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People rarely like others telling them what to do. It takes away our agency, our ability to make decisions, and our freedom to act a certain way. It can also remind us of our childhood, but not in a good way. It takes us back to our early years when parents controlled our lives and we had little say in what we could or couldn’t do.

Some rules, of course, are there for our safety. But others, especially implemented by bosses at work and teachers in school, can be borderline absurd. One person recently asked, "What's the most ridiculous rule you've had to follow at work or school?" and it seemed to bring back lots of memories for folks online. Over 1,000 people shared their stories where nonsensical rules at work or school left them exasperated, living rent-free in their minds to this day.

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#1

30 Of The Dumbest Rules People Were Made To Follow In Their Life During COVID, my boss wanted everybody to wear masks while on zoom calls. It mattered not, whether you were in your private office or working from home.

You’re a freaking idiot, Sharon!

Derroe42 , Edward Jenner / pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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Sue Denham
Sue Denham
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3 weeks ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I would have encouraged my colleagues to wear masks - Halloween masks.

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#2

30 Of The Dumbest Rules People Were Made To Follow In Their Life Boys weren't allowed to have buzz cuts or hair below their ears. Nor were they allowed to wear shorts.

Girls had zero clothing rules.

So yeah a lot of the boys started wearing skirts in the baking summers and grew manbuns.

A couple of girls got buzz cuts.

X0AN , Ron Lach / pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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notlikeyou1971
notlikeyou1971
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3 weeks ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It's usually the girls who have so many ridiculous dress rules. I am really really surprised that the roles are reversed here. Schools are ridiculous

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#3

30 Of The Dumbest Rules People Were Made To Follow In Their Life I work at a school. Our principal requires females to wear bras to be "professional." If she suspects someone is not wearing a bra, we have to verify the bra is present. Not by the shoulder strap, but by the around the chest strap. Yes, we have to ask teenage girls to pull up their shirt and show us the actual bra.

I told the principal I'm not comfortable doing that and don't think wearing a bra is indicative of professionalism. I'm thinking about not wearing a bra just to see if she notices.

jevoudraiscroire , Maryia Plashchynskaya / pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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#4

This is minor in the grand scheme of things but I was 17 and it was the first time I ever encountered people leaning on their authority and rampant stupidity.

I had a summer job in a b-brand doritos factory. It was a surprisingly chill thing, there were 2 of us charged with making sure the right amount of boxes ended up on every pallet going into trucks, then help with the loading.
And you had to fix up the mixed pallets, that had a few boxes each.

You'd line up the pallets at the docking bay, and do a final count, and mark on a paper that you counted.

I said I had counted, and the regular said "I didn't see you count".
I said "Look, 2x3x4 on the bottom, 2x3x2 on top, and 4 loose ones"
He said "No, count"
And started walking around and counting 1, 2, 3, 4, etcet. And of course came to the same count.

But I wasn't allowed to use multiplication. I had to do the walkaround.

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#5

They told the girls, in the north of England, that they couldn't wear trousers in winter. New Headmaster was religious which explains the insanity. So a good number of us boys borrowed skirts and rocked up in them. We all got suspended for the day.

That got fixed real quick. Bit of a shame really. Skirts are really comfortable to wear.

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Kalikima
Kalikima
Community Member
3 weeks ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Personally, I find pants to be more comfortable.. but a skirt is nice when it's hot out.

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#6

30 Of The Dumbest Rules People Were Made To Follow In Their Life My husband has to take a class every year on dealing with dangerous chemicals in the workplace. He and his whole team are 100% remote. He works from our spare bedroom.

ShortButFriendly , nappy / pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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Gabriele Alfredo Pini
Gabriele Alfredo Pini
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3 weeks ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Some clients require me to take classes on site safety. I work from my home as a programmer and the sites are in another nation.

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#7

30 Of The Dumbest Rules People Were Made To Follow In Their Life The boss told me to gather login details and pin codes for all the employees phones and personal email accounts.  I said no.  He fired me.


EDIT: he fired people all the time. He was an idiot. He always rehired them within days when he realized he couldn't fulfill the contracts without us .

lux_roth_chop , Ivan Samkov / pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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#8

30 Of The Dumbest Rules People Were Made To Follow In Their Life If you showed up late to class too many times you were suspended for three days. But if you know you're gonna be late and just show up at the beginning of second period, nothing happened to you. You would be punished for being late but not missing class.

Quest4life , Diana/ pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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Corwin 02
Corwin 02
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3 weeks ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Again one of those rules where people do not think about a bigger picture.

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#9

They insisted bringing us back to the office after being fully remote for 2 solid years because we need to "team-build" and collaborate. Then they send out email warnings that we are not to talk to each other or socialize too much.

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#10

30 Of The Dumbest Rules People Were Made To Follow In Their Life I was written up for having torn jeans in highschool. Only thing is I had just torn them in shop class .

SafeBathroom3759 , Eddson Lens / pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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#11

30 Of The Dumbest Rules People Were Made To Follow In Their Life Freshman year of high school, 1968, got a detention because I was wearing pants with belt loops without a belt.

New_Menu_2316 , Карина Каржавина/ pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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#12

30 Of The Dumbest Rules People Were Made To Follow In Their Life It was against uniform/dress-code to wear my glasses.

It was a skin care and make up retail job, and the then-owner justified it as “customers should be able to see our skin and makeup clearly”.

eemyeemy , Carlos Vaz / unsplash (not the actual photo) Report

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TheElderNom
TheElderNom
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3 weeks ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

That's stupid on so many levels but on an other note, that earring looks uncomfortably heavy.

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#13

When I was a bus driver, we had a rule that you had to wear a high-viz vest anytime you stepped outside. One day I clocked out and was going to my car, and that day I happened to get the parking spot directly outside the front door; I got yelled at for not wearing my vest. I told them that I was off the clock, and they can't tell me what to do when I'm not on the clock, and that the only thing separating the door from my car was four feet of sidewalk and if we had a bus driving on the sidewalk in-between the building and the parked cars, we have a much bigger problem than me not wearing my vest. I then left without putting the vest on.

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Meagan Glaser
Meagan Glaser
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3 weeks ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

*rogue asteroid zooms towards earth, about to smash when OOPS thats a high vis vest! Back to space I go* OP is endangering the species

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#14

30 Of The Dumbest Rules People Were Made To Follow In Their Life Worked for a company that limited how much water we could drink from their water cooler everyday (16 ounces). I would bring in gallon jugs from home everyday just to show them how ridiculous they were being.

MynameisMatlock , Safari Consoler / pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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#15

30 Of The Dumbest Rules People Were Made To Follow In Their Life My teacher kicked me out of math class for having "too long and red hair" which was the craziest thing I've come across. Now she is fired or in a mental hospital anyway.

lavintiburski , Engin Akyurt / pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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#16

I had a boss who tried to enforce that we weren’t allowed to meet outside of work without inviting everyone because her and her husband were such nasty people that they had no friends. Her birthday was around Christmas so she’d frequently make the Christmas do a birthday party and make it compulsory. If someone said they couldn’t go, she’d really enquire about why not and get annoyed. She also told another member of staff that she either invited everyone to her wedding, or none of us were going. Not sure how she thought she was going to police that but the girl ended up inviting whoever she wanted anyway and getting a bollocking.

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#17

30 Of The Dumbest Rules People Were Made To Follow In Their Life A job that required me to be 15 minutes early, but I couldn't clock in until the exact start time. Needless to say, I would show up right on the dot or a couple minutes behind.

Vix_VEE333 , Salim L'hermite Pas Net / pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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XenoMurph
XenoMurph
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3 weeks ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

If they require you to be early, you get paid from the time you are required to be there.

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#18

I asked my manager if I really had to come in because I lived so far away out in the boonies and a blizzard was coming. She said yes, so I go. Why am I late? Snow. Then five minutes after I get there they shut the whole store down. Why? Blizzard. Took me 4 hours to go 40 miles.

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Jessica Cooney
Jessica Cooney
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3 weeks ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Yeah no, this happened during the blizzard of 2014 when I worked Walgreens. They wanted us to come and SLEEP in the store so there would always be someone there. I said F that. My life is more important than any job.

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#19

30 Of The Dumbest Rules People Were Made To Follow In Their Life Boss said me and one other coworker couldn’t hang out to together outside of work. And could only talk about work related things at work.

ikyc6767 , Canva Studio/ pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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Sofia
Sofia
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3 weeks ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I just want to see how they could enforce that rule

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#20

I went to a Catholic high school and our uniform had to come from one store. The pants were expensive as hell and didn’t last. My last pair fell apart so I wore a pair that looked the same but weren’t from the store we had to buy them from. By the end of the day I was in the principals office being threatened with a suspension for being “out of uniform” god I hated that place.

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sdorph
sdorph
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3 weeks ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This used to be pretty common where I live, school uniforms could only be bought from licensed stores at about three times the cost of equivalent non-uniform items, it was pretty obvious there were kickbacks happening

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#21

30 Of The Dumbest Rules People Were Made To Follow In Their Life No coats allowed indoors at all to the point where you had to take your coat off before you step inside just to make sure you don't get told off. This was also enforced during winter so even if you stay inside where it was still cold you couldn't wear a coat, including break and lunch times.

siddeslof , August de Richelieu / pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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Enuya
Enuya
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3 weeks ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I had a professor like this at uni. You absolutely weren't allowed to even bring your coat to the classroom, let alone wear it. Also, our university was always very cold, even in summer, and in winter most of people weren't able to sit through 1,5 h lecture without either very warm sweater or a coat

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#22

Worked a data entry job. The company had a dress code: Business formal. No tattoos, no piercings. Suits with ties, pencil skirts with high heels, you get the idea.

We had ZERO contact with customers or representatives from other companies. Our branch manager (who's actually a decent human being) was very lenient on it since he knew it was entirely pointless. The owner of the company was just vain af and wanted even the data entry slaves to look posh.

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JJ
JJ
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3 weeks ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I work at a private university with an informal dresscode (because they cannot really tell you what to wear). My boss (dean of informatics) gets a reminder to wear a suit every quarter of the year, but won't give in. Same goes for all his profs, my boss backs his entire team. He hired me with visible tattoo on the forearm and a nose ring lol It's probably just the business faculty thinking too much of themselves anyways.

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#23

At my Jr. High we were only allowed to walk one direction in the hallway, like counterclockwise and the building/hallway did a full loop of the school. My locker was like 20 feet from the main entrance, then my first class another 20 or so feet in the wrong direction. Every morning I had to walk all the way around the building to get to my locker, then all the way around the building again to get to my first class. This caused me to be late to my first class many times, and I rode the bus, so literally that was the only thing making me late. I tried going the opposite way for the 20 feet to my locker, but there was always someone watching at that spot. I tried explaining my conundrum to them and they didn't care, they told me to keep walking.

They claimed this rule prevented fights.

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moggie63
moggie63
Community Member
3 weeks ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I would have proved the inaccuracy of that statement by punching them.

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#24

30 Of The Dumbest Rules People Were Made To Follow In Their Life At one of my previous jobs, we were required to get permission to use the restroom, even during our breaks.

SparkleG1rl_7 , Tim Mossholder/ pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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#25

At my current job, if you call out for being sick or family emergency during times of seasonal events or holidays when it’s very busy we have to actually come to work so my manager can deem you actually aren’t capable of working or that there’s an actual emergency. If you don’t , you will get written up.

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Kylie
Kylie
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3 weeks ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Too bad if you can't crawl out of bed or god forbid, have Covid, right?

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#26

30 Of The Dumbest Rules People Were Made To Follow In Their Life Having to submit a paper copy of an email to approve using the printer. Ridiculous micromanagement!

BloomSavvy , engin akyurt / unsplash (not the actual photo) Report

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#27

30 Of The Dumbest Rules People Were Made To Follow In Their Life In 1968 our high school football coach insisted that we have crew cuts and to stay away from girls, “They drain your energy and destroy your soul.” .

anon , Pixabay / pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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#28

30 Of The Dumbest Rules People Were Made To Follow In Their Life We couldn't drink water during class. Hydration isn't important, right?

Independent_Low_1426 , Anna Shvets / pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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#29

30 Of The Dumbest Rules People Were Made To Follow In Their Life I worked in an office with a zero tolerance policy for microwave popcorn, because the smell was too "distracting for others."

No other scents or foods were prohibited, but microwave popcorn would result in disciplinary action.

Afraid-Stomach-4123 , charlesdeluvio / unsplash (not the actual photo) Report

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John Mosley
John Mosley
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3 weeks ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Time to toss a trout in the microwave to show them there are worse smells than delicious popcorn.

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#30

30 Of The Dumbest Rules People Were Made To Follow In Their Life Back when I was about 7 or 8 at Primary school we had a crazy old bat for a teacher who insisted that everyone bought a bible and brought it in with them every single day.

ukman29 , Tima Miroshnichenko / pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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Sue Denham
Sue Denham
Community Member
3 weeks ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

At my High School all students were given a free bible. It became a thing to glue the pages together and carve out a cavity big enough to hold a pack of cigarettes.

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