It can be pretty annoying when employers and clients choose to focus on things that don’t affect work performance.

And this story from Reddit is a perfect example of what I’m talking about!

Read on and see what happened after some contractors were told their clothes weren’t nice enough by their clients.

Dress code.

“This didn’t happen directly to me, but a person I used to work with a couple of years back.

We worked as system consultants and would travel to the sites we were assisting during the phases of the projects that required being there in person.

As travel costs for these trips would directly impact the budget of the project or were passed on to the client, we were encouraged to travel as lightly and plan as much ahead as possible, choosing the lowest fare within reason and not go overboard with the hotel and meals.

Most of the time this worked well enough. If something was out of the ordinary, usually a quick call to whomever to explain the reason behind it would clear things up, our expenses would be approved and we’d carry on.

This was going to be different…

Until the company was hired by this one customer. People there seemed to operate out of some parallel world where the constraints of the real world would not apply.

Anyway, the usual policy of being cost-conscious also applied there and the controller from the customer made a point to let us know that they would not approve expenses our company or my “colleague”, who was a directly hired contractor, submitted, if we weren’t mindful of costs.

It inevitably happened that we flew in for our first in-person meeting and, booking the lowest available fare within a reasonable schedule, meant we flew without checked luggage and showed up in button down shirts, dark chinos and black slip on shoes.

Not the most formal attire, but certainly not in pajamas, and perfectly acceptable for every other client up to then.

This was going to be a problem…

Well, not for these people. We were taken aside and told that their C-Suite management was very taken aback that their provider couldn’t even manage to show up in suits, proper shoes and an ironed shirt.

I was stumped, but my contractor colleague retained his cool and simply asked for a quick two sentence email with the requirement for suits, ironed shirts and formal shoes. The client surprisingly obliged.

Queue our next trip and when coordinating with my colleague to book similar flight times and the same hotel, things got interesting.

First, we were flying in the evening before, second, we were checking luggage, third the no-frills hotel a little further out of town, but close enough to the client’s office wouldn’t do this time.

Since they wanted formal attire without any creases, we’d have to check in trolley, because two suits and a fresh shirt for each day plus a spare weren’t going to fit in our carry-on.

This was starting to add up…

And since we’d have to iron any creases out, we have to book a hotel that has ironing facilities, so the business hotel downtown it has to be this time. And the time spent ironing will be invoiced, or at least my contractor colleague will…

I’ll skip over the uneventful meeting and go straight to when my company’s invoice and the contractor’s expenses claim got rejected. Since we had the email requesting formal wear, we argued that this was done at the client’s request.

The controller wouldn’t budge. So the contractor immediately stopped working for the client and told my management as much, recommending I do the same.

After missing a deadline and a couple of remote meetings (all with a short but sweet answer that there was an outstanding payment), the controller relented, the C-suite dropped the dress code, and we dropped the client the moment the contract was done.

I have since been contacted by them again through LinkedIn in an attempt to recruit me. LOL.”

Check out what folks had to say about this on Reddit.

This person spoke up.

Another individual had a lot to say.

This Reddit user shared a story.

Another reader spoke up.

And this person was impressed.

Unnecessary complaints about trivial things at work never seem to go well, do they?

If you enjoyed that story, read this one about a mom who was forced to bring her three kids with her to apply for government benefits, but ended up getting the job of her dreams.