‘He came into the office with a big smug smile’: Under-appreciated tech employee is reprimanded for not wearing a tie, comes in with the most obnoxious yellow tie, quits, and finagles free training for himself

Author image for Elna McHilderson
Elna McHilderson • Managing Editor
Jan 19, 2026 7:00 PM EST

Tech employee finally has it with being under-appreciated after getting reprimanded for not wearing a tie. So he decides to quit "in style" with the most obnoxious yellow tie. 

Nobody really quits a job over something as minimal as a tie. Obviously, there is so much more than just a tie. This tech professional was a top-notch employee. He got the job done and flawlessly so. Unfortunately, the company did not care. All they saw was that he did not follow the unofficial dress code of business professional attire. Nowhere in the company guide does it saw a dress code. Sure, everyone followed it just through pure perception, but he just wasn't wasn't a tie guy. He wasn't showing up to work looking like a total slob. He just didn't wear a tie. 

Instead of the company overlooking this due to his skills, they reprimanded him for his defiance. What they didn't know, however, was that he was already over this toxic workplace. So instead of getting a nice tie, he made sure to find the most obnoxious yellow tie that had a big cartoon character one it. He wore that to work and made sure to say hi to every single person in the office that day so they could see his "stylish" fit. They never bothered him about wearing a tie again. 

However, the damage was done. 

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  • Cheezburger Image 10596747776
    via Unsplash+ (and Vitaly Gariev)

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

  • So, instead of sticking around and sporting more ridiculous ties to be petty, he quit. You see? It was so much more than just a tie. He had landed a much better job and was more than happy to move on to big and better things. 

    However, when he quit, he hadn't fulfilled the contract that said they would pay for his special training, and now he would have to pay them back. But this guy was already a professional in duping this company. 

    So, instead of paying the fee, he agreed to a “secret” project that would take “days” to finish. At least, that's what management thought… The truth was that this job was very easy and he would be done with it in about 10 minutes. Still, they never knew that, so they waived the training fee and he still got to move on to a better job and hang up the yellow tie. 

  • "It's a tie..."

    My first "real" job after graduating was in a very toxic company, where I stayed for one year, but I really think that if I had to work again in such a company, I would resign after one week.
    via gregyoupie
  • There was no official dress code, but men would dress rather formally: suit and tie or something business casual but still conservative (no jeans, no sport shoes).
    via gregyoupie
  • Then a new guy was hired in our team: a very skilled IT developer, very professional, and a nice colleague to work with.
    via gregyoupie
  • But for some reason, someone up in the hierarchy had an issue with him not wearing a tie like the 3 or 4 other guys in the same team.
    via gregyoupie
  • Our manager actually asked him to wear a tie. Now, by then, he had been in the company for a couple of months but had confessed to me he was fed up with the toxic environment and was close to landing his dream job in another company.
    via gregyoupie
  • So he complied... and came to the office with an ugly flashy yellow tie with a big comic character printed on it.
    via gregyoupie
  • He came into the office with a big smug smile and made a point to go and say hello to EVERY employee in EVERY closed office in the building, so every one could see how elegant he was today.
    via gregyoupie
  • He never wore a tie again. He finally landed his dream job and resigned... but then someone reminded him he had been on a training paid by the company and that as he resigned less than a year after that, he was contractaully committed to pay it back...
    via gregyoupie
  • That was unexpected and he was still figuring out if he should pay or if he should challenge that, but then one of the managers (not ours, but very influential) came to him with a proposal for a deal: they had a confidential project that he wanted him to work on outside of the office (they were very afraid of unions hearing about it) and they needed him to adapt a piece of software for that, and if he accepted to do it without telling anyone (not even our manager), they would waive the (expensiv
    via gregyoupie
  • The manager thought it would take 4 of 5 days for rewriting the code, which all in all would equate the cost for the training.
    via gregyoupie
  • That was of course very confidential, but he was telling me the whole story when the deal was done and he was in the last 2 or 3 days of his notice period.
    via gregyoupie
  • Then I thought about it: "hey, but I know that app. There is not much to change.
    via gregyoupie
  • \-(with his smug smile, like with the tie): yep \-(thinking a bit more) There is even nothing to change in the code.
    via gregyoupie
  • Not a single line. Just one flag to change in a table for some records and that's it.
    via gregyoupie
  • That is literaly a 10 minute job. \- (nodding, still with the smug smile, just bigger): yep \- well done, you bastard.
    via gregyoupie
  • OP gregyoupie I was in charge of IT support and this colleague was the developer who had written the software. I had to support it when it was rolled out and helped to fix a couple of issues, so when he told me what the project was and what the scope was, I knew enough about how it used the data in the DBs to understand there was no actual code to rewrite, just to change some data in a table in our DB. The manager who came up with the deal was not in IT, he was the head of sales (how did he know
    via gregyoupie
  • Cheezburger Image 10596753152
    via Unsplash+ (and Curated Lifestyle)

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

  • Fast Vehicle_1888 I worked in an office years ago and there was a dress code: shirts with a collar, tie, no jeans, no running shoes. I built a collection of ties. My favorites: Bugs Bunny tie, Spiderman tie, a tie in the shape of a fish with a picture on it of a guy catching a fish. No tie ever matched the rest of my clothes.
    via Fast_Vehicle_1888
  • OP gregyoupie I had a tie with all main characters from Star Wars IV. Not just tiny prints, really big images. A funny gift from someone... I wore it once for a kind of formal family ceremony and wy wife was ashamed. I tried to find it for the last NYE because the dress code was "classy but with a touch of crazyness", could not find it and I suspect my wife hides it somewhere.
    via gregyoupie
  • Byrnstar Was it the one with all that characters lined up vertically, with Darth Vader and 'Star Wars' printed at the bottom? You just reminded me of the one my dad had mid-90s and looking online for a match brought up the brand name of Wally Wear and some affordable ones via the 'bay....
    via gregyoupie
  • OP gregyoupie This one
    via gregyoupie
  • Coder Joe1 Perceived Value is a valuable tool in IT. I once sold a rewrite of my own code for $75k. I wasn't the best paid actor, but they bought it.
    via gregyoupie
  • OldGrey Troll I wonder if I still have my Flying Toasters tie in my closet. It was my favorite tie back last millennium.
    via gregyoupie
  • Illustrious-Network5 My grandfather was colorblind. For him, a lot things were just gray I think. I don't know if people felt bad or what, but they never pointed out some of the outrageous colors he would wear. He had some crazy ties, though I don't remember those in particular. The one that always stuck out to me was his suit. We had that suit (why? I'm not sure) for some time after he passed. It was a burnt orange, corduroy suit. Did he know it was orange? Of course not. He looked at his suit
    via Illustrious-Network5
  • MonkeyChoker80 Had a position once where ties were expected every day. Most of which included interacting with the public, but there were occasionally 'long driving' days. Like, every four-to- six weeks we had one. These involved people driving in a giant loop around the entire giant area we serviced, moving stuff around between the local small areas. Really, two giant loops that started at the 'home base', each going the opposite direction as each other. They started out before dawn, met again
    via MonkeyChocker80

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management tech job bad tie IT employee workplace business professional attire business
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