Coworkers dress like it's 1996 to get back at the new manager's dress code mandate, showing up in increasingly formal garb to make a point: ‘The office was a time capsule by Wednesday’

Author image for Jesse Kessenheimer
Jesse Kessenheimer • Writer and Editor
Sep 7, 2025 6:00 PM EDT

These coworkers banded together to make their workplace time-travel back to the 90s. How? With shoulder pads, nylons, and a collection of vinyl paint suits, circa 1996, just like the employee handbook dress code. Perhaps this malicious compliance was exactly what the new manager needed to put him back in his place.

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  • Ever since my middle school days, I've felt the uncontrollable urge to retaliate against the dress code, simply because I don't like being told what to do. While I understand that there are dress codes in place for a handful of reasons, there's a little rebel in all of us who would rather dress to our discretion than be told what to do by management, especially when they have no idea how THIS workplace runs. 

    Fashion wasn't an ordeal for these employees until the new manager came to town, blazing their pistol of totalitarianism in the town square just to get a rise out of the locals. Well, if you want a gaggle of rebels to follow instructions to a tee, beware that they might just do that, digging into the dress code archives—and their closets—like it's 1996.

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    Cheezburger Image 10549717248
    via Anastasia

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • 02
    Manager told us we had to do the dress code to the letter... so I did, to the letter.
    via Olastun_bee
  • 03
    I used to work at a company that had a "business casual" dress code. It was always sort of ambiguous, people wore polo shirts, button-down shirts, blouses, slacks, whatever. No one cared as long as you looked tidy.
    via Olastun_bee
  • 04
    Then we got a new manager. In his first week, he sends out an all-staff email: From now on, the dress code is to be followed verbatim as written in the handbook. No exceptions.
    via Olastun_bee
  • 05
    Alright. I dug out the dusty employee handbook and really read the dress code. It hadn't been updated since the late '90s. It was very specific:
    via Olastun_bee
  • 06
    Men: Dress shirt, tie, slacks, and jacket. Women: Knee-length skirt, nylons, blouse, and closed-toe shoes. No polos. No cardigans. No khakis.
    via Olastun_bee
  • 07
    The next Monday, I showed up in a suit and tie. I hardly ever wear jackets to work, so everyone right away noticed. And then other individuals started reading the handbook too-because after all, the boss read it precisely as written.
    via Olastun_bee
  • 08
    The office was a time capsule by Wednesday. A co-worker was wearing shoulder pads and nylons in the August heat. Another guy pulled out his wedding gear. Someone even
    via Olastun_bee
  • 09
    showed up at work with suspenders because "the handbook allows it." Half of the staff sweated buckets because we weren't allowed to take our jackets off our bodies when sitting at our desks."
    via Olastun_bee
  • 10
    HR was not happy. So they got a few complaints of "hostile working conditions due to the imposed dress code." One week later, we got a new message:
    via Olastun_bee
  • 11
    "Use common sense in following the dress code. Business casual, as done before, is fine." Polos and khakis were once again in style. And our manager never brought up the handbook again.
    via Olastun_bee
  • 12
    Coign⚫ As a director of compliance, every time I read, "The Employee Handbook has not been updated since X" I shudder at the risk generated in not having an annual review program.
    via Coign
  • 13
    Agitated_Basket7778. Please tell me new manager got a proper a chewing from HR that stupid exercise of authority. Please?
    via Agitated_Basket7778
  • 14
    tonysnark81. My company starts the dress code portion of the handbook with "Wear clothes." Other than that, be neat, clean and not offensive.
    via tonysnark81
  • 15
    TheArmoursmith The only dress code any business needs is "dress appropriately"
    via TheArmoursmith
  • 16
    kichwas⚫ For most industries dress code haven't been updated for the same reason nobody updates the rules on where you can feed your horse... It's so backwards most people have forgotten the stuff exists.
    via kichwas

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boss worker dress code employee manager job malicious compliance work coworkers working ceo employees supervisor workplace reddit thread company coworker business funny
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