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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Commercial-Dish7684 on 2025-09-05 04:06:42+00:00.
I saw a similar story that reminded me of mine. Many years ago I worked at a print shop that no longer has its original name, but people still call it by its original name and is notorious for iffy customer service. (Side note: one of the main reasons is that we encountered the most ridiculous asks so when a perfectly reasonable request came through, we were already sitting on ready to engage in the madness…apologies for anyone who was reasonable)
Anyway, we were a pretty laid back, island of misfits store…grad students, wayward musicians, lifers, tokers, and single moms who work two jobs…but collectively got ish done. P&L unmatched to the smoke breaks taken. Our uniforms were navy pants and a button down shirt (long or short sleeve…dealer’s choice!) and could even order a cardigan sweater, which all came from the corporate catalog.
We get a new district manager who does a store visit. She determines that the men were not adhering to the official uniform because none of them were wearing ties. Pause. The reason why? We have an industrial size laminating machine that was diabolical and easily snatched up ties. Just a general chocking hazard and made absolutely no sense to wear to do this job. She threatens to write up anyone non-compliant and puts our store on notice.
Quiet storm Gil (not his real name) says, bet. He reviews the handbook and sees that both neckties and bow ties are acceptable with no additional descriptions. So he orders a box of what can only be called the comical clown collection of bow ties from eBay. Puts them in the break room and tells the store to have at it. We are talking about polka dots, paisley, stripes in every color of the rainbow and of ridiculous size proportions. Honestly, a joy to witness. Customers are like, this is interesting. Which btw, makes Gil and others grumpy because they are taking a stance, not trying to spend more time with customers.
A month later, district manager visits again. We have now normalized the bow ties. She is livid. She speaks to our store manager, who shows her the employee handbook and points out how it doesn’t provide color or size parameters and technically, they are all compliant and have taken her warning seriously. Soooo…
After she leaves, our store manager says that they no longer have to wear ties and it is up to the discretion of each employee if they want to wear a tie on shift. Every now and then someone would walk onto the floor with a polka dot reminder.