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Workplace rules are there for a reason, and few people likely have something against them when they make sense. Nonsensical rules, on the other hand, can really be a pain in the neck for employees; and unfortunately, there seems to be quite a few companies that have such a type of regulations in place.

Members of the ‘Ask Reddit’ community recently discussed rules that could be considered ridiculous at best, after the user ‘OkCommunication5404’ started a discussion about it. If you’re curious what kind of absurd rules some people have had to follow at work, too, scroll down to find their stories on the list below and enjoy.

Below you will also find Bored Panda’s interviews with the OP themselves, as well as with the originator of Teaming Science and inventor of the technology for measuring collaboration between team members, Dr. Janice Presser, who agreed to answer a few of our questions regarding workplace rules.

This post may include affiliate links.

#1

“I Left Shortly After”: 30 People Discuss The Dumbest Rules They’ve Ever Had To Follow At Work I got in trouble for having my 16 yo daughter walk behind me while having a zoom meeting. By my manager who had her 7 yo walk in, ask a question of said manager at which time she stopped the meeting to answer her daughters question. I was actually written up for mine. I quit on the spot after being written up and went on a tirade against the manager. No regrets.

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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

One rule for some and not for others? You did the right thing getting out of there.

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#2

“I Left Shortly After”: 30 People Discuss The Dumbest Rules They’ve Ever Had To Follow At Work At one my earlier jobs, I had to follow a lunch bell like I was in school. Except I worked in the lab and sometimes the testing I had to do made me miss the lunch bell and so I would eat later. People reported me. So I ended up delaying testing to meet the lunch. Production went down a lot, but at least I followed the lunch bell.

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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Had a boss trying that on me. Not an actual bell but the rule. Lunch from 12 to 13 strict. I told him I'd be hanging up on customers and promise them to be called back 13 sharp. That was not accepted. Told him I'd be flexible if the company is. It's not a one way street. He backed out.

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#3

“I Left Shortly After”: 30 People Discuss The Dumbest Rules They’ve Ever Had To Follow At Work I still think requiring a doctor’s note for an excused absence is stupid. I’m not going to waste money on a doctor’s appointment, if I have a cold or the flu.

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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Normally you get like 5 days without a note over here in the UK

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In the OP’s opinion, while rules are necessary to ensure order and productivity, they should be reasonable and not overly restrictive. “The best rules are those that support employees rather than hinder them,” they told Bored Panda in a recent interview.

“I think it's important for companies to regularly review their policies and get feedback from employees to ensure the rules make sense and foster a positive work environment.”

According to Dr. Janice Presser, worker protection and safety rules are almost always necessary. “Beyond that, most work rules are not,” she pointed out. “To understand the difference, you need to look at both the intended consequences of the rule, as well as the unintended consequences.”
#4

“I Left Shortly After”: 30 People Discuss The Dumbest Rules They’ve Ever Had To Follow At Work "We are going to need you to be on call every other weekend, but you will not be paid for that"

I left shortly after.

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#5

“I Left Shortly After”: 30 People Discuss The Dumbest Rules They’ve Ever Had To Follow At Work If someone was banging on the door before opening time we had to let them in. How about no: im getting my computer up and running, making sure the waiting room is tidy, getting my coffee and taking a s**t. That door isnt opening until our office hours begin.

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Even though some workers—two in five of them in Britain, for instance—view rules as unnecessary even when they relate to their own health and safety, imposing restrictions in certain situations is a must.

The expert suggested that wherever worker safety and health—including mental health—are at risk, and the business owner or manager believes that people won’t all naturally act a certain way, it’s necessary to create a rule; it’s also crucial to outline consequences, and apply it equally to everyone, including themselves.
#6

“I Left Shortly After”: 30 People Discuss The Dumbest Rules They’ve Ever Had To Follow At Work At one job, we had a rule where no one could adjust their own office chairs. If you needed it higher, lower, or tilted differently, you had to submit a maintenance request. This wasn’t just annoying; during busy periods, it could take days for someone to come adjust your chair. It felt absurd sitting uncomfortably while waiting for ‘authorized personnel’ to make a simple adjustment.

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#7

“I Left Shortly After”: 30 People Discuss The Dumbest Rules They’ve Ever Had To Follow At Work I was once told I wasn’t allowed to drink out of a water bottle while working without a doctors note saying that I needed to. I was a minimum wage cashier at a grocery store. Was a pretty funny Doctors appointment that followed.

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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

OK I work in a food plant and personal beverages are NEVER allowed on our production floor but we keep a water station off to the side for this exact reason. Denying a worker hydration is a major OSHA violation. That's like theft of wages serious. It can get a place shut down.

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#8

People who discover a spill have to stand next to the spot until maintenance comes back with a broom/mop. As the only one working maintenance I got b*****d at in this order: "There's a spill, you need to go get the mop". "Why did you go get the mop? You are supposed to stand next to it". When I said, "maybe you should hire a second maintenance person then". The look on her face every time I said this was priceless.

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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Probably the USA. I saw employees in walmart guarding a spill a couple of weeks ago. I think they are worried someone will slip and sue.

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Talking about the significance of rules, Dr. Presser pointed out that most of us have likely had to follow them when we were kids. “Hopefully they were for health and safety, like not sharing toothbrushes, crossing only on the green lights, and not running with scissors,” she said, adding that some of those rules likely felt like they were imposing on our child ideas of freedom - like having dessert before dinner. However, when rules make sense and are imposed to keep children safe, they grow up to realize that they were necessary.

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“My daughter was three when I made a rule she disagreed with—she wasn’t allowed to go out alone after dark,” Dr. Presser shared. “Her little face tightened into rage and she spat out, ‘When I grow up… and you grow down… then I’ll be the mother.’

“Luckily, she grew up to become a wonderful team player who understands that the best way to have fun is to get other people to feel better when you’re around, not the reverse. I fear that those who make self-defeating, team-busting, employee-demoralizing rules are still trying to be the ‘bad mommy’ of their childhood.”
#9

I worked for a store manager who "rounded by three." I said, "no, you have to round by five. 0-4 is rounded down, 5-9 is rounded up."

"No," she insisted. "It doesn't matter what number you round by as long as it's the same number every time."

"No, see, if you round by 3, then 0-2 gets rounded down, and 3-9 gets rounded up. That's nearly twice as likely to get bad rounding errors."

"Listen, I am a trained educator with two school-aged daughters. I know my math. You men think you know math so much better than women."

Yet every Monday, when I called in the numbers, they didn't match what the district manager had. That manager was eventually demoted to a penalty store. When I told the DM the "rounding by three" they said, "that's technically fraud." She was later fired from that penalty store in an audit.

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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Really??? Enough arrogance to come up with her own version of freaking mathematics??

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#10

“I Left Shortly After”: 30 People Discuss The Dumbest Rules They’ve Ever Had To Follow At Work No talking during lunch breaks.

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#11

“I Left Shortly After”: 30 People Discuss The Dumbest Rules They’ve Ever Had To Follow At Work Women had to wear foundation, lipstick, mascara, eye liner, eye shadow, blush, earrings, rings, bracelets/watch, hair flair, necklace, and manicured nails. men: tucked in shirt, no neck beard, don't stink.

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According to Dr. Presser, imposing ridiculous rules—especially rules against inconsequential things that usually make workers feel better, like personal photos in their workspace—lowers employee engagement and reduces productivity.

“Moreover, when the rules affect one group more than another (most rules about appearance fall in this category), you are not only working against your best interests but may even be setting yourself up for a nasty discrimination lawsuit. It has never ceased to amaze me how many employers with absurd rules whine about how they can’t recruit ‘good people’—whatever ‘good people’ means,” the expert said.
#12

I used to work at a daycare. The kids were not allowed to scribble. If they were going to color they had to be attempting to color inside the lines.

I did not enforce that rule. I’m not gonna stop a three year old from scribbling. .

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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Oh for f*x sake- some of the rules on this list 🙄.. It’s important that children scribble, doodle and draw. These behaviors make it easier for the kid to later write, draw and handle small objects (pencils et c). Drawing and doodling should be encouraged for children.

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#13

“I Left Shortly After”: 30 People Discuss The Dumbest Rules They’ve Ever Had To Follow At Work I once had a job where we had to ask permission to use the restroom, even during breaks.

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#14

I once worked in the call center of a large company where we were treated like s**t and got none of the perks the other departments did. We had to work holidays. We were subject to a “point system” where we got points for any lateness - even if it was 1 minute past your start time, or absence - even though technically we had 5 sick days a year, and could be fired at 5 points, etc, while the rest did not. The entire company except us was taken on all day picnics and other events at least twice a year. Etc. The icing on the cake though was the day the fire alarm went off in the 25 story building and as everyone started for the fire exits the department manager and head of HR yelled for everyone in the call center to return to their desks, as it was “only a drill.” Half of us left anyway and likely would have been fired had the building manager not gotten furious and pointed out to the head of the company that it was illegal for us to remain in the building during a fire drill.

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Not being allowed to have personal belongings at work—even photos, as Dr. Presser noted—was exactly what the OP had experienced themselves. “The most ridiculous rule I encountered was at a previous job where we weren't allowed to have any personal items on our desks, including photos or even a coffee mug. It felt very impersonal and strict,” they shared.
#15

“I Left Shortly After”: 30 People Discuss The Dumbest Rules They’ve Ever Had To Follow At Work Having to wear nylon stockings (aka panty hoses) with your dresses. No bare legs. Lol okay, I just dated myself. This was in the early 80's.

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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

See my comment elsewhere. Compaq had this at their call center in 1995.

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#16

At a manual job I had standing up for 7 hours per day in a hot and sweaty factory floor during a 10 minute unpaid break we were not allowed to sit down. We had to stand up right next to the seats provided for break use. The seats were only to be used for the later unpaid 20 minute lunch break.

Meanwhile the managers who created this rule sat down all day in an air-conditioned office drinking coffee.

Just one example of management logic and motivation of the workforce. Not the way to get the best from your staff.

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6 months ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Again, corporate dystopia, with just a dash of wage slavery. We're entering "young adult dystopian fiction" territory. It's just that OP needs to be a late teenage young woman making ends meet for her family and an angry, handsome fellow factory worker, who is a few years older than her, dark and stormy and handsome even under the machine oil smeared on his face, as the love interest. Their district has a festival for qhen quarterly quotas are met that dates back to after the Third World War, but one day the evil factory manager confiscates their contraband whiskey and guards arrest many as they are searching for illegal unionist provocators.

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#17

“I Left Shortly After”: 30 People Discuss The Dumbest Rules They’ve Ever Had To Follow At Work You cannot call the police, even when a client has already verbally threatened and physically assaulted another employee.

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The redditor revealed that they decided to start a discussion on ridiculous work rules because they have always been fascinated by how different workplaces operate and how certain rules can sometimes seem absurd.

“I thought it would spark a lively and entertaining discussion,” they said, adding that they were genuinely surprised by the variety and extremity of the responses. “The most surprising were the rules that seemed to micromanage every aspect of an employee's behavior, even down to things like bathroom breaks.”
#18

No using the bathroom if there are patients waiting to register ( which was all the time)
We had to wear full strength pads and pee in them while sitting and registering patients.
No drinking anything ( even water ) in front of a patient registering …
Had to text the front desk to beg to go to the bathroom and it would take 20-30 minutes for a reply.
Yep .. turnover rate as a registration rep at a hospital is crazy.

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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

HOSPITAL!?!? I've seen that at a corner store or a gas station but a HOSPITAL!?! That's a new one on me.

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#19

I worked for the Anaheim Ducks at one of their ice rinks. I was allowed to wear a hat but it had to be plain. I learned this rule when the manager told me to remove my Ducks hat. Again, I worked for the Ducks.

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#20

We had to directly confront shoplifters. Like go up and get in their faces

Shockingly, a coworker got stabbed.

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6 months ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Wow I'm surprised it wasn't worse. Maybe OP is in one of the countries that has sensible gun laws because here in the States, that could get you shot. This is why you see loss prevention guys at Fred Meyer and Walmart in kevlar vests.

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While ridiculous workplace rules can make life needlessly difficult, certain rational ones can inadvertently do so, too. Discussing similar cases, Dr. Presser told Bored Panda about the time she was working with a Korean company in the US, which had a custom (perceived as a rule by many) of doing a series of calisthenics exercises at a certain time during the day. “The managing director would stand up and everyone else in the room would follow,” she recalled.

“Some of the exercises were pretty strenuous,” the expert added and said that at some point, said director asked if she was surprised by the exercise session. “He said they always did it, because that was what they did in school.

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“He asked if I thought it was silly, and I said no,” Dr. Presser continued. “They wanted everyone to be strong and healthy; but thinking of HR issues, I gently mentioned that the younger women might be pregnant and not ready to tell anyone, and might not feel up to it, but wouldn’t want to just not do it.

“He had never thought of that, and we agreed that since there was a basketball hoop on the roof, they could just take a 10 minute break and let anyone play who wanted to, while others could take a social break or check in with children. It worked because people cared about each other and recognized that on a team, not everyone should always be doing the same thing.”
#21

“I Left Shortly After”: 30 People Discuss The Dumbest Rules They’ve Ever Had To Follow At Work Worked at a bakery where if we were there, doors had to be unlocked. Even if the store was closed. Even if we had no food.

We also weren’t allowed to tell customers if the store was closed.

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#22

“I Left Shortly After”: 30 People Discuss The Dumbest Rules They’ve Ever Had To Follow At Work I worked in an upscale flower shop during college and we weren’t allowed to sit, even when the store was empty, which it was for the majority of the day, since most people called in. So all the chairs were essentially decorative because we had to ‘look busy’ for the customer that wasn’t there I guess.

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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Had a manager get on my case for sitting on a milk crate the morning of a clopen shift. I closed the night before, got four hours sleep and opened the next day. She NEVER once closed that restaurant. I was there from day one and I was there for another six years after she got fired. Side note: most places, restaurant people don't get breaks. That's a whole other effed up thing.

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#23

In my very first adult type office job, I was responsible for ordering catering. The first time I ordered, I got sandwiches and salads. I got a green leafy salad and got chewed out by one of the VPs. She explained to me that eating greens in front of clients made us look weak and I was only to order macaroni and potato salads (which I guess show strength?).

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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

If she wanted that much to be perceived strong, she should have eaten raw meat (teeth only, best if it's still bleeding).

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#24

“I Left Shortly After”: 30 People Discuss The Dumbest Rules They’ve Ever Had To Follow At Work Thankfully this is from a friend and not me, but a friend who did office work explained to me this unwritten rule that nobody left the office before their boss did, despite them having set working hours.

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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

USA by any chance? I'm English but my brother now works in USA and he has to force his staff to go home at a reasonable time and take their annual leave.

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#25

Not a work rule but a rule in a place I do work at. I was giving a talk about awareness of violent crimes and what services exist to help victims (Aka the charity I work for). I was just getting set up in the hall when I realised I needed my anxiety meds and inhaler before I got started.  One teacher who had brought her class to the hall early, came up to me and demanded I put my inhaler away. I gave her a confused look and explained it's for my asthma like no I'm obviously not putting it away it's medicine. Also I'll be not even 2 minutes chill love. She then said "the school has a strict no d***s policy" luckily the headteacher had come back at that point and saw the confusion and said to the teacher it was fine. But yeah that's how a teacher wanted me to not have my inhaler because it obviously wasn't medication and I'm obviously not an adult.


Edit: few folk are curious I'm 23 at the time I was 21 so I definitely looked young enough to be student. Only issue is here in the UK school uniform is really common. Also when giving talks I where my work ID lanyard around my neck. It's bright orange and has my charities name on it so you'd be pretty thick to get it confused with a school ID badge.

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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Wow! So, kids at that school are not allowed to use an inhaler?

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#26

When I was working at Ross as Loss Prevention we weren’t allowed to touch the shopping carts, ever. Even though we are stationed near where they go and plenty of idiots will just walk up to the front door, take their s**t and leave the cart blocking the entrance. If i took the 5 seconds to walk over there and put it away I get in trouble because i’m “leaving my post.”

Instead I have to tell the head cashier to either go move them or have another associate move them, even if it’s super busy. Ridiculous Lol.

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#27

Somebody somewhere was offended by how they were told that the store was closing, so we were no longer allowed to announce that the store was closing or closed. This led to some really long waits where occasionally a manager would eventually have to go over and help them along and possibly politely tell them we had closed and of course they'd be embarrassed because it was almost an hour past closing time and then we'd still have to wait for the till to be counted afterwards. Ugh.

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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

We had a rule where we had to serve anyone in line, even after close. This was a food stand in amusement park. So many times it would be 10:20 and we were still serving. Security took to standing in line and telling people park was closed.

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#28

“I Left Shortly After”: 30 People Discuss The Dumbest Rules They’ve Ever Had To Follow At Work Tattoos had to be covered but our shirts were short sleeve. I have a tattoo on my right shoulder that you could see maybe the bottom 10mm of it with the shirt sleeve. I still had to wear a black armband to cover it. For 4 years I didn't, no-one said a thing, no-one commented on the tattoo ever. That last year wearing the armband, without fail at least once a week a customer would ask me about it.

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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

And tell them the truth. "My employer is a judgemental d-bag so I have to hide my tattoos."

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#29

I worked at a center that cold-called people on behalf of a two-year technical school. So basically telemarketing. In a room no one was in but all of us making the calls. I hated it, but I was a broke kid and it paid $2 more per hour than anywhere else.

Only women were hired to work there and, after I was hired, they told me there’s a dress code and I had to wear a skirt. I ended up quitting soon after because I became convinced someone had cameras or mirrors for upskirt pictures. It just gave me creepy vibes.

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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

A dress code at a call center? They can't see you! GM must have been a major perv.

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#30

The way we were "supposed" to answer the phones. My last job was at a hotel and while I won't give the entire script it was supposed to say along the lines of "it's a beautiful day at (hotel), when are you planning your wonderful vacation."

No, I didn't say that, plus more than half the time people already made reservations and likely had follow up questions or was calling about something else, it was so stupid to say that. I refused.

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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I hate hotel "scripts". I can never say what's written without it sounding as phony as hell.

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#31

"No samurai swords on the floor "


Easy rule to follow, really, but ridiculous that it needs to exist.

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#32

My last job was as a cleaner. It was a b******t job in a care home to supplement my real job there. The supervisor was a micromanaging old b***h.
Up to and including, no stopping for a coffee for one minute. It was so bizarre.


In my new job someone was making drinks for everyone and asked if I wanted one.  I was like "are we allowed?" and they looked at me like I was an alien.

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#33

When you are walking and have a cup of coffee, it will be in your left hand, you're left arm will make a 90 degree angle while you are walking with your forearm parallel to the ground. Yoy can not drink the coffee while walking.

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#34

A college access nonprofit I used to work at has a culture of hugging for staff and students. They mentioned this at my interview, but I really didn’t think that it was a “rule”. Fast forward to when I had started, each morning, every employee had to go around the office and hug every staff member before sitting at your desk. If you were already sitting at your desk, you had to stand up and hug every other staff member as they arrived to work and walked to your desk. It was awful.

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#35

Bank of Nova Scotia executives signed with different color pens. They tracked down and reprimanded some clerk who had used a color reserved for an executive.

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#36

We weren’t allowed to leave at the end of our shift unless our replacement was there. So if I was working first shift and the guy working 2nd no called/no showed I had to stick around until they could find someone to replace me. Even worse is that the multiple times this happened the one that didn’t show up for work suffered no real consequences unlike I would have if I left them understaffed for some reason.

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Lyone Fein
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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Yes, let's make an innocent person suffer the consequences of someone else's actions.

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#37

“I Left Shortly After”: 30 People Discuss The Dumbest Rules They’ve Ever Had To Follow At Work Had to wear a full saftey harness even though there was no where to attach it to at all.

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#38

No talking to each other unless its work related....we started calling out the boss and his son for talking about sports during work hours ,that rule lasted until lunch time.

Madatory shop meeting at 10 am every morning, on day 3 we were all there in the office while boss was on the phone talking about BS to someone , nobody was working for the whole time he was on the phone. Day 4 Boss wasnt in so we had the meeting just sitting around doing nothing for an hour. Day 5 mandatory meetings are cancelled.

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#39

When I worked as a recruiter in the HR department of a major corporation, I spent hours a day "approving" and forwarding resumes of qualified candidates on to this one hiring manager. Just to create a paper trail of her "considering" them. Meanwhile, she had the people she wanted to hire, all totally unqualified friends or referrals of friends or relatives, also apply. She then would call me on the phone and give me the names of the unqualified dolts to ensure I also forwarded them for her consideration.

This was, fortunately, a 6 month consulting gig for me. I never encountered it that blatantly at any of the other Fortune 500 companies I consulted to. But I did have another gig where the Staffing Manager ordered me to violate multiple ethical and legal standards. I completely ignored those orders, and my contract was not renewed.

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#40

No microwave popcorn allowed because the owner of the company, who worked out of a different location several states away, did not like the smell.

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Ray Ceeya (RayCeeYa)
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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Trying to think of something I would ban if I were Grand King High Horse of the regional Quicky Mart. I'm going with, watching videos in public with your cell phone with the volume all the way up. Those people are NOT allowed in any of my fictional stores.

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#41

“I Left Shortly After”: 30 People Discuss The Dumbest Rules They’ve Ever Had To Follow At Work Worked at a soul sucking call center where your bathroom breaks were deducted from your 15s. And if you did get up and go to the restroom (this was a wfh gig) you’d get a teams message after 30 seconds saying “are you ok why aren’t you taking calls we have calls holding get back in ready”.

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David
David
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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I assume they mean their legally required 15 minute breaks. This is kind of crappy but not illegal. Washington law is "10 minutes of paid break for every 4 consecutive hours worked and 30 minutes of unpaid mealtime for every 5 hours worked." Similar in other US states. So they don't actually have to let you go to the bathroom any time you want. That said, I've never worked for an employer who didn't let you as long as you were reasonable about it. I've never worked an assembly line. That must suck.

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#42

I asked for a different calculator at work because the one I was using didn't have all the functions I needed and the woman in charge of supplies denied me and told me the one I was using was fine. Then I left work and cried in my car and went to Walmart and bought a f*****g calculator.

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Sue User
Sue User
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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I wanted some color pens so i could annotate some documents ( notes in green, questions in red ).Purchaser spent 20 minutes ( pre internet ) finding a set 50 cents cheaper than the ones i requested.

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#43

“I Left Shortly After”: 30 People Discuss The Dumbest Rules They’ve Ever Had To Follow At Work I worked in an office where we were not allowed to take notes on yellow legal pads. Only spiral-bound notebooks were allowed.

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#44

I once came in late to work, by literally 1 minute. My manager called me at 9am on the dot, as I was walking up the stairs to enter the office. I got a warning for not answering her call to inform her I was walking up the stairs.

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#45

I worked at a skating rink when I was 14-18. Typical day shifts were from 12-7 when the place was open for birthday parties and such. Halfway through the shift, if they decided it wasn’t that busy and they might not need you for the second half, they’d ask you not to clock back on from your lunch break. Then you had to wait, off then clock, for up to an hour sometimes, for them to decide they for sure didn’t need you and you could go home. If you left without the manager okaying it, you were written up.   

This was back in like 2003, and the only reason they got away with it is because all of the employees were kids and we were all friends with each other and with most of the regulars, and we all liked to skate, so most of us were there hanging out until the place closed even when we weren’t on the clock. We didn’t know that what they were doing was hella illegal.

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Ray Ceeya (RayCeeYa)
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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

OMG Pizza Hut did this to me in the '90s. They would schedule us to be there but not allow us to clock in. Absolutely illegal but we were too young to know that.

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#46

I was banned from wearing headbands when I worked as a barista in a café. Owner saw me wearing it one day and made the manager take me aside later to tell me I couldn’t wear them anymore. Stated reason was it made me look too “ethnic.”.

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#47

I used to work in a shop, and there we had to ask permission to use the bathroom, and even during breaks, when I think it should be normal to go to the toilet.

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Robert T
Robert T
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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This might make sense if the toilet was locked to prevent customers from using it. (In the UK only places that sell food/drink are required to provide toilet facilities to customers. It is quite common for shops to have a "staff only" toilet).

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#48

Worked in an up market hotel, here's some of the crazy rules I had to follow
1) always use a company pen to write anything down
2)If you need water you must crouch under the bar so guests dont see you drinking, you cant be seen to be tired.
3)Social media must always be private so guests cant look you up, you must not be seen to have a life outside the hotel, it was unprofessional.
4)Ice cream must always be scooped in professional style quinnels (none of us had restaurant experience, we were bartenders) or it couldn't be served
5)Glasses from the bar couldn't leave the bar unless they had liquid in or were dirty
6)We weren't allowed to say no to a guest, to the point where someone spent a whole day building a flat pack bunk bed set for a guest because her kids wanted that instead of separate.
7)If they heard a guest discussing you, you were under investigation and if they heard a guest say anything negative, fired with immediate effect. They had to look pristine at all times. One afternoon I had to juggle 150 orders alone in 30C heat in tights and I forgot one, I got fired for it.
8)If you did get fired, they asked you not to discuss it with anyone, they asked me not to tell anyone about the rumours management spread about us, about how I was treated, etc. However I didn't sign anything and it was years ago
9)This was a multi million chain, they had cruise ships, they had hotels, etc. But they were checking us all to the penny. I got caught putting 10p change in the tip jar from a guest and was written up for not giving it back to the company. I got chased out on my way home because they found that I gave a replacement cola bottle to a guest.

Theres probably loads more but those are things I can think of.

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Khavrinen
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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Had to Google "quenelle" because I'd never heard that one before. It's a specific shaped scoop of ice cream ( or other creamy food ), that is supposed to look elegant. ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4ISeLKcc8c ).

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#49

“I Left Shortly After”: 30 People Discuss The Dumbest Rules They’ve Ever Had To Follow At Work A friend just told me they would have cake in the break room for birthdays, but the time spent “celebrating” (awkwardly standing around with a slice of cake) would have to be made up at the end of the day.

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Ray Ceeya (RayCeeYa)
Ray Ceeya (RayCeeYa)
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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Sounds like lunch break every day. Why are we required to clock off for lunch? I would vote for any politician who campaigns on the platform of "Paid Lunch Breaks". It's not universal healthcare or UBI but baby steps.

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#50

Was working at an Office Depot briefly (I quit after less than a week). One morning, not a single customer was in the store. I asked the store manager if I could straighten up the front of the store til a customer came in. “No. You have to stay behind the register so it looks like we’re prepared in the event a customer comes in.” Literally supposed to just stand there like a robot. I went to lean against the wall. Manager calls from the back room after seeing me on camera, “No leaning. You have to just stand there.”

With no customers even in the store. Just stand still, on concrete, behind a register, indefinitely. All for a measly $8 (back in 2007). I quit the next day. What a f*****g joke that job was.

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#51

At my company years ago, you could go out for dinner on business travel - full dinner, including wine and dessert at the best restaurant in the city - and charge it all off on your expense account. No problem.

But if you just grabbed a $4 can of peanuts for dinner from the minibar at your hotel after work - expense denied.

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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

One job had me visiting another state for an entire week, every month. I got a lower mid-range per diem, which I originally used for a casual sit-down dinner each evening, instead of 3 fast food meals. I purchased any other food or beverages on my own dime. I got in serious trouble. Accounting had to see that the money was purchasing food 3x per day. It always added up to the same amount, but was a bunch of shuffling of receipts and math for no reason.

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#52

McDonald's.

We deleted orders from the Screen and sent Cars to parking Lot without reason in Order to get better waiting time statistics.

Because of this Corporate b******t the real waiting time gets longer and there are more mistakes, but Nobody Cares.

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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Worked at Burger King in high school. We would stick a tray outside the window and remove it after a few seconds. It lowered our drive through time because we were getting tired of managers rushing high school kids to make orders. It was the first time I learned how to "work" the system.

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#53

I had a micromanaging GM who suddenly announced we could only have one nail per wall in our offices to hang up something. Some of us had been in our offices for years and they were highly personalized. It was crazy.

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6 months ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Back when I was on the construction crew it was common for me to build things, or hang things on the wall, for people in the office. One time an engineer asked me to hang a bulletin board on his wall, but the office manager had said not to put a hole in the wall. I of course went and asked her how I was supposed to do that. She replied that she had told the engineer that HE couldn't put holes in the wall. I could do whatever I needed to do to get the job done. Fair enough.

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#54

If they ran short of people to work, and they managed to get you on the phone, you had no choice and had to come in if they asked. It was required. But if you didn’t pick up the phone, they couldn’t prove you got the voicemail and they would keep searching for someone. I was not on an “on call” shift at the time.

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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I think this is not uncommon. My first day my trainer told me not to answer my phone on my days off

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#55

I was working as a historian and we published government documents sorted by year, commented. I was done with 1974 and wanted to start 1975, my lazy boss told me I could not start until she finished her part of 1974, so I didn’t do anything but watch movies and write my thesis on paid time for 6 months.

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#56

Women were required to wear dresses and stockings. This was in the 1980’s. Also, I got into trouble for not walking quickly enough past the boss’s office.

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Upstaged75
Upstaged75
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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Yeah, I worked in a hotel that required the same. Late 90's.

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#57

No headphones.

I was operating a reactor vessel which consisted of two very loud machines, and the monitoring station was right in between them. It was ear-splitting. So I bought a noise-canceling headset which cut the loud rumbling, but allowed me to hear my co-workers over the noise.

Management objected. They didn't want people listening to music while on the job, so they had banned all types of earbuds, headphones, etc.

I explained that I was just using the noise-canceling function, and demonstrated it to the manager. He agreed that it was very helpful against the noise, and saw that I wasn't listening to music or anything else.

But he still went with the "rules are rules" approach and the ban held - no headsets allowed. I'll never understand how a person can manage with his head so far up his a*s.

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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Where is Health and Safety? Not having appropiate ear protection is bad.

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#58

No personal phone calls allowed, even during breaks.

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#59

I unfortunately worked at burger King during covid, I was the manager. In drive through we had to have customers put cash, coins, and credit cards into a random plastic container they gave us, when giving change back it had to go in the same plastic container. When handing food out it had to be in the container, even a single drink had to be handed out awkwardly in a plastic container.

The owner would sit at home watching security cameras and would damn near instantly call the store if someone didn't use the f*****g container.

So their idea to prevent people getting sick was to make everyone reach into and touch the same plastic container, we were only required to clean it once every 6 hours.

Hated that job, district manager treated us all like s**t, f**k you Judy.

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#60

Being obliged to always wear a suit, matching shoes and tie, even if you had to pick up some stuff from the office outside of normal working hours or in weekends. This rule was also enforced for customer visits. We had one customer which had a parking spot at 2km from their office, which required people to walk through some muddy field. Even then we were obliged to wear a suit, and matching shoes and tie.

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David
David
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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

To be fair, most employers want your shoes to match. Two different shoes just looks odd. /J

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#61

Don't give receipts to homeless people.

I worked for an upscale grocery store in an area with a lot of homeless people. There was a lot of ready to eat food options including a salad/soup/hot food bar, sandwich counter, and pizza by the slice as well as a seating area. Obviously for someone without a place to cook who likely would get turned away from restauraunts this was perfect.


A lot of the local homeless population came in to get food and the vast majority were decent people, were polite and kept things clean. Even most of the ones with obvious serious mental illness. I even remember a (most likely) schizophrenic woman who would meticulously wipe every inch of the table and chair she used before and after.


Anyway they did a lot of stuff to try to deter homeless people just because they didn't want them seen in the store. First they tried getting rid of reusable dishes and only having takeout boxes available to nudge people to leave the store with their food.


Then they took out all the chairs at the tables and made people ask a cashier for a chair with their purchase, but not let homeless people. Obviously it didn't work, cashiers were too busy to deal with that and homeless people just stood at the tables or used a chair the cashiers didn't have time to collect and lock up again.


Then they put code locks on the bathroom and put the code to enter on the bottom of the receipt. It changed daily. Staff weren't to give it out to anyone, and we were told we're not to provide receipts to the homeless when they purchase something and just give them a paid sticker so they can't even take a p**s.


Needless to say I didn't follow the rule at all.


Got written up for it once when I gave a receipt to a guy who was wearing dusty clothes covered in paint and the manager was right there. Funny thing was the guy was clearly some kind of contractor/tradesman who just got off work, not homeless.


Anyway I'd been taring the cardboard takeout containers as the heavy ceramic salad bowls that we no longer had for most of the homeless customers for a while because f**k da police, so I guess they were right to fire me in the end. They never caught onto the tare thing though.

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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Is it even legal to refuse a receipt if asked for one?

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#62

For most of 2020 during Covid restrictions I had to clean all surfaces in the office three times daily and keep a log of it which I had to email to the district manager. I was the only one working there, who was I sanitizing it for?

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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I would just say I did it ... then, I wouldn't do it.

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#63

I got written up for not tucking my shirt in. Same job, I had to cover my nose piercing with a bandaid.

Guaranteed not one customer cared if I had my shirt tucked in. I was behind a counter. And more people commented on the bandaid than ever would have on the piercing.

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Alexandra
Alexandra
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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I sometimes wonder what it takes for people to finally stand up and demand decent labour laws. In Europe it took decades and a lot of dead; I hope other First World countries don't let it come to that.

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#64

Punching a timeclock for a salaried position. Ostensibly, it was because the clock was one of our products, and having everyone use it was part of the testing, but the owners were super old-school and were probably low-key using it to see when people were in the office.

Though I barely used it (and would occasionally forget to clock out and have like a 3-day shift in the records, lol), and that doesn't seem to have been held against me.

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David
David
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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Again, if you are salary and not ""salary exempt" (in the USA) your total hours do matter because they have to pay you for overtime. Your work week is assumed by law to be 40 hours unless your employment contract specifies differently. This protects you and the employer. And the employer may have had a history of some folks abusing the hours without the time clock. That said, the salary jobs I had did not require me to punch a clock. IF we worked overtime then we had a form to fill out / send to our manager. Otherwise we were just expected to be adults and do our 40.

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#65

Whoever is late for a meeting needs to bring chocolates for all team members next day.

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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I had a job where the culture was supposed to show respect. But the weekly management meeting on Monday afternoon always started late. That was, until I left the room at 2:15, when the meeting was supposed to start at 2, because no one else was there. Fortunately I was the second-most senior person, and the most senior was open to my explanation. Any meeting with me in it started on time after that.

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#66

No coats on the back of chairs. No bags near desks. We just worked at a desk on a computer.

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6 months ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

That's OK, we had a clear desk policy. ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ON THE DESK AT THE END OF THE DAY, ALL TRAYS, paperwork had to be put away in our desk drawer and large drawer before we clocked off. Not surprisingly some people spent quite A bit of time getting that done and starting up again the morning.

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