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“Rules are good. Rules help control the fun,” said Monica Geller in Season 5 of Friends. And she might be right; rules are indeed good and important as they help avoid chaos in so many situations. However, similarly to Monica, some rules can be too much.

Examples of rules taken one step too far have been discussed by members of the Quora community. In a recent thread, they’ve shared office rules that made them say "You gotta be kidding me", which we have gathered on this list for you to browse. Scroll down to find them and see for yourself how bizarre some rules can get.

This post may include affiliate links.

#1

This is a million years ago when I was young and working as a secretary (pre admin assistant days) in a firm where the management was all male. The non management staff was about 50/50 male and female. In the coffee room there was a rota on the wall showing which woman employee’s turn it was to clean the coffee room up at the end of the day, make the coffee etc. I was only 22 but I immediately said to my (male) boss, why are only the women on this list? The men use the coffee room too, why don’t they have to take turns cleaning it up? There was a lot of kercluffle because no one had ever objected before. The men were indignant, THEY had to do ‘women’s work’??? Finally the rota came down and the new policy was in place: everyone cleaned up after themselves. The women refused to clean up the men’s coffee cups, so if they left them dirty in the sink, that’s where they were next morning.

Small victories, decades ago.

Joyce Wright Report

Final score:
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Pickles, Pennies, & Ponies
Pickles, Pennies, & Ponies
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

One of my supervisors would just throw the dishes/coffee mugs away if they were not put in the dishwasher at the end of the day by the owners of them.

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#2

30 Weird Office Rules That Made People Say ‘You Gotta Be Kidding Me’ In 1967, heyday of the tiny miniskirt, writing on the chalk board above eye level meant holding the back hem of the skirt down wth one hand.

Most of the younger female teachers solved this by wearing pants.

We got a new, young, male principal, who announced at a staff meeting that all female teachers were to wear skirts.

The next day, every single female teacher showed up in pants, even those who had to go out to buy a pair. This wasn't even a planned group action.

Not another word was ever said.

Stephanie Burke , biasciolialessandro Report

Final score:
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#3

30 Weird Office Rules That Made People Say ‘You Gotta Be Kidding Me’ "'Outside a formally scheduled meeting, employees are not allowed to talk to anyone for more than two minutes.' This ended quickly after the staff started maliciously complying by just turning and walking away abruptly from managers and executives at the end of two minutes anytime they stopped to talk to them."

William Eisenhauer , DragonImages Report

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JK
JK
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Perfect example of play stupid games, win stupid prizes!

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#4

30 Weird Office Rules That Made People Say ‘You Gotta Be Kidding Me’ When I was promoted to a senior manager at a major public accounting firm, it meant a new office, a piece of wall art, and a plant. Our ‘plant service’ gave me a plant that I discovered liked a bit more light and a bit more water so I moved it closer to my window and gave it additional water beyond what the plant service gave it in their weekly visit. The plant thrived.

One day the plant service showed up with a measuring tape, and then started to take my plant away. I asked why and was told only Partners could have a plant over 30 inches tall.

Ellen Sharon , David Goehring Report

Final score:
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Sue Denham
Sue Denham
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Sounds to me like the partners had some insecurity issues going on there.

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#5

30 Weird Office Rules That Made People Say ‘You Gotta Be Kidding Me’ I worked in college athletics and we had an athletics director that was literally a control freak nutjob. One day she sent the staff an email saying: “Effective immediately, if you leave the building for ANY reason during the day, you are required to email me prior to leaving, telling me where you are going, why you’re leaving, and when you are returning.” Wait, what? Do we work in a prison? Fed up with the totalitarian state, one of my coworkers decided to answer fire with fire: “I’m leaving to go up to the library to take a [poop]. They have the cleanest toilets on campus. This might take a while. I’ll be back when I’m done.” The next day, the new rule was revoked.

Ira Thor , jm_video Report

Final score:
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#6

30 Weird Office Rules That Made People Say ‘You Gotta Be Kidding Me’ Not quite an office rule, but…

In my early days working in a lab we were told we had to put expiry dates on all of our chemicals. As the most junior this task was given to me.

One month later we had an inspection. The report came through that I’d not put an expiry date on the bottle of sand. This is used for heating baths (you fill a container with sand and heat that container - it spreads the heat evenly) so it was irrelevant how old it was. However, anything to keep the peace so I put an expiry date on it.

The following month’s report had another complaint. About the sand. “But it’s got an expiry date on it! Was my plea.

“Yes, but October 15th 65,000,1978 isn’t realistic.” Came the reply.

“But that sand is already 200 million years old. It’s not going to go off before then.”

The powers that be issued an edict - nothing was to have an expiry date more than 3 years hence. So I was told I had to order new sand every three years in case the old stuff had gone off. You gotta be kidding me.

One day I’ll tell you about the edict they issued saying that pi was exactly 3.14

Frank Hollis , Janneke Cobb Report

Final score:
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#7

30 Weird Office Rules That Made People Say ‘You Gotta Be Kidding Me’ The office manager decreed that only detectives could have lined paper pads as she believed they needed them. As a prosecutor I used such pads in court. When told I couldn’t have them anymore I simply made a template of lined paper on the pc, with nice wide gaps between lines, photocopied off 500 sheets to staple them as pads. She saw me stapling the pads and had a hissy fit at the cost - we got lined pads!

Alan English , Jose Camões Silv Report

Final score:
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#8

30 Weird Office Rules That Made People Say ‘You Gotta Be Kidding Me’ A friend at work used to like to make herself a cup of instant oatmeal when she came in, using the boiling water tap. Then she would sit with the cup on her desk and have a spoonful here and there while she worked.

Then a supervisor told her she was not allowed to eat at her desk.

But others in the office often had their own mugs that they sipped, so she asked, why could she not have a cup at her desk while everyone else did? Well, coffee, tea, hot chocolate, that is different, because it’s not food. It’s drink. But some people made cup-o-soup or ramen noodles in their cups; wasn’t that food? Well, yes, that was food, but it didn’t need a spoon.

What? That’s right, you can drink ramen noodles or instant soup without a spoon, but oatmeal requires you to lift it to your mouth with a spoon. Mugs without spoons? Ok. Mugs with spoons? Verboten.

I would have just made my oatmeal with more water so that I didn’t need a spoon, but she went to HR and complained. HR told her she could only have food at her desk (food defined as being needed to be eaten with a utensil) if she had a medical condition that required her to eat throughout the day. So she got her doctor to provide a note that she had low blood sugar and required food at her desk.

Can we all just take a moment here and realize how ridiculous this is?

Lisa Newall , thananit_s Report

Final score:
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Mad Dragon
Mad Dragon
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1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I'm reading this at work while currently eating my bowl of mac and cheese. Our rules for food at our desk are simple. Don't bring anything strong-smelling and if there are onions on your sandwich please throw the wrapper out in the trash outside, not in the trashcan inside.

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#9

30 Weird Office Rules That Made People Say ‘You Gotta Be Kidding Me’ Banned all coffeemaking devices. And all outside coffee from home, restaurants or coffee shop. Charged $1 per generic Keurig pod and $.50 in a coin operated machine.

The machine provided only enough water for about 2/3rds of a cup.

In my experience, nothing is a clearer indication of a company's character and culture than their coffee arrangements.

This was one of the most aggressively toxic workplaces I've ever seen. Truly horrible.

Ben Skirvin , Portland Seminary Report

Final score:
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Daft Mosquito
Daft Mosquito
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I suspect management got a kickback from the vending machine operator.

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#10

30 Weird Office Rules That Made People Say ‘You Gotta Be Kidding Me’ I worked at a place that instituted a new policy where if you were 10 minutes late, you were docked an hour. I have no idea if this was legal as it was in the early 80s and I didn’t know what the rules were then.

Anyway, I mentioned to a manager that if I was going to be more than 10 minutes late to work, I wouldn’t bother showing up until I was an hour late as I wasn’t going to work for free. He didn’t grok what I was saying. Naturally, no one was even less than an hour late after that. It didn’t take management long to realize their error and change the policy.

Bart Crunk , peus80 Report

Final score:
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#11

30 Weird Office Rules That Made People Say ‘You Gotta Be Kidding Me’ There was one rule that I could never get behind at the place I worked around 2007.

"The playing of games on company equipment is strictly prohibited."

I never really understood why they had it in my contract. I didn't like it. I didn't agree with it. In fact nobody on my entire team agreed with it. So much so that we frequently broke it on multiple occasions, and we didn't care. Some times, at times of high stress (like when a major deadline was looming) we felt we “just needed a bit of play time”. D'you know what I mean? In fact, we probably broke this rule even MORE when deadlines were looming! Clearly my employer either didn't notice, or chose to let it slip under the rader, because they never raised it in the 3 years I was there. I've never been much of a rebel, but I really felt like one then.

The company was called Bandai Namco. My job was as a Video Game Programmer.

Christopher Beckford Report

Final score:
111points
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#12

30 Weird Office Rules That Made People Say ‘You Gotta Be Kidding Me’ When I was working as a television anchor and reporter in local news in the 1980s, our general manager set a dress code rule. Anyone reporter on camera in the studio or in the field had to be in business attire — suit and tie for men, business suit for women.

Fair enough.

But one day I’m doing a stand up from the scene of a breaking news story. It’s recorded — not live. I’m halfway through my spiel when my videographer slowly leans away from the viewfinder, shaking his head.

“It ain’t working, is it,” I asked.

“Nope,” Chad said. “Nobody wears a suit and tie to a forest fire.”

The rule was rescinded that afternoon.

Terry Turner , Vladdeep Report

Final score:
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#13

30 Weird Office Rules That Made People Say ‘You Gotta Be Kidding Me’ I worked at a place that made everyone sing happy birthday once a month to all the people who had a birthday that month.

If you didn’t show, you got disciplined. And you had to sing. The HR Director scanned the room to make sure everyone was singing. If you didn’t, you got spoken to.

It was the most assinine, morale-back-firing policy I have ever experienced. That place was a nightmare.

Bonus “you gotta be kidding me”:

The boss there tried to make an employee get rid of their car because it was nicer than his, and that didn’t “give the right impression”.

Sarah Winston , Pressmaster Report

Final score:
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#14

30 Weird Office Rules That Made People Say ‘You Gotta Be Kidding Me’ My husband went out to the food truck to get a soft pretzel. Others took smoke breaks so he thought he was entitled to a pretzel break. Human Resources told him if he wanted a break, he needed to take up smoking

Karen Parkhill , Kari Söderholm Report

Final score:
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Linda van der Pal
Linda van der Pal
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Time for chocolate cigarettes (chocolates shaped like cigarettes, wrapped in paper to make it look like a cigarette)

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#15

30 Weird Office Rules That Made People Say ‘You Gotta Be Kidding Me’ “To be on time you must be in the building 15 min before your official shift start. You must be downstairs ready 10 min before.” Which meant prepping your area, getting things ready, all off the clock. If you were a supervisor or was be on the floor 15 min early. If you didn’t adhere you were marked late, 2 or more in a 30 day period you were written up.

it seemed kind of fishy and all the management had “it’s just how things are” attitude.

me and a few others formally complained to home office about it. After a few weeks we got an email saying “You may clock in and begin your shift at its planned start time, but we’d sure appreciate if you showed some care and prep work ahead of time to ensure blah blah blah.” Yeah I’m sure they’d appreciate it, that’s free labor.

Tyler Victor , Pressmaster Report

Final score:
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Anne
Anne
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

And it's illegal. Anything mandatory needs to be on the clock.

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#16

30 Weird Office Rules That Made People Say ‘You Gotta Be Kidding Me’ At a company many years ago (early 1980s), I used post-it notes to mark comments on computer print-outs. A supervisor saw me doing this and admonished me by stating that post-it notes were reserved for management.

I responded with the fact that I had not known about that rule. He told me to stop and return the rest of the booklet to the supply cabinet.

I stated that I had actually purchased the pack at the UofMinnesota bookstore and they were actually mine.

…..crickets.

David Ecale , gdsteam Report

Final score:
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Sue Denham
Sue Denham
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Well then, you can only buy your own in white; not in pretty colours.

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#17

30 Weird Office Rules That Made People Say ‘You Gotta Be Kidding Me’ Finally, "One company I worked for required the window blinds remain at a prescribed distance from the floor, and be at a specific angle. They literally had 'office décor police' go office to office and measure the blinds to ensure that you were following the rules. I had the audacity to try to do work by closing the blinds one day to prevent glare on my computer screen. The CEO saw it and threatened to demote me."

John Smith , Ivan Radic Report

Final score:
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Sue Denham
Sue Denham
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Do these people not have a small country, or even just a suburb, to be the dictator of?

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#18

We had an “office manager” in my early days in a government office role. One day, I snagged a pen from the supply room and was using it to write notes at my desk. It happened to have green ink, which was atypical but I didn't care.

The OM wandered by one day and started chastising me for using green ink in my notes. I said, “a” who cares if it's green, and “b” I got the pen from the supply room that she managed. She started raising her voice, causing a scene, repeating “Green ink is only for Auditors!”.

I calmly asked “Why do you stock green pens in the supply room when we have no auditors in this office, in fact, no auditors on staff in the entire department?” She went silent. At that time, there was a Department-wide anti-waste/efficiency initiative underway, so I said “I think I'm going to file a submission to the “Paydirt Program””!

She turned on her heel and left. “Mysteriously” all the green pens disappeared from the supply room. I never learned why we had stocked green pens that nobody was allowed to use. Gotta love government bureaucrats.

Clay Verman Report

Final score:
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#19

30 Weird Office Rules That Made People Say ‘You Gotta Be Kidding Me’ One place I worked temp at told me I could only go to the bathroom at break time. WTF?!

I told the manager my bladder is not on their clock and I will not risk a urinary tract infection or an embarrassing accident holding it in for hours at a time. He insisted. I got my purse and jacked and went to the bathroom and right out the door. Turned out I was in the early stages of pregnancy which is why I was going so much, but I didn’t know that yet. All I knew is I had to go and bad, and holding it was not an option! lol

Deborrah Cooper , tampatra Report

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Robert T
Robert T
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I've had this when I worked on a supermarket checkout. Somebody had to come to relieve you if you needed to go to the toilet. You couldn't just close your till and go. It was always a bit of a major inconvenience, so we just went when we were on our breaks whether we really needed to or not. Something my family refers to as an "investment widdle", usually in relation to motorway services!

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#20

At the time this happened I had worked for the same company for over 20 years. Following a remodeling of the area, I was assigned an office in the renovated sector. About two weeks later some construction workers show up with 2x4’s and sheet rock. The issue? They had measured my new office and it had 20 square feet too much space for a manager at my level. So they were going to build a 2 foot wide by 10 foot long “dummy wall” to deprive me of the 20 sq feet.

i appealed the decision, but the wall went up! The only concession they made was to put a door in the wall so I had a “closet” of sorts.

Stu Report

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#21

30 Weird Office Rules That Made People Say ‘You Gotta Be Kidding Me’ "Ink pens were locked in the boss’s office. Everyone received one ink pen. To get another pen, you had to turn in a non-working ink pen. You couldn’t just turn in any ink pen, it had to be the type you were given. You were allowed one ink pen every three months whether or not your old pen was still working. The boss ordered other supplies as needed but kept one pen from each order so he could match them up to keep people from turning in random pens."

Abe Goodman , redspotted Report

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JoNo
JoNo
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My first job I had to use a lead pencil until only an inch was left, and show the boss to get a new one. And the paper roll in an adding machine (back then) when used up had to be threaded back through the machine to use the other side. Both were to save money.

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#22

30 Weird Office Rules That Made People Say ‘You Gotta Be Kidding Me’ All repairs on office equipment required three estimates. Our printer broke and the receptionist called three companies to come and give us estimates. All three charged a $200 service call plus repairs making the minimum possible $600 plus repairs. If a repair company was called back to make the repairs it would and additional $200 for service call plus repairs for a total of $800 plus repairs.

The first guy came out and said he could do the repairs for a total of $400. The receptionist did quick math and determined that $400 was $200 cheaper than just getting three estimates so she had the first guy fix it figuring she would be praised for saving $400 for two more estimates plus repairs.

Nope, the office manager lady chewed her a new A hole stating the rule was to get three estimates before allowing any work to be done. She could not comprehend that they saved about $600 or more.

Jim , NomadSoul1 Report

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Robert T
Robert T
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Who the hell charges to come and give an estimate for a job? Charging to diagnose a problem, yes, but to estimate for a basic job, no.

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#23

30 Weird Office Rules That Made People Say ‘You Gotta Be Kidding Me’ Blue pens are bad no blue pens. Blue pens are forbidden.

—but—

Only forbidden in the software team and QA department. Everybody else can use blue or black or whatever color they want.

Why?

We were a medical device company and submitted validation paperwork to the FDA. This was back in the 90’s when everything was done on paper records. Apparently, one FDA auditor suggested that blue is bad because some brand of copy machine (I think it was xerox) couldn't pick up the blue pen color. We didn't use those kinds of machines but it didn't matter. The FDA auditor says something and it becomes gospel, no questions asked. It made no sense, didn't matter.

We spent more time redoing data sheets and other paperwork because of wrong pen color. The company kept buying them and stocking them in the supply cabinet. I suggested that we should stop buying them in a staff meeting and everybody looked at me like I had the heads. So we just kept buying them and redoing paperwork.

Dumbest rule ever.

Harrison McFarland Report

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MaireC
MaireC
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

That's an odd practice, because I worked in Doc Control for a Medical Device company and the entire company could only use blue pens. So it shows if something is photocopied, so the signatures etc would be black

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#24

My former boss went to one of those time management seminars and came back full of the most impractical ideas ever: all aimed at increasing my productivity. The wackiest idea was that I should always have everything in a specific spot on my desk. He then proceeded to use masking tape to show me where the stapler, pens, paper clips etc were to be put. Problem was I’m left handed and he set everything up right handed. Instead of pre printing forms I used dozens of times a day I had to print out a single form each time one was needed.

He went out of his way to make my job less efficient until things came to a head and he fired me. He then installed his girlfriend in my job. I was so happy to leave that micromanaging micro brained boss.

Mary Fisher Report

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Not-a-Clue (she/her)
Not-a-Clue (she/her)
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Part of good workstation health & safety practice is for people to be able to customise their desk layout. We're not all the same size, so don't have the same reach, quite apart from other accessibility issues. Expecting everyone to work in exactly the same way is inefficient, unsafe and potentially discriminatory.

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#25

30 Weird Office Rules That Made People Say ‘You Gotta Be Kidding Me’ A company I worked for had an office secretary that brought in a ridiculous rule regarding sugar. Because our sugar consumption was so high we had to make our coffee then take it to her for the sugar. She would unlock her cupboard and dispense some sugar for you. Ridiculous! I simply brought my own sugar to work.

Brennan Stark , samantha celera Report

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RajunCajun
RajunCajun
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

did they tell you how much you could have a day? I would have gone to her every hour on the hour for my sugar.

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#26

30 Weird Office Rules That Made People Say ‘You Gotta Be Kidding Me’ We had a rule that every electronics box installed in the place where I worked had to have a special label tied on. This label gave lots of useful information about what the box was, what the part number was, serial number of the box etc etc. Right at the end there was a section for any safety information.

Unless there was any specific safety information for the box, it was normally left blank. New boss comes in, and decides that the safety instructions need to be filled in on all the labels. First we had to work out what the safety instruction would be, most of these boxes were electrionics and while they may be a bit hefty there didn’t contain any nasty chemicals or need to be handled with care so picking something that was appropriate but obviously not just there because we had to meant we started getting creative.

One wag decided that in the case of a large black box of electronics, roughly the size of four shoe boxes and weighing some 40 pounds, the most appropraiate safety advice should be “Do not swallow. If swallowed do not induce vomiting”.

It was found, there was a fuss, the fuss came to an end when the boss of the new boss found out and had a quiet word with the new boss

Andy Dickson , precisionenclosures Report

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John L
John L
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I see no problem. If you somehow managed to swallow it, it would do massive damage if you vomited back up. Legit.

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#27

You had to email an IT administrator if you wanted to print double sided. Large retail pharmacy chain. I was in charge of life altering meds but needed approval for two sided printing.

Lana Report

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#28

30 Weird Office Rules That Made People Say ‘You Gotta Be Kidding Me’ One place I worked still expected everyone to wear formal business attire even if they never met any clients. Amazingly, they issued an email that announced a trial run of “dress down Friday”. No guidance was given it was just dress down. This experiment was to run for a month.

After the second Friday we received another email cancelling all future dress down Fridays as some people had taken things too far. After a bit of discussion about what could have caused such a reaction, it is eventually revealed that some people wore jeans! Not scruffy jeans, jeans with holes in, slung too low, cut offs, just jeans.

Heather Goddard , Paulina Alodia Report

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Pa4040
Pa4040
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I never understood what is the big deal with having to look professional at an office that doesn't ever work directly with customers face to face. Okay, don't work in your underwear, but jeans and a hoodie are perfectly fine

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#29

I worked in a psychiatric hospital. The staff often talked about our personal lives (our families, our medical and mental health and whatever medications we were on… Often there were a lot od sexual and inappropriate jokes. It was that way for years.

One day some new policies were created because of complaints. The first was no more inappropriate and sexual jokes it was considered sexual harrassment. We understood just wished somebody bad said something to the jokes.

The other new policy was that we could no longer discuss our mental health which was all depression and anxiety. We also could no longer discuss whaf we took for medications to treat it…Now we were doing this in areas where patients could not hear. I questioned this becuase it seemed ridiculous. I asked if we could talk about medical issues such as my frozen shoulder or gastro issues or Susie's diabities or Debbie's grandchild who was batteling cancer…Another person pointed out we on occasion talked about her MS especially when she was in a lot of pain. . My boss said that someone in our office felt it was inappropriate to discuss our mental health so that was the focus.. I told her we work in mental health and yet it was taboo to talk about. Most of us rolled our eyes…

Sammy Ohh Report

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John Dilligaf
John Dilligaf
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

counter that with "We feel it is inappropriate to NOT discuss our mental health since that is a form of impromptu group therapy. Is the company unconcerned with our mental health and denying us appropriate medical treatment? "

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#30

No Black Jeans.

“Unless you're Me”

I worked as a Meat Troll for a very large grocery store. I was moved from store to store filling in for holidays and time off. It's a dirty, wet, smelly job, and light fabric dress pants just didn't last. On the second day of my second month I went to my boss, “This is ridiculous, I have torn three pairs of dress pants so far. At $25 each I am done. Tomorrow I will wearing black jeans. They will be a huge improvement working in here.

“I will fire you!”

“Not a problem. I always have other work lined up”

The next day I wore black jeans and was called into the Store Managers office. The store manager looked them over. “They look more professional then the dress pants. Done. Here is a letter authorizing YOU too wear black denim jeans. A letter has been emailed to all store and meat managers about it. Oh and You work too hard. Go for your coffee breaks, or I will take you to the union to get spanked. Have a great day!”

Department Boss was absolutely pissed but I was covered. The “No black jeans” rule eventually faded into the dust, and it's now it's “Any Black Pants, except for Stampede, when Blue Jeans are allowed!”

Patrick Nagy Report

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Justin Thyme
Justin Thyme
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Sounds like they should be providing uniforms, at their cost, including professional laundering.

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#31

When I still worked for the Forest Service, right after 9/11, the newly created Department of Homeland Security went crazy issuing all kinds of new rules for federal employees. One was knives and sharp objects were no longer allowed in federal buildings. We all shook our heads and muttered “WTF!!! This is the Forest Service. Axes and knives are part our EDC. Tools of the trade.” All field going personnel carried a 4″ folding blade knife, that was mandatory, and most had a favorite tool they carried. Mine was a double bit axe I shaped and filed to my specifications. I did not leave it in my pickup at the end of the day. I carried it to my desk. Most others did too. Walking down the hallway carrying a sharp hand tool was a common sight.

We had a warehouse full of sharp tools and chainsaws. We used incendiary devices and napalm for prescribed burning. We used a scoped rifle to shoot cones out of trees for seed collection I received fire investigation training that showed me how to commit arson without detection. Yet we could not be trusted to carry a knife in the office.

The rule was ignored by everyone, including top management.

David Sandbrook Report

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Strings
Strings
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My company recently tried making a rule of "no weapons can be kept in your personal vehicle while on company property". Which is a violation of state law. HR was very interested when I gave her the statute info

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#32

The owner of a shop I worked at sent out a memo that we were to make sure the pen caps stayed on the pens because they were important for balance when writing.

Bianca Padilla Report

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#33

One of my fathers by choice is a PhD in electrical engineering and may be one of the most brilliant people around. His new supervisor told him he could not have a Coca Cola and bag of peanuts at his desk. My friend cleared his desk and went home. The supervisor was fired and he was called back to work.

Frank Anderson Report

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Javelina Poppers
Javelina Poppers
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My daughter worked for Coca Cola and managers would cruise the employee parking lot and god help you if they spotted anything Pepsi owned inside your car such as a Doritos or Cheetos bag or Mountain Dew can.

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#34

30 Weird Office Rules That Made People Say ‘You Gotta Be Kidding Me’ At my university they once announced that, before we could agree to accept the terms of any software license, we had to send it to the university lawyer. The lawyer would then send it back all marked up with changes that would need to be made before it could be approved. It was never explained how we were supposed to get a major software company to change its licensing terms to accommodate our small university. I had to purchase one program out of my own pocket. I really needed it and did not have time to go through all the red tape. The policy did not last long as the absurdity of it quickly became clear, but I still could not believe that it was ever attempted.

Joe Yanik , Travis Isaacs Report

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Adorable Davelands
Adorable Davelands
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Reminds me of the time one of my clients (whose company bought about 15 laptops a year) told me to contact HP because they had made the caps lock key smaller on the model the company liked to use and insist that they go back to the old style.

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#35

I started a new job. My office was perfectly nice, rather plain an institutional, but fine. The only problem was that my printer was on my desk, and this meant that a power cord ran across the space I had to walk through to sit in my chair. By moving the printer to the top of my file cabinet, I could avoid this problem. So I did.

The next week, the Admin director stopped in my office to see how I was settling in. She saw where my printer was, and her eyes literally, visibly widened. She immediately left.

The next day, I was written up by my manager. The first and only time in my career that happened. Written up not for having the printer in a new place, but for moving it myself. This was a very basic printer that weighed maybe 15 pounds. I could not see this issue, so I went to my manager and demanded an explanation.

It turned out that moving a printer, or any other piece of furniture or equipment, was “bargaining unit work” as far as the union representing our facilities people was concerned, and me moving a printer 4 feet could have resulted in an expensive grievance.

Idiotic.

Rich C Report

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Mouse
Mouse
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Set up for a corporate event at a large conference center in California. Could not drag a table 2 feet, had to call the union. I am pro union in general, but this was baffling to me.

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#36

Before I answer the question, I need to mention: We're prohibited from touching/viewing our phones (while in the office space) for any reason whatsoever. For that matter, my boss has thrown absolute hissy fits if employees simply have their phone sitting on their desk (And no, this isn't the rule that makes me go “wtf.” It gets even worse, as hard as that is to believe)

Here's the rule that left me speechless: One day my boss said “I have a treat for you. Starting today, you're permitted to listen to music while you work. And no, that doesn't mean you can have your phone on the desk, nor can you touch/view your phone, even if it's only to adjust the volume or change the song. You're to set your playlist, and put the audio at a good volume, from the breakroom or hallway before you enter the office”

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#37

1978 at a nation wide picture company. Women are not allowed to use the front office rest room because business men frequent the office. I was told I didn’t get a raise since I wasn’t the bread winner. In fact hubby was in college, so I was, the next company gave me one.

Denise Hiknee Report

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Robert Trebor
Robert Trebor
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I'm a man. Brand new Certified Nurses' Aide. I got more per hour than female CNAs with over two year's experience because, (male)...

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#38

You should have some sick leave leftover at the end of the year? I was the new guy at the plant, they offered 48 hrs. of paid sick leave a year, which they paid at the rate of your pay.

But if you didn't use your sick leave at the end of the year you received “ the bonus “ which was 50% of your normal rate for any remaining sick leave. What??

I thought they were pulling my leg, but nope, at my yearly evaluation. I was asked how come I didn't have any sick leave left, my reply was they didn't give me enough, my manager strongly suggested I try harder next year. The following year I had 10 minutes remaining, he never said a word about it . But he did want to know how come I didn't give them 24 hr. notice when I called in sick. All I got was a blank stare when I said I don't have predictable illnesses as for the 10 minutes I had remaining, they actually cut me a bonus check for 5 minutes.

Michael Eggebrecht Report

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#39

Nothing at your desk after 8 am.

No water.
No coffee.
No snacks.
Your personal items had to be locked in a locker by the door - EVERYTHING short of a hair tie.
No cell phones.
Family couldn’t call you at your desk. (So if there was an emergency? Oh well.)

I never showed up for first day. I am an adult, not a toddler.

At another place you only got paid till 5, but had to stay until 5:10 because if you left at 5:02 the boss was sure you were just sitting there with your things ready to run out the door.
Sir, I come in a few minutes early so I am at my desk working by 8 am. I am leaving at 5… same place I had to make calls all over the country on all these different time zones so I would eat lunch starting at like 1 or 1:30…. so he made a new rule just for me instead of talking with me about it. All lunches had to be done by 1 pm. Ok but that plumber in Oklahoma isn’t getting his permit on time.

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Robert Trebor
Robert Trebor
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My dad worked in New York for a major corporation. Many customers (my fingers typed suctomers) were in Europe. so, he'd be in the office an hour early to talk to Europe before the phone lines got all too busy. Basically getting the actual business of the day done in that first hour. So, he'd leave 20 minutes early in the afternoons to catch the 5:00 Staten Island Ferry. New mini-boss shows up and sees my dad leaving early every day and tells him he has to stay to five. So, he stops coming in early. Chaos. Europe calling head office to know why suddenly they can't get ahold of (my dad). Semi-maxi-boss calls my dad (they had started at the company together in 1945) and gets the story. Mini-boss told to leave (my dad) alone.

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#40

The law office across the hall from us paid their legal secretaries well. But one catch: you were not allowed to wear slacks. Not even arrive at work and change into a skirt. Nope. You were informed right up front that would not be tolerated, and you would be fired. They justified this by paying an extra $3000 above the normal rate per year (in those days a nice increase). Keep in mind this was in the Midwest where it gets COLD. They had no problem filling the positions but they did have trouble keeping them.

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#41

Fearing that people are taking advantage of the sick leave, the boss issued a new rule:

Whether you took 30 minutes, an hour, or a few hours of sick leave, it will be counted as one day. You would also need to present a hospital receipt when you do. Overnight, people can no longer file for sick leave even when they get sick if they couldn’t present a medical slip. This is esp. difficult because the employees are foreigners and majority can’t speak the language well enough to communicate with doctors without someone translating for them. This made it difficult for people who had fever and wanted to rest for the day instead of getting sicker forcing themselves to go to the doctor and wait for their turn. It also became difficult for people who suffered from diarrhea or intense migraine. Worse, the boss applied the rule retroactively instead of right after making it known to everyone.

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#42

Management declared no desk fans because they use too much electricity. I got an ADA exemption.

Tom Rolfe Report

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#43

Corporate rules of throwing outdated merchandise into the dumpster when it could be donated to shelters, and discarding outdated magazines that could be donated to nursing homes, shelters, and hospitals.

Kimberly Hayes Sherman Report

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Robert Trebor
Robert Trebor
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

US Navy again. Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, near Seattle, Washington. Packing crates for equipment for ships in the shipyard were very well built to protect the equipment. Pieces of the crates went into the dumpster. Sailors took pieces of the crates home for projects (I had a very nice 3-foot by 6-foot panel that I used for a worktable at home). Foreman saw sailors taking crates from dumpsters and put out word that someone was to be there to render all such scrap unusable by cutting it into small pieces. The ship's superintendent saw this and asked whose budget the cutters work was coming from. It went all the way to the Shipyard Commander who could see no reason why sailors couldn't take usable scrap, and the foreman was told to pack sand. One of my shipmates took almost a ton of wood back to Hawaii in his household goods shipment when the ship went back after the yard period. Such wood is extremely expensive in Hawaii, as all has to be shipped from the mainland.

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#44

I remember when I was desperate for a job after getting laid off. I accepted a job in a small office processing inspection paperwork. The owners kept two cats there and when the office manager was out I was in charge of cleaning the cat pans. When they told me about it I said “ you've got to be kidding me”.

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#45

At one of the previous company I worked for, we had an HR (male ) who came up with these new rules and among them was a rule that girls are not allowed to take their hand bags in the washroom. How come they don't know we have shit going around there…

It took a day to talk to our country head and get that rule scraped off…

I wonder how did they even come up with the reasoning that we may drop stuff in the flush, we have been doing it for ages…it won’t look good to them only if we are carrying around pads/tampons in our hands to the washroom..

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#46

Not an office rule. A workshop floor rule.

In the middle of a heatwave - not allowed to get water from the fountain more than once an hour, and not allowed to add electrolytes.

Derek Day Report

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#47

I kid you not “women should not wear thong underwear”. Was a rule made at one of my places of work.

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Na Schi
Na Schi
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

If this weren't the early 2000s with ultra low riding jeans and ultra high riding thong strips... how are they going to control this absolute offensive rule? Or was it introduced because the (male) manager was a fūcking creep who especially looked to control it? Or are we talking about Australia, and women not being allowed to wear flip flops? If yes, then why?

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#48

One place I worked if you wanted staples, you had to go to an office manager and request them, and he would go into his store, take out a box of staples, take one row out of the box and then break it and give you about a third of a row.

Taking my salary and his into account, the effective cost of those staples must have been a huge multiple of the actual cost.

Dave McGlade Report

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Seadog
Seadog
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I've been through this exact insanity so many time on so many levels including having some corporate idiot buy a small car instead of a small truck for a delivery vehicle. The car actually cost more, got less MPG and had 3X the maintenance cost. And in the end only lasted a couple years before going belly up compared to the Ranger pickup that was still going strong 10 years and 250000 miles later.

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#49

That everyone needs to shave, while the boss has a beard. The smart uniform was for men long sleeve shirt, tie and trousers. Women however were cool to wear shorts or even shorter skirts and vest style tops under a lose jacket(which they can take off). It got very hot working in the data centre in the summer. I guess the boss needed his secretary to look a certain way.

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#50

My father once worked at a company where management ordered all employees to attend the annual Christmas party. My parents went for the two years when my father worked for them. Some of the big managers belonged to a certain strange religion, won’t say which one. That was a strange company and it got a bit unpleasant because my father didn’t convert to their religion.

My parents sent me to a manager’s house for the Christmas party evening and I’d be bored to tears each year. If my parents had not bought ice cream, I probably would have starved for those 4 hours.

The party wasn’t fun, just a lot of jabber and boasting or whatever. Neither of my parents wanted to attend.

My father also had to attend the company event like one year the event was at a water park, was in the summer. The whole time his direct manager ignored him, never looked him in the face or greeted him or even chatted with him. It shocked my mother and so after that, my father started job hunting and we left maybe half a year later.

People should not have to attend company events if they don’t want to. This was during the 90s.

Victoria Qi Report

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#51

When I first started working in the Labs, you always had to go to the Chief for anything that got broken in normal use - even a glass pipette. There was never a real problem, just a boring lecture of how things were when he first started work. This meant 10 minutes at least of wasted time and then you would be given a chit for a replacement electric bulb to take to the electricians dept. or given the keys to get the pipette out of the store cupboard.

After a time, I found that I could get away with ‘ could you let the electricians have a chitty for the bulb that I got from them” or “I noticed we were getting a bit short of …… when I went to the cupboard” and I was always thanked for telling him!

Duncan Wood Report

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#52

30 Weird Office Rules That Made People Say ‘You Gotta Be Kidding Me’ I quit my job at a mom and pop lumber yard/ home center. I was a salesman and purchasing agent. Owner demanded I give him my card index file with all the names and phone numbers in it of customers and suppliers. He had a policy of buying those for new hires. I bought my own and never used his. He called me a liar and demanded “his” files. I called the office manager and she told him I refused to use the supplied one and I did indeed buy the one I used. I told him I would give him any numbers out of it he wanted but I was taking that with me. At one point he reached for it and I grabbed it first and explained there was no f**king way he was getting it. Back then it was the same as todays cell phone, it contained lots of info that I would need if I went to work for the competition. It also had personal info in it. Imagine a written record of the info in your cell phone.

Jim Ashton , Jensen Lumber Co Inc in Ovid, Idaho Report

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TiNaBoNiNa
TiNaBoNiNa
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

If it was that important to him, he should have had it written into your employment contract that any client information gathered during your employ was company property and had you sign a non-disclosure/non-compete clause.

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#53

I had a boss who decided every Friday at 5:30 pm in the office was going to be happy hour.

Might sound nice in theory, but in practice it included:

* it didn’t matter if you were working on some project to urgently finish so you could head out for the weekend, or were on something the client was expecting. You were “in trouble” if you didn’t come to the conference room.

* Choosing to just go home, out with coworkers or friends instead of staying late into a weekend was unacceptable.

* “Happy hour” mainly consisted of rolling out the same half-dozen bottles of nothing special that were there the week before and just sat in the office all the time not particularly appealing to anybody.

Bradley Gerber Report

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Mary Guerinot
Mary Guerinot
Community Member
6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I once worked for a college admissions office. Some of us had been there for several years when we got a new supervisor. She tried to be "friends" and insisted on having everyone gather at the coffee area every morning to talk about what we did the evening/weekend before. I wasn't there to make friends, but to do a job, so got my coffee and went to my desk to do my work. This did not go over well and I was eventually laid off. She was a hot mess and I was thrilled to get away from her.

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#54

I worked for a company which was taken over by the insurer CU, the company became CGU and they treated us very badly. They emailed us saying that we weren’t allowed to send Christmas cards to each other via the internal mail system. We decided that CGU was short for “Christmas Greetings Unwanted”.

You’ll never guess, before the merger, what their acronym was in the Northern Territory and how fitting it was as a pejorative for us.

Rosalyn Hennesy Report

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#55

One day, a memo came down from on high—surprisingly high—to the effect that there had been a significant increase in the consumption of paper clips. We were urged to be mindful and not waste them.

I should have seen it coming: a year later, the company was bought out by a larger company…

Jeff Moses Report

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Pickles, Pennies, & Ponies
Pickles, Pennies, & Ponies
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My clue was that, Christmas parties stopped, no more monthly catered lunch and having to start dressing business casual in a call center that nobody saw you in. One year later and the company was sold.

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