When you work in retail, you will often have a dress code that you have to follow in order to ensure customers can recognize you.

Most of the time, accessories like belts and shoes aren’t strictly enforced, even if they are a part of the dress code.

When the Best Buy worker’s manager in this story tried to force him to wear a different belt, he went to upper management to put her in her place.

Follow dress code, eh?

Eons ago, I worked at Best Buy.

Best Buy can be a great place to work.

It was my third real job, all tech adjacent or directly related, so I was very comfortable there.

I was working in the cellphone/mobile department, and after a year or two I had quickly established that I had experience selling and troubleshooting phones and carrier issues. Eventually I’d have trained all of my coworkers and my assistant manager on the area.

A bad manager coming in can make a job really go downhill.

Well, as with retail, managers come and go, and the assistant manager I trained left only to be replaced with my nemesis Emily.

Now, for context, I live in a city renowned for being utterly informal and lax, that culture went with the jobs too.

Hey, that sounds like a fun way to dress.

I wore my blue polo, I wore my black pants, however, I rather enjoyed whimsical belts (typically featuring star wars, Spider-Man, and Deadpool), and I owned a nice comfy pair of work boots.

Emily did not like me. To be fair, I did strut around like I knew everything in the department (because I did).

She is just trying to establish her authority it seems like.

The first day she was assistant managing me, she attempted to inject herself into a transaction I was completing to ‘correct’ me about a carrier issue that I was navigating.

Her ‘correction’ was less than accurate, and in my typical friendly fashion I clarified “I know, but I find that if I contact [our rep] they can resolve this pretty quickly”.

She really did not like that, and from that point on, she took umbrage with my work clothes.

Now this is just petty.

Before I knew it, I had gotten a warning, and then a write up for belts and shoes I had been wearing for over a year at work issue-free. I complained as such, and she referred me to the work dress code.

You all know how this song and dance goes; I studied the dress code meticulously. Much to my chagrin, she was right– the dress code did state that plain black belts and black shoes were typically required.

Always read the entire policy.

Had I stopped reading there, I’d have been beaten- but the dress code did have ONE additional clause- The GM gets final say on all dress code disputes.

Irritated that I seemed to be the only person nitpicked so hard about the dress code, I went to my (and assistant manager’s) direct manager, Mark. Mark did not spontaneously begin care about my belt or my shoes despite over a year of apathy. I informed Emily. She did not care.

Emily better be careful with which battles she is choosing.

So I went to the GM, Paul. Paul, much to my surprise, also did not spontaneously decide that the store’s very well-being hinged on my purchasing another belt. I informed Emily. She did not care.

However, by this point, she was definitely getting more irritated with me and would dress me down every time I came in with the “wrong” belt (which was daily).

Black Friday can be crazy at a retail store.

Eventually, holiday season started rolling around, and our store was going to be the Black Friday demo store for our region. That meant that various Best Buy Bigwigs, most of whom likely hadn’t mingled with the peasantry for years were coming by for a walkthrough.

The day of the walkthrough came, and I roll into my spot at mobile sporting the same dang Spider-Man belt I had been wearing for over a year. Emily began her daily lecture about it. Unfortunately for her, I was pretty well done caring about what she thought of my belt.

Wow, this guy is brave.

Mid-lecture, I spied a bunch of people who were slightly over-dressed for Best Buy wandering around with the GM (we’re typically a “business formal” kind of Best Buy) for those confused, this is a joke I recalled that our GM had been sweating about the VP of Best Buy showing up, so I rolled up to the most important looking person in the group, around whom the rest were orbiting and introduced myself.

Me: Hiya, I’m BaileyTheNerd!

I bet he was surprised that someone came up to him like this.

VP: Hello? I’m (vice president of Best Buy).

Me: I figured, sorry, but I was hoping you could answer a quick question for me!

VP: Sure?

Me: I’ve had some disagreements with someone here about dress code, do you find this belt overly offensive?

Well, there you have it.

VP: I don’t really care about your belt?

Me: Fantastic! Thank you, have a wonderful visit

Honestly, this move was out of line, I wouldn’t have believed he did it either.

I strolled back over to the mobile department to find Emily, slack jawed, glaring at me. I informed her that the VP of Best buy was not offended by my belt!

I got a stern talking to about not embarrassing the store in front of fancy high up people, but after that, she stopped nagging me about my belt and boots.

Good riddance.

Eventually she moved to a different store, and I got out of retail.

Wow, that was a bold move. I bet the store manager wasn’t happy about it either though.

Let’s see what the people in the comments have to say about what he did.

Here is a former Best Buy employee who loved the story.

It was a real power move on his part.

Yup, Emily was on a power trip.

She’ll never learn.

Dress codes can be pretty weird.

It’s just a belt lady, back off.

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.