Petty rules have a funny way of backfiring when you enforce them on the wrong person.

So, what would you do if your manager ordered you to take off your sweater because it wasn’t “corporate approved,” even though no customers could see you?

Would you push back to get your way? Or would you follow the rule strictly so he could see how absurd it was?

In the following story, one employee finds himself in this situation and turns it around on his boss.

Here’s how it all went down.

My Jacket Isn’t corporate approved? Neither are any of the other ones here.

While working in the back of the store, my partner was wearing his personal sweater; he was between a break room and a freezer and couldn’t be seen by any customers.

His manager, who’d just arrived, immediately got on his case.

He tried to explain reasonably that he’d have it on for maybe fifteen minutes max and remove it before going back out onto the floor.

The manager refused and began pestering him and telling him he needed to remove it immediately, under the reasoning that it “Wasn’t corporate approved.”

Suddenly, he realized several things weren’t corporate-approved.

Then, my boyfriend realized a few things. The jackets they use for their coolers? Not corporate-approved.

The gloves they use in the same coolers? Not corporate-approved.

The communications system they use to talk amongst themselves in the store? Not corporate-approved.

An hour or so later, my partner is going about his janitorial and stocking duties, having to work in the cooler to restock; every five to ten minutes, he’d come out of the freezer, shivering and trying to warm up.

After about twenty minutes of this, the same manager wandered over to him critically, “What are you doing?”

The manager thought he was being ridiculous.

He said, “Stocking the freezer, but it’s pretty cold in there.”

The manager asked, “Well, why don’t you go grab a jacket and some gloves?”

He said, “Oh, because if you actually read our employee book surrounding our uniform, these technically aren’t corporate approved either!”

The manager grumbled and wandered off, only coming to find him in another hour and a half.

By now, the manager is even more frustrated.

The manager said, “I’ve been trying to reach you over the communications system for the last twenty minutes. Why aren’t you responding?”

He replied, “Oh! That’s because they’re actually not corporate-approved, unfortunately!”

Finally, his manager asked, “You’re really going to be this petty?”

Her boyfriend stuck it out long enough and won.

My boyfriend responded, “I don’t know what you’re talking about, I’m just following corporate standards!”

It went like this for his entire seven-hour shift.

At the end of his shift, the manager approached him with an exasperated look and said, “I get it. Okay. I need to know how to pick my battles.”

My boyfriend said, “You absolutely do.”

Wow! That’s one way to teach the manager a lesson.

Let’s check out if the folks over at Reddit have ever done anything like this.

This would’ve been the perfect comeback.

So true.

Here’s an interesting point.

This person likes that the manager learned a lesson.

Good for him!

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.