Yoga Pants and Career Advise

I know I have not been posting much of personal musings or observations lately. But never fear I will likely start to grace you all with my somewhat witty yet rambling opinions again. Like maybe even right now…

So last week I had the opportunity to goto a college Criminal Justice Career fair. Being an almni from this college I know that the students are told to dress professionally (business casual) when coming to the career fair.

You see the career fair in not just for job recruiting, many police departments use this career fair to interview for summer internship placements. The reason I bring this up is due to the number of young ladies who came to the career fair in Yoga Pants.

Yes women have more leeway in business casual dress, and yes business casual is professional enough for an informal internship discussion. But yoga pants are a tad too casual for business casual.

The officer staffing the booth next to me was from a department in the Milwaukee area. After about two hours at this career fair he strikes up a conversation with me by asking. “Hey brother let me ask you a question… is your department looking for a person with a stand out resume or is it looking for a person with no pantie lines, and maybe a ______ toe showing?”

I dam near pissed myself at his question.

Now don’t get me wrong, I am not anti yoga pants. From talking to this other officer I don’t think he is either. But we noticed a lot of people not dressed appropriately. Oh and it was not just the girls. There were guys in outfits that made you question if they were serious about working at a police department. But it just seemed that way more girls has on questionable outfits than the guys.

Basically without going on a rant I have to ask… WHY?

Did you not think about what you put on?

Did you not realize where you were going when you got ready in the morning?

Have yoga pants become such a staple of fashion that they are assumed to be business casual?

Going back to my conversation with officer at the booth next to me, he made this observation. He pointed out how all the booths were mostly staffed by male police officers. He then questioned if the yoga pants were some ploy to improve the chances of getting an internship.

The guy I was talking to was staffing this booth with his Captain. Before I could reply to his comment about improved chances, the Captain chimes in. “I am too scared of being labeled a dirty old man and getting sexual harassment complaints, so that ploy will not work…”

What are your thoughts on this?