The House Style is an honorific system used to denote rank amongst the employees of the Widsith Institute.
Symbols
A _ (underscore) denotes a clenched finger, while a \ (backslash) or / (slash) denotes a raised finger. The more fingers a clerk has clenched, the greater their pains, hence the greater their ranking. The symbols are written in combinations of four both before and after the title "Clerk." Thumbs are not counted because pigs only have four digits. It is not clear if the order of the symbols is important.
The highest rank is ____Clerk____, while the lowest is \\\\Clerk////. All new employees begin with the lowest rank, gathering pains through their disease promotions on their path to senior clerk.