Ridiculous demands from work

[marymarkle]

What ridiculous demands has a workplace made on you?
I left a job a few month ago that insisted I print off and file every email with clients, even though all emails with clients also had to be saved in files on a server. And it really was every email, including emails arranging meetings.
Surely there must be other ridiculous workplaces out there?

I worked for a company who were stuck in the dark ages. Women weren't allowed to wear trousers, only skirts or dresses.

I once went into hospital which involved me being on the ward for three weeks. It was a planned hospital stay so I gave them plenty of notice, told them the treatment would involve me being in hospital for three weeks and provided copies of letters from the specialist etc. They hired a temp to do my job whilst I was away which I trained up. Despite all of this, the office manager got hold of the number of the ward I was on and called me every single bloody day demanding an update, demanding to know what treatment I had had that day. Every day I would be called over to the nurses station to take my phone call. I don't know why I didn't refuse to take her call!

No leaving your desk between 9:00 - 10:00. It was only finance administration so nothing important... I lasted about 10 days.

We once had a letter come round the office advising all staff that there would be no annual bonus for anyone, nor would there be a payrise. All because they were very short of money. Fair enough I suppose, although we were all a bit pissed off.

Not half as pissed off as we were later on that day though, when we looked out of the window to see one of the directors taking delivery of their new company car.

Some of these are bonkers!

I had had some shoulder surgery and would have my arm strapped to me for months, rendering me one - armed. I felt fine and fit a few days post surgery and completely happy to work - I was unable to provide the practical patient care aspect of my job at the time because of this but would have been very able to have productively done all of the administration / typing / stores ordering etc etc that we were all expected to do on top of our other tasks and it would have been an opportunity to get everything very much in order for the team. The surgeon who had operated agreed that that course of action was absolutely fine as did my doctor. I was however not allowed to work by the person in charge in case something dangerous happened like "you were to fall off a chair". I didn't have a history of falling off chairs at work, in fact never had, so have no idea why it had suddenly become such a huge risk!!

Oh man Menstruator, what a jerk.

That reminds me, in last year's snow storm I got in at 9:15 rather than my usual 8am. I was still first in the office.

My boss made a huge drama of texting us at 9:30 going 'ZOMG do not come in, it's too dangerous! Don't leave your house! If you've already left home, TURN BACK! I am telling you not to come in!'

At nine fucking thirty.

I texted back that I was already in the office as I'd left home at 6:45. She said 'ZOMG go home' and I had to respond that I felt safer waiting for the roads to clear. (And I didn't want to get cold again!)

Others texted her to say they were practically at work so they'd just come in, and she told them, 'NO TURN BACK I Am CLOSING THE BUILDING' So they were twice as long on the snowy roads.

And after all that, the ones who didn't come in had to take the day as annual leave!

I've had some mad jobs in my time but the best one was temping over the summer in an architectural office.

Architect needed his office tidying. Never seen an office like it. Drawings from 1970 - 2015. First day I met up with him. Told me if I touched his office I'd be fired. Instead, I was to come in once per week, he would sign my timesheet for the full 40 hours. The rest of the week I could stay home.

He gave me a glowing reference too

I once worked somewhere that had a locked bathroom outside the actual office. If you needed to use the bathroom (and only one person at a time could) you had to ask the manager for the key.
I hated that place so much.

Another one..

I once worked for a managing director who was lovely. Really friendly and was a dream to work for. He constantly praised my work and he would tell everyone how good I was at my job and I was a god send.

Until I went in one day and told him I was pregnant. From then on, until I went onto maternity leave, I got the silent treatment. He literally went completely cold on me. Every day he found things to pick at but because he refused to speak to me, he would get one of the other managers to reprimand me. Everyone couldn't believe how he treated me as he was so nice to everyone else (and so nice to me before my pregnancy) He went out of his way to make my life a misery.
One day I went to an antenatal appointment and was told there were concerns about the size of the baby. I returned from the appointment upset and went into his office to take some dictation. I burst into tears and even though he didn't ask me what was wrong, through tears i told him the fact I was worried about the baby. He looked coldly at me and said "Make sure that letter is sent this afternoon"

I left shortly after as I couldn't take it any more.

Oh and just remembered we were only allowed one pen, if it ran out we took it to a director for who who test it to see if it was empty and give you a new one, if it looked like the pen may still have a bit of life left you were told to come back when it was completely empty.

We had a new manager who came from one of our other office sites. He was a stickler for people not having anything other than work on their desks - dropping your paper or book on your desk or sticking it in your in tray when you came in was a huge no no.

This was because it would look bad if there were official visitors.

Him having a liquid lunch everyday and coming back worse for wear didn't look bad then

The office refusing to employ a cleaner and having a rota for the employees to clean the office and the toilets, so the money saved could be used for the "directors" to have a night out a few times a year. (5 directors for 8 employees...)

I worked in one of these, except of course, only the females were required to clean and also to provide reception and phone coverage if one of that crew were off or out sick. Females were also expected to provide home baked goods for the directors on Fridays.

So I worked in there for a week (you got paid weekly then) and left.

We had a childminders' playgroup in a local childrens centre when they had a change of manager who succeeded in thoroughly infuriating both her own staff and us in fairly equal measures.

She decided that no drinks at all should be drunk in the playroom we were using. If we wanted a drink, we had to take it in turns to gather up all our charges, walk through the nursery and down the corridor to a drop-in playroom and drink there. Not quite sure why that would be any less an issue than the other room, but there we go

She had a lot of similar petty rules. The staff were so pleased when she left!

DH is a specialist who writes pretty complicated reports, needing lots of cross checking and editing. A firm he worked with insisted that he dictate all his letters and reports, and send them down to the typing pool to be typed up. No, they couldn't take his already word processed report and edit it to house style etc. Had to be dictated. And any amendments once he had the first draft also had to be dictated. He lasted about 6 months and left just before an appraisal where he was going to be told off for not dictating well enough.

The pen thing. Our stationery person hated giving out pens so we always took the empty one with us when we asked for a new one. She was very fond of telling us that there weren't many left so we'd have to buy our own next time. Then every march there would be a spending spree to use the budget up or we'd get less the next year (public sector) and we'd each be handed a dozen pens!! Which never lasted long as the public walked off with them!

Years ago when I was s temp, I had a contract to do admin in a solicitors office. On day one, at lunchtime, I took my sandwiches out of my bag and started eating. I was then told by the office manager that I wasn’t allowed to eat at my desk. No problem I thought. I sat on the floor and enjoyed my picnic. I didn’t come in for day two so I didn’t find out where I was supposed to eat my lunch.

I once tempted somewhere where you weren't supposed to use the microwave in the kitchen to heat up your lunch because the CEO didn't like the kitchen smelling of food! Erm, not sure why they had a kitchen then...

Quite tame compared with most comments in this thread but this was one of the straws that broke the camel's back in my previous job.

Boss sent an email round to the team (office job) saying if you are 10 mins late into the office please stay 10 mins later at the end of the day.

Firstly, people were late because of delayed trains.

Secondly people routinely worked through lunch.

Thirdly people routinely got in well before 9am to organise events and meetings, and sometimes stayed working until 1am.

Another example: some of you will remember that when the Coalition government came into power in 2010 they had the "bonfire of the quangos". As part of my job I had to find out which quangos were being got rid of, which were relevant to my area. There was a very long list. I was going through the list on my screen and my boss said (I thought in passing) that would be easier if you printed it off and did it line by line. I was happy doing it on-screen.

A while later she passed again and said "I thought I told you to print off the list". I told her I wasn't a trainee, to stop micro-managing me and I'd do it my way.

Got hauled into office and told off. Told her again to stop micro-managing and expecting me to waste paper unnecessarily. Can't remember the outcome now. I lasted 4 years in that job but it was sooo stressful. She was the worst boss I had ever had.

One of the bosses acolytes decided we should all wear a uniform.
Paid for by us. It consisted of a skirt from New Look which was a cross between a curtain and a deckchair.
It was ugly, ankle length and shite quality. To be honest, I'll decide what I spend my earnings on.
So I refused to buy and wear the curtain. All the other muppets did....2 weeks later curtains disappeared, never mentioned again.
What a waste of their money.
There's loads. I could go on all day.

Over 25 years ago I was temping (maybe 4 months) as secretary to the MD of this factory. It was December and the MD asked me to organise the Christmas lunch with all the staff. So I typed up the invites and handed them out to everyone (pre-email). A couple of days later he saw one on my desk and proceeded to tell me that I wasn't invited firstly because I was just a temp and secondly because they needed someone to hold the forth and take calls etc that day. What a miserable fucker.

aethelgifu your office was even worst than mine! At least staff were equally treated like shit in mine, gender didn't come into it grin]

was then told by the office manager that I wasn’t allowed to eat at my desk. No problem I thought. I sat on the floor and enjoyed my picnic.

sorry, but this is ridiculous. Many offices have a no-food at desks policy, for perfectly valid reasons, if nothing else because not everyone enjoys the smell and the noise of other people eating. It's easier to say no to everyone than starting discussions about sandwiches vs soup.

Years ago I got a summer job in a law firm. I turned up in tailored black trousers and a white blouse. Half an hour later the managing partner called me into his office and informed me that all female staff were required to wear a skirt. I thought he was testing my legal knowledge and laughed. Unfortunately he was deadly serious. My next words were pretty much 'Right-o. Bye then'.

A former colleague of mine told me she got her first job (also in a law firm) because she was the only interviewee who turned up in a skirt. Fortunately for them, she turned out to be an extraordinarily good legal secretary.

And speaking of uniforms. A firm I worked for decided they wanted the three receptionists to wear a "uniform". The firm did pay. This comprised a navy suit from M&S (choice of short skirt/long skirt/trousers) and they each a set of five different blouses. But they never wore the same blouse on the same day so it didn't really look like a uniform because back then everyone wore navy suits! It had nothing to do with me but it did irk me.

worked in open plan office, same floor as COO, Chairman, CEO etc. Were told to take our Xmas tinsel down. Bah humbug.

If they don’t offer a break room but don’t want you to eat at your desk, where do you go?