I was in Bill C's office, sitting across from him at his desk. It wasn't a tense conversation but certainly very reserved. He said something about it being a long time and I responded that yes it has been about a year and a half. I was wondering why he had asked me to come and meet with him. I was also feeling surprised at myself for agreeing to come. I wished he would just quit stalling and tell me why he had asked me there. It felt like he was avoiding telling me because he wasn't sure how I would react. He continues to make small talk, still being very reserved and not smiling much if at all. When he does smile it is barely a smile. Bryan N comes into Bill's office. I don't know if he realizes that I am in there or not. But he comes in anyway to ask Bill C something. Yet, it doesn't seem like they speak at all. Because of something Bill C says I finally realize that he has asked me here to ask me to come back to work for him. I'm thinking about the fact that I want absolutely nothing to do with Bryan N but that I also don't think I could come back because of the way things were the last time but also because I don't think they would be any different if I came back. I doubt that Bill C would respect me or my abilities any more this time than he did the last. But I don't think any of the problems would change. He was walking around the office as he was talking to me. For the first time since I arrived I noticed his hair when he turned his back to me. He had let it grow very long. It came just below the collar of his shirt. It was black, with no grey and very curly, with all of it hanging in small curls. I thought it looked very odd, I didn't like it at all. I couldn't believe that he had wanted to do that or that he liked it, or that Jane C liked it. He finally said something to me about it. When he got very close to me, and was facing me, I realized that it was a wig because I could see part of the cap across his forehead. I told him that. He said something about his hair becoming even thinner. To me that just isn't a big deal, even though I know it is to men who are balding. I just don't think balding men are any less attractive. He said that's why he was wearing this wig. He took it off and I told him that I thought he looked so much better without it. He left off. There are two other women who come into his office and then a third comes in. All three are dressed very professionally in business suits. Two of them are my age or maybe even older. One is a younger, maybe in her mid to late 30's. I'm very surprised that he hired these three women, especially since they all three appear to be very capable professionally, to sell and conduct his training. Then I see two very young women leave the office and find out they are employed there as well. I think to myself that they seem more like the type of women I would expect Bill C to hire. They are both very dressed very provocatively and outrageously. One is wearing an animal print outfit. The skirt is so short it just barely covers her bottom. The other one is dressed in black leather. She is wearing something that looks something like a pair of shorts but the bottom hem doesn't even come to the bottom of her buttocks. At least two or three inches of her buttocks are uncovered and she is aware of this. It's intentional. I think it's outrageous. I look at the other three women with this questioning look of disbelief. They give me a look that says, I know. Can you believe it? I say something to Bill C. He says that he doesn't think it's a problem. I try to explain to him that they represent him and his company and ask if that's the kind of impression he wants people to get about him and the company. I ask him if he isn't at all concerned about what that is doing to his reputation. I tell him that it is absolutely unprofessional and unacceptable in a business office, in any professional environment but especially in his business. There are now about a dozen women in the office. I say something to one of them about her shoes. She, and the others, seem glad to hear whatever it is that I say, finding it to be useful professional advice. Bill C suggests that I take them all back to the training room and talk to them about things like that. I don't have a lot of time but I tell him that I will be happy to go back and share a few things with them about shoes. That won't take long but they are very important to a woman's professional appearance. I followed Bill C back to the training room and I'm feeling butterflies in my stomach because I haven't been there since I left the company. I know that he has made a lot of changes to the office since then. As we're walking I'm thinking about various dreams that I've had about the office over the last year and half. At the end of a long hallway he led me into a training room through a doorway to our right. It's a very small room. I look around, surprised that it's a training room. It's pretty messy and I don't see any chairs or tables. At the back of that room there is another door, along the left wall. He goes through that door so I follow him and realize that it leads to another training room. Apparently the second doorway is one that the trainers use to go back and forth between the two rooms. It has another entrance for clients. I don't know why he didn't take me in that door. It's a much larger room but it is also a mess. There are no tables and chairs set up for training and there are boxes and stuff sitting everywhere. It looks like they are using it as a storage room. Women start coming in and finding places to sit. Now, Lisa U is there. I suggested we do the presentation together and she said that was fine. After I said I wondered how we do it together given that it was all impromptu. I suggested she just chime in whenever she had anything to add. She was sitting in a chair to my left, leaned over resting her elbows on her knees and her chin in her hands. She nodded yes and said that was fine. I decided that I would do this by talking about the shoes that each of the women attending had on and discuss why they were or were not appropriate for business. So I told Lisa U we would just alternate. I would discuss a pair and then she could discuss a pair, etc. Now there are easily thirty or more women there. It appears as though there are a row of three rooms that are each connected to the other by a doorway just slightly wider than a normal doorway would be. The women have taken their chairs and lined them around the walls of each room. We're having to go through each room as we talk so all of the women can hear what we're saying and see the shoe we're talking about. I ask the first woman to my right in the main room to hand me one of her shoes. I decided to have her pass the shoe around for each woman in all three rooms to look at it. This first shoe was unusual so I told Lisa U she was welcome to do the first one because I knew she would have no problem coming up with something. After just a short time Lisa U had to leave. I realized it was taking a long time because we were passing each shoe around. I didn't want to be there much longer and I wanted to get this over, even though the women seemed to be enjoying it and they were giving me the impression that they were learning something. After we had done the first few pairs I started skipping some women's shoes if they were very similar to a pair we had already discussed. I also thought that doing it this way was creating too much downtime. Quite a few women had to leave early, so there were a lot fewer there. I asked them all to move their chairs into the one largest room, in rows, so they could all fit in one room. One of the shoes I discussed was black with about a two-inch heal. It had few rhinestones in different colors on the top, placed to create a very subtle and tasteful design. I told the women that this was one of my favorites so far because it was very professional yet the rhinestones set it a part a bit and gave it a little style. However, it was also very dirty so I emphasized the importance of taking care of their shoes and how dirty shoes can impact the impression someone gets about you. People get the impression that you don't take care of things or that you don't care about impressions or about details and that kind of thing. One of the shoes was a closed-toe flat with hardly any heel to it at all. I told them that my problem with it was that it would not be comfortable for very long if they spend a lot of time on their feet because it doesn't offer support for the legs and back. It would take a toll on your posture. Also your feet, legs, and back may start to feel tired or achy and that would take a toll on your mood or attitude, which in turn impacts your work, especially if you are interacting with other people. Another pair that I discussed was a dress thong with was also almost no heel. I told them that the same thing applied to this pair because of the lack of heel but that a thong of any kind was also way too casual and inappropriate for business attire. There was a closed-toe wedge that I showed and said that I particularly liked because the height of the heel gave it a more professional appearance. Because it was a wedge it would be very comfortable, unlike a regular high-heeled shoe, and not cause any of the foot, leg, or back discomfort that can be associated with high-heeled shoes. There was one that was a closed-toe wedge. It was two-toned, with the bottom half all around the shoe being brown and the upper half being tan or beige. It had some type of embellishment on the top of each shoe. It might have been a very small tassle or bow but I can't recall exactly. I held it up saying that it was also one of my favorites. I reminded them of the positives of a wedge-heel. I mentioned that closed-toes shoes are more professional than anything with an open-toe. But then I also mentioned that the style, with the two colors and the embellishment on top was also a positive. It provided a sense of style and implies creativity.