Well, well, well… if it isn’t a story where “malicious compliance” results in a hilarious outcome.

Because this man risked his job to prove a point to his school administration about unintended consequences of silly policies.

Let’s take a look!

“Male staff must wear dress shoes or boots.” 🙂

The superintendent of my old school was comically rigid in his views and seemed to have his mindset stuck in the 1960s.

He told us without a hint of irony that the only way students would respect us is if we were dressed professionally.

It was way too professional for school teachers!

Not even business casual was okay for him.

Faculty wearing sneakers or blue jeans was a legitimate cause for termination under our contract.

The dress code was too strict for his liking.

The male staff dress code demanded that we wear a long sleeve button-up shirt with a tie, dress pants with a belt, and dress shoes or boots every day.

There was, however, a note in our contract stating that the dress code could be “reasonably relaxed” if not possible due to a medical condition.

No details were provided beyond that.

He had a genuine reason…

Well, my wife and I moved apartments one weekend, and my feet hurt, so I made the executive decision that that was a medical condition and wore my sneakers to school on Monday.

I figured I could just lay low and keep my feet hidden from any pesky administrators, and I knew that my students wouldn’t care. (My students, in fact, thought it was awesome that part of my appearance was that of a real person lol.)

And the most expected thing happened.

Wouldn’t you know it, that was the day the superintendent and building administrators were coming around room by room to give the school board members a building tour!

So of course I had to get up and greet them.

Nobody said anything to me, but I did receive a nasty email from the assistant principal (with CC to the principal and superintendent) reminding me of the expectations set forth in the teacher dress code.

They didn’t consider talking to him about it but simply made an official warning.

No note in my file or anything, just a warning.

Fair enough, I suppose, but it made me mad that they didn’t even ask why I decided to wear sneakers and just sent me a warning with no chance to defend myself.

So… cue the malicious compliance.

If you noticed from my post title, the dress code just said dress shoes and “boots.”

He did something completely unexpected.

Well, are you familiar with Demonia boots?

I went ahead and bought the most over the top, bombastic pair of boots on their website.

I’m talking black leather with 3-in platforms, chains, studs, zippers, and straps galore.

They came about halfway up my shins, and of course I tucked my pants into them.

My students thought they were amazing and there are pictures of my feet all over various social media sites.

A few of my co-workers took it upon themselves to give me a stern warning, and some others gave me a high five.

There had to be some questions over the rebellious move.

After 4 days of wearing these boots with no incident, the principal ended up behind me in the hallway.

Rather quickly, he asked, “What the hell are those?”

So I told him they were “boots to ensure that I am in compliance with the dress code” and kept walking.

That afternoon, I received an email from him stating that I was intentionally being unprofessional and this would be documented in my record and further dress code offenses could lead to disciplinary action or suspension.

I immediately got in touch with my union who quickly dealt with that in my favor, since they were indeed boots.

He got the validity he needed to continue wearing the boots…

I also explained to the union that I only did this because of the nasty email I received for wearing sneakers with my sore feet.

The union rep immediately smirked, told me she was unfamiliar with that rule, and told me to go ahead and wear whatever footwear I wanted and that if anybody had a problem, I could just claim I had sore feet.

Long story short, I ended up wearing my sneakers every single day for the entire rest of the school year and never had another problem.

He did start his own little movement.

My favorite part of this is that I inspired a few other rebels, and by the time I left that school, there were a solid 10 of us that were just routinely wearing sneakers or other non-dress code compliant footwear in blatant disregard of the dress code every single day.

Good times!

Definitely a legacy that I left behind in that school 🙂

That sounds fun! But this man risked his livelihood for a pair of boots.

Let’s find out if the Reddit community thinks that’s a good idea.

This user thinks its sad the man didn’t get more creative with his revenge.

That’s true! This person supports wearing comfy shoes to work.

Oops, this person thinks the guy was a little unreasonable with his maliciousness here.

This person has a similar pair of boots so they love the story!

Unions all the way! This person knows why they’re made.

Whatever the dress code, it should at least be comfy!

This school needs to re-think its policies.

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