Employee says job gave her merch she can’t wear to work

A worker went viral on TikTok after calling her employer, who issued sweatshirts to her and her co-workers but told them they could not wear the company-branded clothing during work hours.

A TikToker named Kristen (@kristen_made_a_mistake) went viral after she called her employer because he issued sweatshirts to her and her co-workers, but then told them they couldn’t wear the company-branded clothing during work hours.

She discussed the “irony” of the move in two TikTok videos she stitched together.

@kristen_made_a_mistake #stitch with @kristen_made_a_mistake this is the hill where corporate pride literally dies??? #ridiculous #hrdepartment #corporateamerica #fypシ #managersbelike ♬ Original sound – Kristen

“They say, ‘No, you can’t wear that to work. It’s unprofessional, it’s not the uniform,’” Kristen explains in the first clip. The second video shows her experience trying to wear the sweater.

“I come into work today and I had the sweater, right? And I wore it because I was cold,” she says. “Well, I’ll put the sweater on and go outside. Literally the moment I step out of the office — this is a windowless prison cell of an office — the moment I step out, I meet a manager and he’s like, ‘You’ve got to take that off.’”

Then she explains the conversation she had with her manager about the work sweater. He reportedly told her, “We didn’t think you guys would actually wear them to work.”

Kristen replies, “Then where were we going to wear them?”

“And he said, ‘Well, I wear them at home. I wear them like out on the street, you know, to show company pride,” she recalls as he told her.

The TikToker couldn’t believe it. “You’re joking,” she says.

Kristen also notes that the company gave her the sweater because they “didn’t want me to be out of uniform.” Now that every employee has the sweatshirt, she claims that employees are not allowed to wear it.

“This is so stupid,” she concludes.

The Daily Dot reached out to Kristen via TikTok comment for more information.

Several viewers responded that they had it with work-related swag as well. “Legit tired of work merch. Just give us a $5 Starbucks gift certificate at this point because I’m sure the items cost her that much,” wrote one commenter.

Others said that like Kristen, they don’t exactly like promoting the company they work for when they’re not on the job. “I will not be wearing work clothes outside,” shared another. “I put patches on bags over the logo. I have a heavy sweatshirt that I only wear at home when I’m cold.”

It seems there are other companies that have applied similar policies to Kristen’s workplace, which makes it clear how much they don’t want their employees to rock their branded clothes. “My job gives us t-shirts as a ‘reward,’ but the policies don’t mandate t-shirts and you get credit for wearing the t-shirts they give you,” claimed another commenter.

Then there were those who thought Kristen’s company was just trying to get free publicity. “Basically, they want you to market their business for free but not wear the jacket inside,” summarized one user.

We crawl the web so you don’t have to.

Sign up for the Daily Dot newsletter to get the best and worst of the web delivered to your inbox every day.