Wearing shorts to work

Last week at work I noticed a coworker came in wearing shorts as part of his uniform. He's an RN and he had on shorts. Granted it wasn't hot, as it's winter here in Sydney right now-but it's not cold either. It wasn't the weather inappropriate attire that got my attention. It was the dress code. I guess here in Australia, men wearing shorts to work is not an uncommon sight. Actually most (more than 90% by my anecdotal awareness) of male day labourers/construction workers here wears shorts as part of their uniform. One reason is that it can get sweltering hot here in Australia during the summer months and jeans are just too restrictive to work in.

In this situation, the coworker was a nurse working inside a building and yet shorts are part of the dress uniform. It wasn't about the temperature but instead just part of the local practice or national consciousness. This is another aspect I like about Australia. Its informalness. Its unpretentiousness. You would never see that in America. At least I have never seen it anywhere I've lived in America. I haven't seen American construction workers wearing shorts. An these are not the loose fitting, baggy style shorts favoured by the American public. Aussies wear short, thigh exposing, crotch hugging shorts. Actually, I can't recall any American workmen wearing shorts except for water delivery men and maybe UPS guys during the summer months. I have never seen American male nurses in shorts. So I guess I was the only one that gave it any notice because neither the others in the nursing team nor the patients made any notice of this coworker wearing shorts.