Tee-sing Your Coworkers

I am a shift lead at a fairly well-known video game store. Our company dress code says we should wear collared shirts or video-game-related tees, plain jeans or khakis, and some kind of close-toed shoe. As for shirts, our current boss prefers that we only wear collared shirts. I usually do both; I will wear a collared button-down over the gaming tee of my choice, but if I get too hot from running around the store doing my job, I’ll often swap to just the tee so I don’t pass out from heat exhaustion.

The following exchange occurs with a general associate on one of those occasions.

She is over an hour into her shift, speaking to a customer, looking over at me.

Associate: “Man, I wish I got to wear tee-shirts.”

I turn around to give her a long look, as she is wearing a floaty blouse, skinny jeans, and cowboy boots.

Me: “Really, [Associate]? Really?”

Associate: “You’re always wearing just tee shirts! I thought we were supposed to wear collared shirts.”

Me: “It does seem unfair when someone else isn’t following the dress code, doesn’t it?”

I’m not sure she ever caught on to the irony of her complaint.