A woman has taken malicious compliance to the next level after she was told she wasn't allowed to have pink hair for her job.
Nowadays, work dress codes and rules around what you can have on your body are a lot more relaxed than they used to be, with most workplaces being pretty lenient about tattoos and hairstyles, within reason.
However, Emily Benschoter found out her workplace had a bit of an issue with the fact she had dyed pink hair after she got the job without an in-person or video interview.
She revealed that she told bosses about her hair color before starting her front-of-house role in the hospitality interview and found out that having pink hair was a big no-no for them. Thankfully, she had a rather novel solution to working around it...
Instead of dying her hair - or looking for another job - Emily decided that she would wear wigs in natural hair colors each day to comply with the dress code.
The 29-year-old would not only wear natural-colored wigs, but would ensure that they were pretty terrible wigs to boot, meaning far more attention was drawn to the state of her hair than it ever would have been had she been allowed to rock her real hair in all its pink glory.
She took to TikTok to share a series of videos showcasing her malicious compliance, including one of her "hyping herself up" to wear a curly black wig for her day at work.
One follower commented: "have they said anything about the wigs yet," to which she replied: "Not yet.. emphasis on yet. I feel it coming."
She also showcased a series of other wigs in her arsenal, including a pretty awful blonde highlighted bob, as well as a founding father-style white number, and even a Napoleon Dynamite-esque curly mop.
Emily added: "When corporate won't allow my pink hair I serve malicious compliance by wearing terrible wigs."
She has given all of her wig different names and has even set up a 'wigshlist' allowing her followers to keep her stocked with a plentiful supply of terrible wigs to change up her look each day, while adhering to the code set by corporate.
Emily told Newsweek of her decision to go to such extreme measures to keep her pink hair: "Dying my hair for a job I work at for 40 hours per week wasn't an option.
"I am a self-expressive person and I feel very confident with pink hair so I came up with a solution to keep the job and my hair."
She added: "It's dehumanizing that I can't be accepted at face value because my hair is a non-traditional color. It's so superficial that my hair color is an obstacle.
"I prefer my pink hair, it's me to my core. So now I purposely pick wacky wigs which is quite funny."
Emily also revealed that she prefers the worst wigs she can find as it opens up conversations with customers "who think it is insane that I have to cover my pink hair."
We can't wait to see which wig will ultimately push corporate over the edge.
