Nobody likes to work for a nitpicker…

That’s a fact, my friends!

And the guy who wrote this story on Reddit knows all about it.

Check out how he handled a nosey manager who gave him a hard about his belt, of all things…

Get started now!

Follow dress code, eh?

“Eons ago, I worked at Best Buy.

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

I was working in the cell phone/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.

He got a bad assistant manager…

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.

I wore my blue polo shirt, 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).

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”.

These two weren’t gonna get along…

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

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.

A ha!

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 to care about my belt or my shoes despite over a year of apathy. I informed Emily. She did not care.

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).

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.

Here we go again…

The day of the walkthrough came, and I roll into my spot at mobile sporting the same 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 out of ***** to give.

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 Bailey!

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?

This was gonna be good!

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

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

Me: Fantastic! Thank you, have a wonderful visit

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

Check out how Reddit users reacted to this story.

This person shared their thoughts.

Another reader chimed in.

This individual spoke up.

Another reader weighed in.

And this Reddit user had a lot to say.

I don’t think his manager is gonna give him a hard time anymore…

And a good thing, too.

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.