Finally, it’s Friday. It’s casual day at work.
I’m wearing my jeans, running shoes, navy blue t-shirt with a Brooklyn logo. As per usual, I’m wearing a baseball cap which I usually removes once at work, but it’s casual Friday, so I decide to keep it on today. It’s navy blue and totally goes with what I’m wearing.
I start work at 8:30 am and my first 15 minute break is at 10:45. There are just two of us today in our 4 person cube, 2 other guys have booked the day off. It’s normally a quiet cube, it’s going to be even quieter today. Let’s work.
Around 8:45, some guy stopping at the photocopier looks in my direction and says: “Hey Michel, nice chapeau!”. I nod and go back to work. A minute later, the man who hardly ever speaks to me except to reply to my good morning salutations, or to wish me an insincere good evening when he leaves, turns to me and says: “You’re baseball hat matches your t-shirt”. I nod and go back to work.
At approximately 9:15, he turns to me again and out of nowhere says: “I’m giggling because baseball hats are not permitted” #25. I look up, not having heard any giggling, and say: “Oh well, I’ll take it off when I go to break”. He then continues: “Yeah, we had a meeting at the beginning of the summer to talk about dress codes and that was one of the items on the list”. I smile, roll my eyes a tad to the right and go back to my computer.
Closer to 10:00, I’m still typing at my computer, my back turned to everyone else in my cube when all of a sudden I hear his voice… right behind me. A bit startled I turn around: “jeez, I didn’t know you were standing there”. He says: “I just wanted wanted to show you this”. He hands me a memo dated from June 2007 with a list of do’s and don’ts regarding dress code at the office. I take it from him and say I’d read it in a bit. He goes back to his desk. A few minutes later, as if he’s choosing his words very carefully, he then goes: “Yeah, there this other guy who always wears a baseball cap too”. I don’t even turn around to look at him, I’m so bored with this already, but too stubborn to give into him yet, I keep the hat on.
Maybe 15 more minutes pass when he goes: “The funny thing too is the day they had us all in a meeting to talk about these dress codes, the person in charge going through each items on the list also pointed out that flip-flops weren’t permitted. That same day she was wearing a pair herself”. “Did you point it out to her?” I ask not really interestd. “No, I was too astounded” he replied with a hint of shock in his voice. I’m already back at typing.
2 minutes before my break, I finally take a look at this mystical memo, and see that baseball cap is the last item on the “forbidden” clothes for casual Friday. I hand him back the memo on my way out of the cube for break and thank him. I come back 15 minutes later without my hat on. He turns to me and says: “Oh, you’ve taken your baseball hat off!”. I just look at him a bit surprised and say: “I read the memo, I guess now I know it’s against the rules”. He then goes: “Personally I don’t care, people can do what they want”. Oh really….
I wanted my computer to leave my desk and shoot straight at his bald spot on the back of his head. Inside my head I screamed while staring at my computer: “Wingardium Leviosa!!!”.
Nothing happened.
We didn’t say a word again until the insincere good evening salutations at his 4:00pm departure.
You should have pointed out that being a prick wasn’t allowed on Casual Friday. Tell him you had a meeting earlier in the summer and decided his prickness was unallowed.
When he brought the policy over for review you should have skimmed it and said “Hum!”
And he would have said, “What?!”
And you could have said, “There’s nothing in here about child-like passive-aggressive behaivour!” And throw it back at him.
What a pussy. You should have kicked him in his perineum.