But the fun crowd at retailer Cotton On have told staff they need to "keep it real" or face the sack.

A leaked copy of Cotton On's code of conduct tells its staff it's "unacceptable" when working with colleagues or customers, to be anything but "fun" and "keeping it real". No ifs or buts. Failure to do so can result in being fired, including at the company's Bendigo store. 

Less well defined in the document is what "keeping it real" means. The Online Slang Dictionary tells us that to "keep it real" is to "stay true to one's self; to resist the temptation to be fake".

One claim is that the origins of the phrase emerged out of hip-hop culture in New York in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Employment lawyers, no doubt, would enjoy an unfair dismissal case in the Fair Work Commission for a worker sacked for not being real or fun. 

But executives at Cotton On are clearly serious.

Under a section titled headed "unacceptable conduct" it warns "any team member found engaging in any of the below acts will be subject to disciplinary action which may include counselling, warnings, or instant dismissal".

That includes not following Cotton On Group's values such as "Fun, Entrepreneurial, Keeping it real, Family, Ethical and Engaged."

A Cotton On spokeswoman would not say if any staff had been counselled or fired for not keeping it real or being fun. She said the company – which has more than 19,000 staff – is built on a "solid set of values" which underpin its culture and guide "expected behaviours within the group".

"If a team member were to be found to behave in a manner or represent themselves in a way that was not honest, genuine, respectful and transparent (for example) then yes – we would consider those behaviours to be a misalignment with our value of Keeping it Real."

That would, she said, be addressed in the "appropriate manner". Failure to be "Fun", she said, related to being not respectful, or in good faith or spirit and unpleasant. "Obviously all situations are based on context and individual circumstances."