Last week, I applied a lesson that I often have trouble with: you can’t get something if you don’t ask for it.

During an all-hands meeting, our executives announced that they’re doing special t-shirts for VMware employees that mark when we joined the company.  They said that we’d get an email so that we could choose our t-shirt size.  The following day, the email arrived.  And there were 8 sizes to choose from, XS through to 3XL.  There were no options for women’s t-shirts.

I grumbled to myself, annoyed at having yet another t-shirt that I won’t wear at any time other than at the gym or when washing my car.  I grumbled some more, annoyed that we were actually being asked for our t-shirt size, and it’s not like t-shirt vendors don’t have women’s shirts.  Then I heard more grumbling, from a couple of women on my team, and another couple of women on my hallway.

Grumbling doesn’t solve the problem.  The only way to solve the problem is to ask.  (Actually, as I said to a friend, I decided to start rabble-rousing.)  I asked: I posted a request to our internal social network and asked if we could get women’s sizes.  I posted it at 10am on Wednesday morning.  I sent the link to a few of the people who I had heard grumbling too.  By noon, there were already 50 “+1” and related comments on my post.  By the time I left the office that afternoon, there were more than 100.  And the next day, there was a post from the relevant team saying that it was going to be addressed.  For those women who had already selected shirts, or who had posted to the thread, they received an email asking them if they’d like to select a different size.  For everyone else, they received a new email to let them know that women’s t-shirts were also available.

You can’t get something if you don’t ask for it.  I asked, and I got it.  Thank you, VMware, for helping out.