Boss Rags On Employee for Wearing Shorts to Work, Malicious Compliance Ensues

Nobody likes a boss who arbitrarily makes up reasons to berate their employees just because they're having a bad day and feel like taking it out on someone. When redditor u/bear-mc showed up to work wearing totally normal khaki shorts due to the hot weather, their boss used it as an opportunity to reprimand them. The boss demanded that OP "follow the dress code to the book," and OP complied…maliciously.

Posted by Mel Dawn

“Boss said no shorts” —u/bear-mc

OP maliciously complies

“I urge you to read the employee handbook”

The comment section

“Sounds like walmart...” shared u/ChickenZiZ, "I (M) worked there for 7 years, got shit for wearing shorts and told them 'they aren't shorts, they're capris.' When they said no they're shorts I read them the definition of capris and asked them if the only reason I can't wear capris is because of my gender then to please say so in a formal document so I can present it to the ethics department at corporate.... I was able to keep wearing my capris..."

u/lisalef said “My high school had a similar rule against shorts and during one crazy hot May, all the girls started wearing skirts. We collectively petitioned the office (which BTW, was the Only place at school with AC, about it and they said no.) So…..the next day, almost every guy was also in a skirt. Needless to say, they amended the policy that if it was over 80F, we could wear shorts.”

u/blindedtrickster used their employer's own dress code to strike fear into the hearts of their managers. “I worked at Wal-Mart for a while and was on good terms with (most of) the Assistant Managers. I'm male. One day I was talking to one of them and jokingly said 'Hey, the dress code says that we're allowed to wear a dress, right?' They look me dead in the eye and in the most pained voice I've heard said ‘... Yes.’ I never did, but they knew that I had figured out how to understand policy and what that could mean.”

“That's great!” Replied u/chaoticbear. "I worked there when they switched to the blue-and-brown possibly-accidentally-unisex policy; since we couldn't wear shorts (at the time at least), I came to work in a skirt. Arkansas summers are hot as hell and I was riding the bus. Got the district HR person on my case but I also was able to fight it and came to work nearly every day in a skirt from then on. The requirement for them to be ‘no shorter than 6" above the knee’ could look ridiculous on my (then) fairly fit manbody, but I got very good at the closed-leg squat to reach things on the bottom shelf without showing off the boys."

Read the original thread here.