Things can get tricky when the dress code rules are left up to the whims of a manager.

In today’s story, one employee with tattoos is told he needs to cover them up even though there are other employees who have tattoos and don’t have to cover them up.

He comes up with a clever way to get his way while also humoring the manager.

Let’s see how the story plays out…

Want me to cover up my tattoos? Sure. You never said what with.

Let’s set the scene.

So this was a few years back.

I have quite a few tattoos (basically all my chest, my upper back, top half sleeves and one on the inside of each forearm (about 15cm across)<

I worked for a cinema chain for a LONG time.

Always had tattoos.

He got a promotion.

I landed myself a management role.(more like a supervisor).

The standard uniform was black shirt and black trousers.

I prefer a short sleeved shirt due to being a bigger guy and cinemas being bloody hot.

He was told he needed to cover up his tattoos.

My site manager quite liked my tattoos and other quirks that I had.

My area manager however did not.

She would come in to the site, walk passed 8 other staff with full sleeve tattoos and make a b line straight to me.

Stating that my tattoos need covering up and I quote “they’re not offensive just a lot of people don’t like them”.

Now my tattoos aren’t offensive they’re just patterns.

He knew the rules.

She informed me that I had to wear long sleeves to cover them up otherwise I would face disciplinary action.

I had read the employee handbook a few times because of other petty stuff, so I know it was the manager’s decision (my site manager), but she decided to overrule it.

What she forgot was just because the normal retail staff HAD to wear black.

Management were allowed to wear white.

Just Nobody did cos it was hard to keep clean.

So what should I do?

Cue the malicious compliance…

I know – let’s go and buy the thinnest, cheapest, most see through white long sleeve shirt I can find.

Now if you could only see her face when she came in next when I’m basically wearing a shirt more see through than tracing paper.

(I’m talking you can see the colour shift from my individual chest hairs) and ALL my tattoos are on show for everyone to see while stood behind the tills talking to customers.

Needless to say I got to wear my short sleeved black shirt again after that.

It’s ridiculous to make one person cover up their tattoos when other people don’t have to cover up their tattoos.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story…

This reader was also told to cover up tattoos.

And yet another story about covering up tattoos.

This person doesn’t understand the point of covering up tattoos.

This person imagined a completely different story!

I bet she regretted telling him to cover up his tattoos!

You’ve gotta have a sense of humor.

If you liked this post, check out this story about an employee who got revenge on a co-worker who kept grading their work suspiciously low.