'[I] handed my two weeks notice': Manager makes employee travel three hours to change work outfit, employee returns with letter of resignation

Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor

Jul 4, 2023 8:00 AM EDT

Here's hoping this manager learned that her power trip was certainly not worth it. This employee was just getting used to commuting 1.5 hours each way to her office after working from home for two years when she had to start dealing with a demanding new manager. She shared her story via this thread on Reddit's r/TrueOffMyChest subreddit.

One day, her manager found the Redditor outfit to not be "work appropriate" and required that the employee go home, change, and come back. The Redditor tried to explain her situation, that this would take three hours, that she would dress more appropriately tomorrow, etc, but the manager was not having it. She refused to hear the employee's pleas and potential alternative solutions and decided that her power trip was more important. She also required that the employee make up those three hours down the road.

On her commute, the employee obviously started rage applying to other jobs and managed to immediately secure an interview for a fully remote position. This gave her the motivation to come back to the office with something other than a new outfit. She came back with her two weeks notice.

While this story definitely has the kind of triumphant ending we all hope for in these toxic workplace stories, we also know that there is a slim chance that this manager learned her lesson. She'll probably just start picking on the next low-level employee she can boss around until there's no one left.

For more stories like this, here's one about an employee's Shrek-themed resignation letter.