Am I wrong to be annoyed about this workplace complaint?

[Anonymous]

Let it go. It's possible it wasn't someone with more influence but rather someone at your level or lower who resents you getting the opportunity to make extra money and doesn't see how it benefits them by keeping things going smoothly. Your boss may not want to make waves and wants you to comply to keep the peace. But anyway, since he said something, do what he asks. Then whomever is complaining has no axe to grind anymore; especially helpful if it is a higher-up who said it.

[Anonymous]

I think if it was someone senior to you they would have just said that. Because they didn't you can assume it wasn't. The comment would carry much more weight if it was a senior directive and your boss wouldn't dance around it.

Just complain to your co-workers "Can you believe someone said....." and let that person squirm knowing they were the tattler while also letting everyone know the rules have changed in case they step up.

[Anonymous]

You're wrong to bury your subject not in the title

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think if it was someone senior to you they would have just said that. Because they didn't you can assume it wasn't. The comment would carry much more weight if it was a senior directive and your boss wouldn't dance around it.

Just complain to your co-workers "Can you believe someone said....." and let that person squirm knowing they were the tattler while also letting everyone know the rules have changed in case they step up.

Yes, do that. And your clothes were not inappropriate, even though they were casual. In some law practices, it's jeans every day!

I think it's important for the support days to have different clothes, because otherwise people will wonder why you aren't coming in at the usual time and doing the usual things. I agree that maybe you need a little "support" tag/pin/label somewhere on your person.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think you let it go but essentially ignore it and either continue the way you were, or stop doing this whole support thing since it’s too much fuss now.

OP again. You know what’s funny? Right after I was called in to have that chat, my boss found me and asked when I was planning to come in and offer support again. You can’t make this stuff up.

What did you tell him?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think if it was someone senior to you they would have just said that. Because they didn't you can assume it wasn't. The comment would carry much more weight if it was a senior directive and your boss wouldn't dance around it.

Just complain to your co-workers "Can you believe someone said....." and let that person squirm knowing they were the tattler while also letting everyone know the rules have changed in case they step up.

That's a good idea. If the complainer had the guts to say "Wearing jeans huh? Don't need to go to meetings? Must be nice!" then OP could have just explained he was essentially off the clock and doing this support. But he decided to go tattle, so this approach works to get the same message out. If tattle has a problem with the whole program in general he can go complain about that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think you let it go but essentially ignore it and either continue the way you were, or stop doing this whole support thing since it’s too much fuss now.

OP again. You know what’s funny? Right after I was called in to have that chat, my boss found me and asked when I was planning to come in and offer support again. You can’t make this stuff up.

I would just step back from this support role/task. If the team isn’t aware and supportive of the terms of your taking on this extra work, I wouldn’t do it.

[Anonymous]

Another option is to send an email to your boss clarifying expectations based on the conversation.

... Thanks for the feedback today.
I pulled the agreement that had been in place around this flex role and I just want to make sure we are all on the same page for this going forward.
Previous - Attire was business casual as a "benefit" for doing this work.
Moving forward, this is no longer accepted and at all times we are expected to be ....
Previous - When in this role, the priority is to do the administrative tasks to support the team. Moving forward, you are asking the team to do both the administrative tasks and attend all team meetings.

Are there any other changes that I need to be aware of? What is the plan for communicating these changes organization wide so that we are all on the same page.

[Anonymous]

Based on the interactions here, OP seems argumentative/defensive and has to have the last word. I wonder if their personality has rubbed some coworkers the wrong way and they're trying to make things difficult for OP.

[Anonymous]

So you never say how it was resolved, just that you "went back and forth." Do you have to follow the office dress code or not? Do you have to attend meetings or not? Unless your boss said explicitly that you have to do that, then just take the passive aggressive approach and keep doing what you had been doing as if the conversation never happened. If he did say you needed to change, you can either comply or just stop doing the extra work. How important is it to you to wear jeans to work?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Another option is to send an email to your boss clarifying expectations based on the conversation.

... Thanks for the feedback today.
I pulled the agreement that had been in place around this flex role and I just want to make sure we are all on the same page for this going forward.
Previous - Attire was business casual as a "benefit" for doing this work.
Moving forward, this is no longer accepted and at all times we are expected to be ....
Previous - When in this role, the priority is to do the administrative tasks to support the team. Moving forward, you are asking the team to do both the administrative tasks and attend all team meetings.

Are there any other changes that I need to be aware of? What is the plan for communicating these changes organization wide so that we are all on the same page.

+1. It's your boss's job to clarify this and you should get it in writing in case this comes up again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Based on the interactions here, OP seems argumentative/defensive and has to have the last word. I wonder if their personality has rubbed some coworkers the wrong way and they're trying to make things difficult for OP.

It's a job with rules and expectations. If they change on the fly, that would piss anyone off. What kind of door mat takes that lying down?

[Anonymous]

You work remotely? Correct? And you showed up at work in jeans for what?

[Anonymous]

Your crime here isn’t in missing the meeting or your denim attire. It’s the fact that you got into it with your manager over a petty complaint from some unknown accuser. Do better. You’re showing too much of your hand here.

The only appropriate response to your manger would have been “I hope in the future that these kinds of concerns, whether they’re coming from one of my peers or someone in a management position, can be dealt with at the source. To that end, if you’re comfortable sending them my way to discuss what happened I’d be open to that. I’d also be happy to switch up my attire if your understanding of the support dress code is different than what I’ve been wearing on my support shifts.”

[Anonymous]

How are you offering support if you're expected to sit in a meeting? Are they paying you hourly for this?