I Can Take Constructive Criticism But This is Ridiculous

Every year, the company I work for conducts an employee satisfaction survey, polling its employees on all areas of their work. Today, in our senior management meeting, the whole administrative team reviewed the results of the survey. Nothing too surprising, considering the people who usually respond to surveys are the ones with the most grievances to get off their chests. That is, until we got to the verbatim comments section in which employees were free to write anything they wished. The HR Director said she'd be sending each manager their center's comments in an email for us to review but I just so happened to be sitting next to one of the senior managers who had a copy in front of her. So I asked to see them. At first, she shook her head and then she prefaced handing them over with a "Just remember, some employees say really stupid things," which made me really want to see what was on that piece of paper.

The very first comment I read from one of the employees I manage? "The Center Manager should dress more appropriately for work...." and after that, I don't even remember the rest. Now wait a minute, dress more appropriately?!? Sure, if I was prone to wearing low-cut shirts displaying cleavage or skirts that didn't cover enough leg or even midriffs that allowed my navel and tattoo to show, then I could understand what this person was getting at. But, for the entirety of 2008 I have been pregnant and wearing maternity clothes. It left me wondering, does my elastic waist-band pants offend someone? Or maybe it's the tent-like shirts with the little ribbons that tie in back that emphasize my bulging pregnant belly too much? Or maybe, just maybe, it's the open-toed shoes I am forced to wear as a result of my feet swelling to double their size by day's end? I gotta say, this left me quite stunned. Prior to getting pregnant, I was very conservative in my attire- skirts to the knees, button-down blouses, khaki pants- and I plan on returning to that style postpartum. But for now, I'm left wondering if maybe it's time to break out the mu-mus.......