How so?

She's an intern and is there to learn her job not dictate policy.

I don't know this person enough to call her a "snowflake". From this quote, "I have never had a job before (I’ve always focused on school)", she seemed naive and made an error in judgment. All she has to do is swallow her pride, learn from the experience, and move on.

So the managers told them that dresscode was going to stay, no exceptions ... and apparently they didn't bother to ask the single person that wasn't conformrng?

It's not exactly uncommon that some people need to wear say orthopedic inlays and as such would be an exception for a time, or have other health issues or whatnot that allows them some more leeway. Even if someone feels like they'd risk ratting someone out on the boss if they asked the managers about it, you can always just ask the guy. Chances are he'd simply have told them that he's an exception because he's a former soldier, etc. pp.!

Instead, despite having been told clearly that there are no exceptions, they sign a petition!? As interns!?!?

That is incredibly naive. So naive in fact I'd say it's downright stupid. And the reason is evident, interns are expendable. Found that one out the hard way.

And honestly, as much as it looks like an overreaction to fire all signees (then again who knows how they performed, maybe it was simply the drop that spilled the barrel), I absolutely get the point behind it and can sympathize. A written proposal handed for the manager to look through on the side is one thing. Not likely to yield results, but you've made your point. A petition is another thing entirely. If you go up with a petition to your manager and want shit changed, no matter how nice it's worded you are effectively challenging the authority. That is dangerous at the best of times, but as an intern you're practically BEGGING to get fired with a move like that. Join a union if there is one for that kind of stuff (though I'm sure interns don't qualify for union membership). That's the kind of thing they were doing and businesses tend to have little tolerance outside the legally mandated for such stuff.

In the end, I suppose the interns actually got the better deal of it. Internship is over and that's a bummer, but they ought to have learned a valuable lesson in hierarchy. A lesson that is absolutely essential if you want to get ANYWHERE.


The whole conduct of those interns here was ... childish. One can only hope they learn the right lesson here for the future (and that lesson is not "interns are the buttmonkeys"). Ask around before trying to upset the status quo, because people will generally explain and the status quo is typically designed to be as it is for a reason!