Manager demands strict dress code, but it backfires when office turns into a time capsule
'I worked at a company where one of the male managers had a ruler and used it to check that women’s skirts were 6 inches above their knees.'
There isn't anything wrong with dress codes at work, but when they become too unreasonable, it can actually backfire on the company. That's exactly what happened when the manager asked all the employees to follow the rules in the handbook. The story (now deleted) was shared on Reddit in September 2025.
All employees had been happily following the "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," he wrote. However, everything changed when they got a new manager who insisted everyone follow the dress code mentioned in the handbook. The employee looked it up in the official handbook that hadn't been updated since the '90s. For men, it was a shirt, tie, slacks, and jacket, and for women, it was a knee-length skirt, nylons, blouse, and closed-toe shoes. The next Monday, he arrived in the office dressed as mentioned in the handbook, and everyone else also followed him. "A co-worker was wearing shoulder pads and nylon in the August heat. Another guy pulled out his wedding gear," he wrote in his post. Despite the heat, nobody took off their jackets because, well, that was the dress code after all. "HR wasn't happy. They got a few complaints of 'hostile working conditions due to imposed dress code,'" he recalled. Finally, a week later, the manager sent a new email: "Use common sense in the following dress code. Business casual as done before is fine.'"
Reacting to the story, u/razzemmatazz recalled, "I had a manager try to tell me that my hair was too long because the dress code said it needed to be off my shoulders. It was. I have 3a curls. Then she tried to pull on my curls to show they were longer, and I backed up and loudly told her not to touch me. And that was the last I heard of it." Another user, u/formulajuann, said, "I have never understood corporate dress codes. I worked at a company where one of the male managers had a ruler and used it to check that women’s skirts were 6 inches above their knees. He was terminated the next day."
u/melbatotes wrote, "It is very occasional; if the managers are pissing me off too much, I show up to work extra formally dressed so that they worry I'm going to a job interview. Then I take lunch at a weird time to really sell that impression. It sorts out their sh*tty attitude for a couple of weeks." u/candid_shelter1480 wrote, "Dude, I literally read this 5 times over and laughed each time! God, I love this! As a manager who has watched other managers crash and burn on this approach of 'installed authority,'… It’s awesome to see this type of rebellion." Similarly, u/pookie5858 commented, "This is the perfect example of how when a group of people pull together to oppose something which is outdated/unfair/wrong, just how much power we have to bring about change as a group."
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