'I decided to be petty': Boss tells employee to dress better, so he wears a full suit out of spite and gets boss demoted by the CEO

Author image for Isabella Penn
Isabella Penn
May 3, 2025 4:00 PM EDT

Unless you wear a uniform, choosing an outfit for work is way harder than it needs to be. Oftentimes, employees find themselves with a whole separate wardrobe of work clothes that they wouldn't be caught ded in on the weekend. This is because there's usually a certain standard for what to wear to the office to maintain professionalism. Though the rules seem to be getting less strict, your work outfits still have to be appropriate.

This guy works in an office that allows for more of a casual attire. Some people even wear baseball caps to the office. His boss seems to have it out for him, though. From how he describes his outfits, they seem on the trendy side but still compliant with the basic dress code: close-toed shoes, no sleeveless shirts, and pants. He dresses more professionally than a lot of people in the office, but that doesn't stop his boss from telling him he needs to "dress better." 

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  • After this employee was sent to HR to discuss what “dress better” even meant, HR had no complaints about what he was wearing.

    So, out of spite, he decided to get petty. The next day, he went to work wearing a full suit. And he made sure everyone knew why.

  • Cheezburger Image 10500954368
    via Patrick Langwallner For Unsplash+

  • "I wore a suit to work and got my supervisor soft demoted"

    I'm posting mainly because I'm not a passive-aggressive type and I'm in disbelief that this actually worked. Ever since I started at my job a few months ago, my supervisor—we'll call him Josh has been micromanaging me.
    via zzdelmarco
  • When I'm the subject of criticism (which is often), I try to give him the benefit of the doubt and ask him to clarify. What are your expectations? What specifically should I have. done differently? Josh's
    via zzdelmarco
  • responses are always vague, often something to the effect of "Just do better." I even had a meeting with Josh and HR to address this, but to no avail. Yesterday, Josh comes to my desk to tell me I need
    via zzdelmarco
  • to dress better. Now, I work at a small company, and the vibe is unusually casual. A not-insignificant number of people come to work wearing jeans, hoodies, t-shirts, and/or baseball caps. I have never worn a hat to work,
    via zzdelmarco
  • and I make a point of wearing a button-up shirt with a collar every day. This particular day I was wearing a long-sleeve button-up flannel, chino pants, and Adidas gazelles. Other days I wear loafers and dress shirts that are tucked in.
    via zzdelmarco
  • So, I ask Josh to clarify. Should I be wearing dress shoes? Dress shirt? Tucked in? What specifically do you want me to change? Josh tells me I just need to dress better and that I should talk to HR for clarification.
    via zzdelmarco
  • So I go in to HR and ask, what is the dress code? | get a standard answer: pants, close-toed shoes, no sleeveless shirts, etc. I ask, have I ever worn anything to work that poses a problem? HR says no, you're fine.
    via zzdelmarco
  • Because I'm mad, and because my repeated efforts to resolve this kind of problem had gone. unheeded, I decided to be petty. The next day (today), I showed up to work in a full suit. It's one
    via zzdelmarco
  • I keep for events like weddings, so it's fitted and I look really sharp in it. It's also wildly and conspicuously overdressed for the office I work in. I had several interactions with people. coming to my desk to
    via zzdelmarco
  • comment on my outfit and ask what the occasion was. When anyone asked (only if they asked), I told them I had been told to "dress better." This was always met with disbelief and incredulity. Two people
    via zzdelmarco
  • even said they like the way I dress normally. When anyone asked me who the order came from -again, only if they asked-I told them it came from Josh. I was expecting to pull my little stunt for a week just
    via zzdelmarco
  • Cheezburger Image 10500954624
    via Kelisa Bernard For Unsplash+

     This image is for illustration only, and the subjects are models; the image does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • to prove a point, and then go back to wearing what I had been wearing before. Word got around the office fast, apparently, because the CEO (Josh's direct boss) came to my desk later in the day to tell me I would be
    via zzdelmarco
  • reporting to him now, and that he'd be having a talk with Josh about this and other issues. It's important to note that I was Josh's only underling, so he effectively went from being a supervisor to just a regular employee. I'm on a bit of
    via zzdelmarco
  • a high now, I think I'm going to come in to work tomorrow wearing a different one of my flannels! Edit: This blew up! Thank you for all the support.
    via zzdelmarco
  • No, this isn't Al and I didn't use ChatGPT to edit for style or grammar. I genuinely like em dashes and I use them regularly in writing-| promise!
    via zzdelmarco
  • krakatoa83 Wear a tux tomorrow and demote the ceo.
    via krakatoa83
  • troutdog99 "You need 37 pieces of flair."
    via troutdog99
  • CoderJoe1 Dress for the boss you want to have, not the one you currently have?
    via CoderJoe1
  • Wild_Butterscotch977 Clearly being a supervisor didn't suit him
    via Wild_Butterscotch977
  • DiscordPF Perfect MC. Glad the CEO was reasonable and seems to like you.
    via DiscordPF
  • dyedinthewoolScot Josh sounds like a Doesn't deserve or have the skills to be managing people
    via dyedinthewoolScot
  • Ok_Set4685 Now that's the malicious compliance I live for. You should wear a top hat and gloves just to spite Josh if you see him not being dressed to par
    via Ok_Set4685
  • IGotFancyPants This reminds me of a true story my husband told me. This would have taken place in the 1950s. His
    via IGotFancyPants
  • childhood best friend's father was a skilled machinist. That can be mentally exacting but sometimes dirty job, so the guts wore casual clothes to the shop. He had done this work for decades and liked the job.
    via IGotFancyPants
  • One day, when he was in his fifties, he simply decided he was tired of always dressing in casual clothes. Life is too short for that, he decided, and he had several nice suits that he wore only to church,
    via IGotFancyPants
  • weddings and funerals. Why not wear them all the time? So he began wearing suits to the shop every day. His coworkers were confused, but just shrugged and went about the work. It
    via IGotFancyPants
  • threw management into a tailspin, however. It made them uncomfortable in some undefinable way. Finally, at a loss as to how to handle this sartorial crisis, they promoted him to management. Mr. E, gone but not forgotten.
    via IGotFancyPants

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Tags

dress code employee manager work petty revenge ceo demoted human resources supervisor workplace Horrible Bosses suit karma entitled people
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