'I can't say anything. He's in dress code': Employee discovers loophole in strict manager's dress code policy, wears yoga pants to work

Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor

Jul 23, 2023 2:00 PM EDT

We've all had managers who spend way too much energy enforcing silly rules that serve absolutely no purpose. We all know what they should be doing instead. They should be focusing on how to create a better organizational structure to support the people on their team, but instead, it's far easier for them to assert their authority and dominance. So naturally, they spend more of their energy doing the latter when it's actually the former that is at the core of their work responsibilities.

This thread was posted to Reddit's r/MaliciousCompliance subreddit by u/GingerlyForged, who discovered a clever loophole in his company's dress code policy. His new manager had been cracking down on the dress code in general but particularly when it came to what the women in the office wore to work. This manager hated yoga pants. However, when OP looked at the fine print in the company handbook, he saw that yoga pants were allowed "as long as the ankles flared." The Redditor also learned that there was no specification when it came to gender within this dress code policy.

So what did he do next? He bought a bunch of yoga pants, made sure they followed the rules, and wore them to work every single day. When his manager tried to make a fuss about it, there was truly nothing she could do, considering that he was complying with the policy. Keep scrolling below to see what people had to say in the comments. For more stories like this, here's another post about a professor's grading malicious compliance.