wearing very tight dresses, short skirts, revealing clothes and at times you would think they are going for clubbing but this is a work place, at least we should have standards.” Luke said sounding like a discipline master. I nearly laughed.

“All right Luke, I have heard you, trust me, I will see how to resolve that. Thank you for your suggestions.” I told Luke. I knew I had to thank him no matter how much I felt like his ideas were outdated. 

“Most welcome, Tony. I can count on you.” Luke said as he stood up to leave.

After he left, I decided to just move around offices and work stations to see how indeed the ladies were wearing that day, taking into account what Luke had just told me.

Sally was wearing a nice decent lady suit, a little loosely fitting since her abdomen was beginning to show her pregnancy. It was grey in color but well pressed and professional.

Cynthia was wearing a long yellow but tight dress with brown spots that hugged her body revealing her contours all through. But on a closer look, it was a bit transparent and one could see she was wearing a pink under pant. That was revealing enough.

Maureen who was married was wearing a nice business suit, blue in color but her skirt was rather too short revealing her thighs and her cleavage was clearly visible and one could notice her breasts very well; her left breast had a painted tattoo on upper part.

Letisha that day was just crazy, wearing a very tight, short mini skirt which was brown in color and to add on that the skirt had a slit running to almost revealing what she was wearing underneath. Her black top was also transparent enough you could see clearly her white bra and the shape of her bosom perfectly. That must have made Luke mad enough to come to my office.

Carol was wearing blue tight trousers whose material made her body contours perfectly visible, and I had not even noticed her T shirt revealed part of her abdomen when she walked, and the T shirt was just too tight for her body, her abdomen was also protruding a little due to her pregnancy, but since she had a full figure, you would have to be keen to notice.

Her sister Loveynna was however very decent, wearing a long plaited loosely fitting dress, a woolen top but all the same, her body could not be hidden since she was also as shapely as Carol. But she went to great lengths to appear decent and not to attract attention towards herself.

Zuhura was in proper Islamic attire. 

Irene was wearing a long dark brown dress too that was hugging her figure, and overlooking from a bright angle, it was also transparent and would easily reveal her body shape. It also had a long slit running all the way to her thighs, revealing her tattoo on her right thigh. Her dress was also revealing to much of her bosom and cleavage. 

I realized there would be need to set some standards for the company, but I had to tell Sally so I went to Sally’s office to discuss the issue with her.

“Sally, Luke raised a concern about how the ladies are wearing around here. He felt that the ladies were wearing provocatively all the time and he is not comfortable with it.” I told Sally.

Sally looked at me for a while, chuckled a little bit and told me, “Why should anyone be concerned with how people wear? What matters is people’s work, behavior and output; the rest is not relevant to us. Let him respect the ladies’ choices.” Sally said.

“I feel you should at least talk to them to reflect a corporate image, at least to be decent.” I told Sally. 

“Tony, I have no problem with anyone as long as she is not naked, and she is working. Some things if you try to tell people you will easily lose their favor. You will seem dictatorial. Imagine having to tell them how to even wear? Furthermore, women wear how they wear to feel good not to provoke men. So, it is not the ladies’ problem, it is Luke’s problem if he feels provoked. Do you feel provoked when you see them wearing like that?” Sally asked. I remained silent thinking what to tell her.

“Tony, tell me, do the ladies provoke you too?” Sally directed that question to me, looking into my eyes. It made me feel like Luke had just opened a can of warms.

“No, they do not.” I knew that was a lie. Sally laughed.

“Even if they do, I am sure you would not tell me.” Sally told me. I laughed too.

“Sally, men are physical beings. We notice some things which women think we do not, it is our nature. We just resist them not to be wayward.” I told Sally.

“Now that sounds like an honest answer. But once Carol designs our company attire we shall check on that, however, I feel it is too petty to start discussing with ladies what they wear. As long as someone is decent and performing, let us not try to dictate their personal choices.” Sally told me. I knew with that statement, she was not willing to talk to the ladies. But I too was not willing, I was just addressing the issue just for formality and to show Luke I was concerned. 

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Immediately, I got out of office, I met look and assured him Sally will look into the matter and he appreciated. I however, did not present his idea of prayers, till a later date after studying the general feeling of the people.

As I was passing around, I overheard Chris and Carol talking about freedom of dressing, with Chris saying he was a strong advocate of ladies should be left to wear whatever they wanted. I knew with such sentiments; Luke’s idea would just be a rubble rouser and it would achieve nothing but hostility and resistance. It would probably even alienate him from the rest. I thought Sally could perhaps foresee that and to protect Luke, she had to discourage such an idea. Besides, Luke was a nice worker, except his staunch and religious beliefs constantly made him get into logger heads with other people.

During Lunch time, however, the discussion that dominated was how women dress. Surprisingly, the topic was triggered by Loveynna who was the most decent among all the ladies there except Sally whose dress code was more professional. 

“Why would a woman dress like she wants a man to see everything in her? I think a woman should be a bit mysterious so that the man will feel more interested.” Loveynna was saying.

“No, I will dress how I want, whoever feels offended that is not my problem it is their problem.” Maureen said.

“But when you wear provocatively, you really put us into temptations.” Collins said and Loveynna looked at him with contempt. 

“But some men are just too greedy for women; it does not matter if the woman is decent or not, he just wants every woman.” Loveynna said and I knew that statement was meant for Collins.

“But I feel you ladies are just too much. How can you dress like going for a club but you are going to a work place? At least be professional. This is not a brothel.” Luke said and every lady in there was stunned.

“Luke, the problem with you is that you are ever too insensitive with truth. We Muslim women wear like this due to religion, but what matters is morals since some are on hijab but are worse than prostitutes.” Zuhura said sounding serious but polite.

I remained silent just following the conversation.

“What I wear, I wear to feel good about myself not to please anyone. And in any case, if you noticed me, that is none of my business. Your eyes betrayed you and blame yourself for being provoked by what I wear.” Carol said caressing her hips seductively such that everyone smiled. Luke was totally unimpressed. 

“Jesus commands us to be decent…” Luke was about to say something else and Zuhura cut him short.

“Jesus, Jesus….do you think everyone believes in your Jesus? We also believe in Mohammed so do not talk about Jesus here. Furthermore, Jesus was Isa bin Maryam, not a kafir like you.” Zuhura sand and we were all shocked as we had never heard her talk tough.

“Wow! Easy now, we are not about to begin a holy war, just discussing.” I said at last and everyone relaxed. Luke was however very offended.

“What is your opinion Tony, with regards to this? Your opinion is what we will adhere to.” Irene asked me and everyone turned to face me. I knew I was cornered. But I tried to be neutral.

“In my opinion, there is dress code for every occasion. If you are going outing, you know how to dress, if you are going clubbing you know how to dress, if you are going to church or mosque, you know how to dress and also work place should also have proper dress code too. My opinion is at least professionalism should be seen in your dress code, for example someone should be able to look at you and say, “Oh! This is an account, this is an IT guy, this is a HR manager, this is a business executive, etc.” So, just look at yourself and ask yourself, “Is my dress code reflecting what I stand for in this company?” if yes, stick to it, if no, just improve there is no harm in improving. People are none of your business but people judge you by outward outlook before they interact with you. Nothing is worse than interacting with someone who already have a certain opinion for or against you. At least make a good initial impression to someone you meet be it in a work place or a club. So, I am not about to tell you what to wear or what not to wear, all I wish is, just evaluate yourself and be honest with yourself, see if there is room for improvement.” I said trying to sound as neutral as possible. Luke smiled, but everyone else looked at himself or herself.

“Tony has a point, he did not make a suggestion but I feel we should at least improve if not change.” Cynthia said, was seconded by Irene and generally everyone else agreed with me, except Carol.

“I feel our managers has set the standards for us. Can’t you all see how Sally and Tony wears more so since they took over their positions? I think we should emulate them.” Irene said at last.

Carol however objected.” The only standards I am going to emulate from Tony is the spirit of hard work, the rest should not concern anyone else.” Carol said.

Not to make Carol feel like everyone was against her, I came to her defense.

“Carol, we just presented freedom to choose what feels best for you as long as you are comfortable with it, besides, we are here to work nothing else.” I told her in a reassuring tone.

“Yes! Exactly, that is what I have been talking about all along.” Carol said. Luke gave her a stern look.

Sally joined us after a while but did not sit down.

“I just wanted to stretch my legs a little bit. But will have my tea in my office so Zuhura please take for me some on my office. Otherwise, you all look excited what is good here?” Sally asked.

“Oh! People were just discussing what to wear and what not to wear.” Maureen told Sally.

Sally looked at me briefly with suspicious eyes. I knew she thought I was responsible for the talk, but I had to make things straight.

“I also got caught up in the conversation.” I told Sally.

“No problem, as long as what you discussed will yield positive results for our company, no objection.” Sally said smiling. 

“What is your opinion on how we should dress?” Cynthia directed the question to Sally. 

Sally smiled briefly and said, “Carol is working on it, soon we shall have a corporate attire, but we shall only be wearing it twice per week for a start and the other days people shall have the freedom to wear their favorite suits and professional attires of their choice.” Sally said, sounding louder when she mentioned the word “professional.” That was smart of her.

As she turned to leave, Irene followed Sally and I heard her make a request, “Madam, please may I have a word with you in your office if you do not mind.”

Sally looked at her briefly and told her, “All right, come with me.”

I felt suddenly anxious, for whatever reasons.

>>>To be continued>>>

Anthony Kerry.