"Clothes Make the Man"

Once, in my eighteenth year, I applied for a job with a popular convenience store and was accepted into their training program, which took place very far away from the store at which I would presumably be working.[1] The manger of the store then explained to me that there was a dress code—khaki pants and I think a button-down dress shirt; I can’t really remember—that I had to adhere to whilst going through said training.

Fair enough.

But then I showed up to my first day of training wearing off-white khaki pants and was told that I had to go home. Acknowledging my mistake but also finding this extreme strictness over khaki pants fucking ridiculous, I politely asked if I could take part in the first day of training while wearing my unacceptable off-white khaki pants, promising to definitely wear khaki pants the rest of the days. To me, this sounded reasonable; to them, it did not. I was denied and they sent me packing, so put off by their khaki-pants fanaticism, that I bagged the whole idea of working there.

[1] Does anyone else find this as strange as I do? No offense to anyone who has or does work at a convenience store, but is an elaborate training program in a remote place really necessary? Also, if you do take offense, read the rest of the story and I guarantee you you’ll feel vastly superior to me.