Plus-size woman says manager told her to ‘cover’ her body at work

She says suggestion was made despite a lack of dress code at her place of employment

A plus-sized woman has revealed how she quit her job after getting “dress-coded” at a workplace that did not have a dress code.

In a recent video posted to TikTok, Abigayle, @abigaylecanterbury, said that she was confronted about her clothing choices while working at smoke shop, where she was the only plus-sized employee. According to the TikToker, the confrontation came after she had initially been “excited” about starting the job because employees “always wore whatever they wanted”.

“I’ve never been into one of their locations and seen a bigger girl working, it’s always been small, petite girls, and they’ve always worn whatever they wanted, which when I got this job was one of the reasons I was kind of excited,” she said.

“I’m like: ‘Hell yeah, I can dress cute, I can dress however I want,’ obviously not pushing the boundaries because I know that they are going to be there given it’s a job,” she continued. “But I was under the impression I could wear a crop top with some jeans and that’s not a big deal.”

According to Abigayle, she was under this impression because her boss never told her about dress code guidelines, and because her co-workers’ outfits made it “very obvious”.

In the video, Abigayle then revealed that she received a text one day from her manager, who told her that the business owners wanted her to “cover [her] stomach”.

Abigayle shared a screenshot of the text messages, in which her manager wrote: “The business owner talked to me yesterday about your clothes. He said please dress [in] something nicer and cover the stomach. Thank you.”

In response, Abigayle asked what he meant by “nicer” and explained that she tried to “dress comfortably for work,” before asking if she should avoid crop tops or not.

According to the screenshot, her manager told her to “just cover all [of her] body”. Abigayle apologised in response, at which point her manager said he didn’t think her outfit was a problem until the business owner said something.

In the video, Abigayle said her boss’ statement got “under [her] skin,” and that she then asked her co-workers whether they’d ever received complaints about their outfits.

According to the TikToker, her co-workers said they hadn’t been “dress-coded” before, and told her they “couldn’t believe” what had happened. She also revealed in the comments that she was wearing a crop top when she was hired for the job.

In a follow-up video, Abigayle revealed that the situation escalated when her manager asked her to speak with him, at which point he claimed there were “microphones” and “cameras” around the store and that everything she said would “always come back to [him] one way or another”.

During their conversation, Abigayle said she told her manager how it had felt to be “singled out” over her appearance.

“It just really made me feel singled out that y’all told me that I should cover my body but I’m coming to work with girls that are dressed the way I would normally dress,” she said.

In response, Abigayle said her manager told her that he was “just the messenger,” as it was the owner who took issue with her outfit.

In a third video, Abigayle revealed that she’d decided not to stay at the company, despite wanting to grow in the business, because her manager had made her feel “bad” about her clothing choices.

“I have too much respect for myself to stay in a predicament or a job situation where I’m made to feel bad for being myself,” she explained. “Especially in something like dress code areas, not only is that some stupid f***ing s***, but it is blatantly discriminatory, honestly.

“I’m glad that these girls felt comfortable enough to wear whatever they wanted, but the whole point of all of this is the fact that I just wanted that same treatment,” she continued. “I wanted to be able to wear what I was comfortable in, just like everybody else.”

As of 5 July, Abigayle’s videos have more than 488,800 views combined, with TikTok users in the comments sharing similar experiences and suggesting she take legal action.

“Yeaa as a woman that’s been thin and plus size,” one person wrote. “I can definitely tell the difference of how I was treated. They were so nice to me when I was thin. But as plus size... not as nice... and the unnecessary comments I get…They are pretty harsh, and constantly reminding me to lose weight. It’s a sad reality.”

“So basically you could sue for discrimination,” another wrote. “And you clearly have it in the text.”

A third user added: “I had the same problem at a job. They said shorts and T-shirts were fine. I did it and I got coded all the time. They fired me.”

The Independent has contacted Abigayle for comment.