Imagine working outside during the height of summer and being expected to wear long sleeves AND pants.

That’s what this man was being subjected to, but he refused to comply…

At least in the way his manager expected him to.

Let’s read the story.

“Don’t want to wear pants? Then you can go home” Alright, bet.

The summer after my senior year in high school, I worked collecting shopping carts at a grocery store.

I lived on the coast so it was hot as hell during the summers.

It was one of those “uppity” grocery chains so we had a pretty strict dress code (white long-sleeve dress shirt, tucked in to khaki dress slacks).

Long sleeves and pants by the coast? Sounds like a bad idea.

Because I worked outside a good portion of the day, management let me wear khaki shorts and a short sleeve button up.

All was fine until towards the end of the summer, we got a new general manager who was much stricter on policy than the old one had been.

When I came in for my first shift with the new manager, he called me in to his office.

It was about the shorts.

This is (vaguely) how our conversation went, from what I can remember.

Manager: There have been some changes. Your uniform is clearly lacking in several areas and I’ll need you to correct it. We’ll need you to go home and change in to pants and the provided long-sleeve button up.

Me: (thinking he had mistaken me for someone who works inside) Actually sir, I collect carts so I’m allowed to wear shorts.

Tough luck, kid.

Manager: Son, I said what I said. Either you adhere to the dress code or you go home.

Me: So I don’t have a choice but to wear pants, in 90+ degree heat in the height of summer?

Manager: That is the policy. And being smart with me is not getting us off on the right foot.

Me: Alright then, I’m going home.

Manager: Good. Thank you for your understanding.

He made his choice.

I walked out of his office fully understanding that he expected me to actually come back.

But his ultimatum was to either wear pants or not come to work, so I chose the latter.

I was going away to college in a couple of weeks so I chose not to evaporate for 6 hours a day for $7.25 an hour.

I was at home about an hour later, chilling, talking to my friends on Xbox 360 party chat and I got a call from my manager, furious.

He doubled down.

He was asking me why the hell I was taking so long, that we were swamped and desperately needed a cart collector.

I told him I wasn’t coming back.

Of course he didn’t take this well.

He told me to get back there right then or I would be fired, which I responded with “Well, I thought that was the idea”.

He was absolutely dumbfounded.

He wasn’t expecting him to comply the way he did.

He hadn’t expected me to call his bluff on something he considered to be so inconsequential (because he wasn’t the one outside pushing carts in the heat).

He tried to talk me into coming back but I told him he gave me two options, and I had chosen option 2.

I never went back in to work.

They did find a replacement…

I found out that the cart collectors were only made to wear pants for a few days after that until the new manager relented and let them wear shorts.

I never got a call with an apology from him but I didn’t care, I enjoyed the time off before going to college.

Why rock the boat over pants?

Let’s see what Reddit has to say about this.

A reader shares their thoughts.

Yup.

This is awesome (it also should be the bare minimum).

Another reader chimes in.

Someone shares a similar story.

Satisfying, indeed.

Common sense first, arbitrary rules later.

His manager should thank him for not passing out and then suing the company.

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.