Toiling in Uniform

I met up with an old school chum yesterday, in a pub in Camden Town (The Spread Eagle, Parkway, for the Camden Town initiated among you). This, as I'm sure you can imagine by now, involved bucket loads of real ale (Young’s Special, in my case) and, despite my best intentions, very little in the way of work. What did crop up, however, when mulling over times gone by, was a recollection of another old school friend many years ago standing in that very same pub and his obvious glee when telling all within earshot of how he had set up his quite attractive young wife of the time in a job as a toilet attendant working in the public toilets close to their home. To be honest I know nothing about the background to their relationship and no more was said on the matter, but to be said that she was always a quite, meek mouse of a girl and on this particular occasion, all the more attractive thanks to the pleasing little blush of embarrassment that washed over her cheeks. Anyway, this fond little memory got to me to thinking about a comment that was posted recently by an anonymous contributor and alluding to the series of correspondence that pops up on this site from time to time regarding the relationship of someone called Judith with her aunt. I realise, from one or two comments I have received, that this series of correspondence is not everybody's cup of tea and of course it has little to do with the story arc contained within my current two volumes and the upcoming new volume - though I'm always grateful for any potential source of inspiration, and there have been one or two ideas that have sprung from this source Nevertheless I thought I would reproduce this latest contribution here as not everyone reads the comments attached to the various postings

“I see that you are continuing to try and correct your niece’s behaviour by imposition of school type discipline. I am sure this is very humiliating for her but does not appear to be producing the required results. I would suggest to you again that you impose a more physically uncomfortable and constraining regime like that which was widely used here on US County Farms. Dress her in a simple dress of plain uncomfortable material such as sacking or the worsted you seem to use and nothing else except a pair of plimsolls. Find her a job in the local community which requires her to do hard physical labour at least in part in public. I am sure that the town council could utilize someone to clear rubbish, sweep the roads and clean the public latrines at minimal cost. When she is not working either have her doing your housework or physical drills. She should work from 5 am to 9 pm minimum. She should be confined at night sleeping on the floor in her dress. She should utilize a bucket and have no toilet access. Whether she can use the bucket in her cell or in front of you, you can decide. She should eat gruel for breakfast, no lunch and a mixture of mashed vegetables/potato and bread for supper. This regime should apply seven days per week. In addition I would suggest you employ corporal punishment as in the old “straffen första” program in Scandinavia i.e. corporal punishment is regularly applied for exemplary work with further applications for any failures. I would suggest eight to ten strokes of the cane to the behind twice per week as the basic application. Clearly any failures during work can be disciplined immediately “in-situ” as well as more formally later. This regime should require less administration on your part and deliver a severe punishment as well as allowing your niece to be used as an example to others.
After this for a few months I am sure that the petty indiscretions will no longer occur and your charge will be more appreciative of whatever limited privileges you grant her including if you so wish wearing uniform. Then perhaps you will be able to place your niece in a menial job of some description, where her freedoms can be limited and her dress be maintained as you see fit.”

To add my two pennies worth; I always thought the idea of this girl being allowed to work in an office job was far too lenient and offers far too much scope for her develop her independence - especially if she is allowed travel to and from work unescorted. Secondly; if she is to be kept in some sort of uniform of her aunts choosing it would surely be better if that same uniform - or some variation of it - could be retained both at work and at home and if she is to be employed in an office and to be in the public eye, this set is obvious limitations as to what may or may not be socially acceptable or expected. If she were to be placed in service, however, perhaps as a skivvy under the supervision of a suitably domineering mistress, and allowed home only at weekends than these complications disappear and her uniform can be made as humiliating as it is practical and functional with the only limitation being imagination of her employer and/or aunt. Then again there is something to be said for keeping her in the public eye, toiling day after day today under after day under the disparaging gaze of strangers - and this brings me back to the idea of finding her a suitable placement as a toilet attendant. It would be quite expected and socially acceptable for her to be kitted out with a nylon overall and apron and she could be escorted to and from her place of work with a gabardine raincoat tightly buttoned and belted over it. Of course the raincoat would return home with her aunt, to be brought back at the end of her shift for the return journey; she would thus be presented with a choice of staying at her post throughout of venturing into the street in her shabby nylon work-dress and apron. Whatever employment she is placed in I would expect all proceeds - such as they might be - any position being suitably low paid - to go straight into her aunt’s pocket. If she was to be employed as a skivvy or lady's maid then I would expect the majority of her meagre wage to go for room and board and of course to pay for her uniform in any case. Anyway, I've had a rummage around Internet this morning looking for suitable floor-scrubbing pictures and instead came up with these little gems. The dress I came across on Flickr and thought it perfect for either scenario - certainly no young lady of this day and age is going to want to be seen out and about in that and yet it is both eminently functional and smart enough for most forms of work if placed in service. The second picture is just an example of a nice little touch of shame and humiliation - perfect as an early step in taking a young woman down a peg or two when first entering an institution.