There’s nothing quite as satisfying as ruining a family picture or a staff picture if you’re unhappy with the whole charade.

And the woman who wrote this story on Reddit wasn’t playing around!

Take a look at how she handled her situation.

We think you’ll get a kick out of it!

You want me to wear this shirt? Again?? You got it, boss!

“Socially and politically our work environment is a mean girls club.

I work at a secondary education institution, on the Support team. For stupid reasons, a hideous shirt that one of the support staff was wearing one day, became our mandatory Monday shirt.

Cue this week – it’s photo week. We are taking group photos of all the staff, learners, and various teams and committees. These are all going in the annual magazine, which is quite a big deal.

There were rules…

All staff were informed that they could wear whatever they wished, as long as it lined up with the colour palette of the magazine – this was shared with everyone. They actually chose really pretty shades of pink, peach, mauve, and sky blue.

The Support team was really happy we could skip the ghastly shirt. Until we couldn’t. Last week Thursday it was communicated to us that we would wear The Monstrosity. Of the whole institution, our group would be the only one that looked like ****.

The next day (Friday) I was at the hairdresser, and inspiration struck. I already have a short pixie cut that I colour ultra violet (basically very dark brown with a purple sheen). I revealed my plans to my stylist and she loved it.

After my haircut, I went shopping. Now one of the things touted as an ‘advantage’ of the ugly shirt was the array of colours it contained and how versatile it is, as “you can wear it with so many colours”. I just don’t think you were meant to wear all the colours together at once.

Now in my previous post, I ruined the photo when the sleeveless shirt unexpectedly revealed the tattoos on my left arm/shoulder.

She knew how it was gonna go down.

So I knew this year they would strategically place me with my right side facing forward (I know how they compose and space these photos by now, I’ve been here too long).

So imagine their surprise when I pitch up with an asymmetrical pixie cut – long bangs sweeping to the left, regular sideburns to the left. And the right side shaved in a buzz cut. All coloured bright purple.

Seriously, when I’m facing that way, I look… different.

So they try to subtly hide me in the middle, at the back, slightly behind the person to the left (to hide those pesky tattoos). Because if I’m facing forward, I look sufficiently professional.

She had it all planned out…

But I’m wearing platform heels (something I haven’t done in ten years) which makes me almost a hand taller than everyone else. I politely decline their request to take my shoes off. So I have to sit in the front.

Now you can clearly see my formal dress pants in bottle green. As well as my undershirt in vibrant teal.

My heels in pale, sparkly gold. And my wide salmon pink belt. Now, I didn’t waste any money on these items. Wearing any of them alone or in different combinations look fine, so I will be using them all.

No matter what they tried, they could not find a way to make the group look “coherently polished and professional”. Because one way they had a tatted up admin (if they photoshopped those out, I would complain politely but firmly).

They couldn’t win!

The other way they had an angry emo boy. One way the height was off. And the other way they had someone in an ensemble so garish it offended the senses.

This afternoon a while after work, we were informed that the group photo would be redone for the Support team. We were kindly requested to wear the colours as indicated in the colour palette tomorrow. In the group Whatsapp, I commented “Duly noted” and received a ton of PMs joking about it.

On the brighter side, I have received a ton of compliments on the hairstyle. Something so daring, in a sane environment I never would have tried it.

I’ve coloured it back to dark ultra violet (box colour yo, takes 20 minutes), which compliments my light pink dress nicely. And the wide salmon pink belt rounds it off well.”

Here’s how Reddit users reacted.

One person was impressed.

Another Reddit user was a lot to say.

This Reddit user asked a good question.

This individual had a lot to say.

Another person loved this story.

I think she handled this pretty well…

If you liked that post, check out this one about an employee that got revenge on HR when they refused to reimburse his travel.