Woman quits job after manager sends text telling her to ‘dress nicer and cover the stomach’

A plus-size employee has quit her job after her manager told her to “please dress nicer and cover the stomach”.

Abigayle Canterbury, from the US, started working for a retailer on June 15, claiming she was “under the impression” she could wear a crop top with jeans after noticing colleagues dressed in similar attire.

WATCH VIDEO ABOVE: Abigayle shares text messages from manager

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Just two weeks into her job, she received a text from her manager informing her the business owner requested she “cover all” her body with clothes because he thought her outfit was inappropriate.

The 22-year-old said she ended up handing in her resignation because she believed she was singled out after realizing none of her “petite” size co-workers were given any dress code.

“I’m in rage,” Abigayle said in a now-viral TikTok video.

“I got a text message from my manager, basically saying the business owner saw what I was wearing and he wanted to tell me to ‘cover the stomach’.

“If they had a dress code in the first place, they should have told me that when I started.

“But based on the things that my co-workers were wearing, it was very obvious that we did not.”

When she first received the text message, Abigayle asked her manager to clarify.

“So no crop tops, got it. But when he says, ‘nicer’, what does that mean exactly? I just try to dress comfortably for work,” she said.

“So does he want me to dress like… really nice? Or overall is it just the crop tops? Just making sure I’m understanding.”

Her manager responded, “Just cover all your body, that’s what he means.”

‘Cover my body?’

Abigayle was apologetic, responding: “Okay I can do that. Sorry, I didn’t know it was a problem,” to which her manager said: “It’s fine, I didn’t worry about it but he did, that’s why I told you just now.”

Ironically, when she was interviewed for the job, she said she was “hired in a crop top”.

However, when she thought about their conversation, she admitted the business owner’s words “got under my skin”.

“Cover my body? Have you seen your other employees?” she said, fuming.

“Literally the very next day when I came in, my co-worker was wearing a very cute outfit, I loved it.

“I even told her that I loved her outfit. Then we got talking about clothes so I asked her, ‘Have you ever been dress coded here?’

“She had been there significantly longer than me and she was like, ‘No, I haven’t’, so I was like, ‘Ok’.”

Abigayle decided to wait until she worked another shift to observe the situation further.

“The next time I worked with another woman, same scenario, she was wearing stuff that, according to them, was inappropriate.

“So I asked, ‘Have you ever been dress coded?’ and she was like, ‘Well’.”

Feelings greyhound

When she handed in her resignation, she told her boss how she felt.

“I really liked the job, but I had to quit,” she said.

“Not only did the text message catch me off guard but it hurt my feelings.

“They acted so empathetic about it, they acted like, ‘Oh my god, we can’t believe that happened and we’re sorry.’

However, Abigayle didn’t accept their apology.

Her video has been viewed more than 680,000 times – with many saying the business owner was being “ridiculous” while others accused him of “discrimination” or “fatphobia”.

Abigayle thanked everyone for their support, adding: “I’m glad that the other girls were able to dress how they like, I simply wanted the same.”

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