'Don't want to wear pants? Then you can go home': Shopping cart collector takes boss literally after being directed to change clothes

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    are not required
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    "Don't want to wear pants? Then you can go home" Alright, bet. The summer after my senior year in high school, I worked collecting shopping carts at a grocery store. I lived on the coast so it was hot as during the summers. It was one of those
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    "uppity" grocery chains so we had a pretty strict dress code (white long-sleeve dress shirt, tucked in to khaki dress slacks). But because I worked outside a good portion of the day, management let me wear khaki shorts and a short sleeve button up. All was fine until towards the end of the summer, we got a new general manager who was much stricter on policy than the old one had been.
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    When I came in for my first shift with the new manager, he called me in to his office. This is (vaguely) how our conversation went, from what I can remember.
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    Manager: There have been some changes. Your uniform is clearly lacking in several areas and I'll need you to correct it. We'll need you to go home and change in to pants and the provided long- sleeve button up.
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    Me: (thinking he had mistaken me for someone who works inside) Actually sir, I collect carts so I'm allowed to wear shorts. Manager: Son, I said what I said. Either you adhere to the dress code or you go home.
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    Me: So I don't have a choice but to wear pants, in 90+ degree heat in the height of summer? Manager: That is the policy. And being smart with me is not getting us off on the right foot.
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    Me: Alright then, I'm going home. Manager: Good. Thank you for your understanding.
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    I walked out of his office fully understanding that he expected me to actually come back. But his ultimatum was to either wear pants or not come to work, so I chose the latter. I was going away to college in a couple weeks so I chose not to sweat my off 6 hours a day for $7.25 an hour.
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    I was at home about an hour later, chilling, talking to my friends on Xbox 360 party chat and I got a call from my manager, furious. He was asking me why the I was taking so long, that we were swamped and desperately needed a cart collector. I told him I wasn't coming back. Of course he didn't take this well. He told me to get back there right then or I would be fired, which I responded with "Well, I thought
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    that was the idea". He was absolutely dumbfounded. He hadn't expected me to call his bluff on something he considered to be so inconsequential (because he wasn't the one outside pushing carts in the heat). He tried to talk me in to coming back but I told him he gave me two options, and I had chosen option 2.
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    I never went back in to work. I found out that the cart collectors were only made to wear pants for a few days after that until the new manager relented and let them wear shorts. I never got a call with an apology from him but I didn't care, I enjoyed the time off before going to college.
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    Edit: Some people think its "silly" of me to expect an apology. To clarify, I wasn't expecting one at the time. That's just a thought I added retroactively when writing this post almost 10 years later. He clearly realized he was wrong because he almost immediately changed his tune on requiring pants. So he chose to lose an employee over admitting he made a misstep. (But I also
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    realize that at that point, how I acted heavily contributed to his non-willingness to work with me) And I also fully realize this was an immature/unprofessional thing to do. I know I was fortunate at the time to be a teenager who didn't have a dire need for a job so I was able to make this move. He from the initial was an
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    approach and I was in a position to return his fire, so I went for it. I'd never in a million years think of doing something like this at my full-time big boy job.
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    MistraloysiusMith... Service industry manager with no empathy: "Don't act like you don't need this job!" Your average teenager: "I'm not acting, I really don't" Until we have robots doing these jobs we'll probably continue to get a steady stream of these satisfying stories
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    anonymousforever The first time someone needed ems for heat exhaustion or a customer complained the lot person looked sick from the heat and they were calling ems would get action, and open them up to a lawsuit for negligence.
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    4U2NV1981 I can tell you as a EHS manager for a chemical company in TX that you better make sure your employees are good to go. We have both water and gatorade with ice in coolers for our personnel to drink. If at any time they need a break they are getting it.
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    Thankfully, we also conduct heat stress and heat exhaustion training and limit what work can be done as well as keep a hydration log. during the summer months to ensure everyone is staying hydrated and we don't run into issues.
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    fatslayingdinosaur I think alot of managers are going to face this in the next coming months with the whole I'll fire you shtick there seems to be growing number of people who hear the my way or the highway and more people than expected are taking the highway, leaving alot of these places short-staffed. good on you for not caving when you didn't have too.
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    Bored BSEE There is a certain sort of in the world that thinks simply disagreeing with someone is "being smart". I've run into a few in my time and they are always miserable people to be around. Glad to see one get what's coming to him.
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    Ayatollah Davola I do kitchen work in Florida. I ask in interviews if shorts are permitted. I have even signed waivers accepting FULL responsibility if I burn or cut my legs by any circumstance. I don't own a single pair of pants other than the ones that came with my suits.
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    Comfort is clutch. Stubborn... Probably. But I'll be damned if I am working my off for you and sweating profusely all over food.
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