Companies all around the globe come up with different perquisites and bonuses for their employees. But sometimes, these initiatives are quite unusual and even inappropriate. A few firms in China, for example, provide single female employees (over the age of thirty) 8 days of ‘dating leave‘ to find love.
Tatprof, a Russian aluminium company, is organizing a “femininity marathon” from May 27 to June 30 whereby female staff will be given a bonus for wearing short skirts and dresses to work!
The dress or skirt should be “no longer than five centimetres from the knee”. Employees will be paid 100 roubles (Rs. 106 approximately) provided they send in photographic evidence.
BBC News quoted a company spokesperson saying that 70% of their workforce is male and this initiative was undertaken to “brighten up” work days and “unite the team”.
“Many women automatically wear trousers to work, which is why we hope that our campaign will raise our ladies’ awareness, allowing them to feel their femininity and charm when they make the choice of wearing a skirt or dress.”
The announcement hasn’t gone over well with netizens. Many women have slammed the company and called the initiative sexist and regressive in nature.
Wow… So #Tatprof is running a femininity contest for its employees in Russia, basically it seems so the bosses can gawk over the pictures. Disgusting abuse of power & exploiting women.
BBC News – Company criticised for paying female staff to wear skirtshttps://t.co/kbkDkULgWX
— Amie ?? (@puddingpuff69) May 30, 2019
A Russian aluminum company is running a "femininity marathon"–paying women employees bonuses for wearing a short skirt or dress to work.
Tell @Tatprof what you think about this straight up sexism. #NotBuyingIthttps://t.co/u5TPgyllhg
— Miss Representation (@RepresentPledge) May 30, 2019
A popular feminist blogger Zalina Marshenkulova called it “news from the Middle Ages”. Furthermore, the company is also organizing a dumpling making competition for women, while the men compete in a pull-up contest! Talk about inequality in the workplace, right?