There’s nothing like reading about a bit of justice being done, while sipping your coffee, to remind you that the world is a wonderful place and that life’s full of truly awesome people. Who needs sugary treats when you’ve got sweet revenge? We know that dress codes can be a touchy issue, whether at work, school, or even the gym. Things usually boil down to the fact that someone in management comes up with new, uncomfortable rules without having any desire to improve the workers’ quality of life. That and they might want to show everyone who’s in charge.
However, flexing those managerial muscles isn’t always a good idea because the employees sometimes fight back. Far from everyone is happy to follow dumb rules that make their lives worse. And the results are more fabulous than the clothes the employees use to enact their revenge. One such fighter for office justice is redditor u/TollhouseFrank who shared a delicious tale of workplace vengeance with the r/MaliciousCompliance community.
Things started (as they usually do in these cases) with an antagonistic person getting a bit of power. In this case, some ‘Karen’ got into HR and decided to overhaul the office dress code to make things more formal… and way less comfortable. Nobody wants to work while sitting in a pool of their own sweat, so redditor Frank decided to teach the HR rep a lesson, using the same rules that she came up with. Scroll down for the full story and to get some inspiration on what to do if you’re ever in a similar situation, dear Pandas.
A dash of creativity and an eye for loopholes goes a long way when fighting back against illogical changes to workplace rules
Image credits: Osarugue Igbinoba (not the actual photo)
A man shared how he shocked a controlling HR rep after she changed the office dress code, and he did it all by following what she laid out. To the letter!
Image credits: wocintechchat (not the actual photo)
Image credits: TollhouseFrank
It takes a lot of guts to stand up to your superiors. However, if you want things to get better, it’s worth fighting for the things you care about, for better working conditions. How you do that—whether you’re super diplomatic, extremely to-the-point, or employ humor—is entirely up to you. Redditor u/TollhouseFrank chose humor, and he’s seriously made our day with his strategy.
Frank describes himself as a “hefty, very hairy man, with a very long beard”, and he’s lost a whopping 200 pounds since the situation he described online. To get back at the awful HR Karen, he got the most garish skirt he could find, as well as a very feminine blouse. The clothes were actually far more comfortable than what all of his other colleagues were wearing in the heat.
The Karen’s reaction to Frank swaggering in, wearing his fab new skirt and blouse, was off the charts. She went completely ballistic, screaming and threatening the employee. However, Frank had the upper hand: there was absolutely nothing in the new dress code to suggest that clothing had to be ‘gender appropriate.’
In other words, Frank was technically free to wear whatever he wanted. It should come as no surprise that the dress code was rolled back to its previous employee-friendly state. As to what happened to the HR Karen, you’ll all probably be glad to know that she eventually screamed her way out of the company.
Recently, Bored Panda spoke about office dress codes with Lynn Taylor, who is a workplace expert, author, and the CEO of the fashion brand ‘Behind the Buckle.’ She explained to us that the significance of the dress code has grown far smaller over recent decades, and especially recent years, as many employees still work from home.
“The pandemic shifted priorities for many operations, with a greater focus on bottom-line productivity. Where people sit, work hours and apparel naturally became more trivial. Executives also realized that comfortable clothes worn during the pandemic made them more productive and comfortable, too,” Lynn told Bored Panda that companies had to adapt.
“20 years ago, wearing jeans to work was taboo in many larger corporations, except for a ‘casual day,’ largely an unfamiliar term today for most millennials and Gen Z. Now jeans have become more of the corporate uniform,” she said that, broadly speaking, things have changed in favor of flexibility for employees. However, companies still want to leave a good impression on clients. And in some industries, what you wear is more important than in others.
“The caveat is that when people congregate in the office or with clients, few companies will have an ‘anything goes,’ policy. While dress codes have become significantly more relaxed at all levels, those who push the limit will likely be admonished. Companies are still enforcing some level of dress code decorum,” she said that smaller businesses can allow very relaxed clothing guidelines, however, mainstream corporations (at least in the United States), still won’t go for things like beachwear or coming to work in flip-flops.
We wanted to get Lynn’s opinion on what to do if a boss is very controlling or looks at the rules very literally. She said that an employee’s biggest strength is knowledge: if you know your superiors’ aims, strengths, and weaknesses, you can then effectively adapt to their behavior quirks.
“You first need to know where a boss is coming from when they exhibit this behavior. For example, bosses may be concerned about their superiors and their own career… and what might occur if they don’t deploy certain rules and regulations. They may also have strong feelings on workplace issues and feel it is their prerogative to enforce them,” the expert said.
“Managing up is a skill that will never go out of style and always be a helpful career tool, as you move from one job to the next. For example, in this scenario, employees can be the voice of reason; show the pros and cons of a decision, and gather support from other colleagues. There is power in numbers when trying to shift a boss’s perspective, especially if the rationale is well documented and persuasive,” Lynn told us that diplomacy and timing are very powerful tools.
The OP shared a bit more context in the comments of his post
The post Employee Follows The New And Uncomfortable Dress Code “To The Fullest Extent” To Teach A Controlling Karen A Lesson She’ll Never Forget first appeared on Bored Panda.
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