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Original poster

Strange / silly rules at work

329 replies

melpomene · 21/01/2011 19:15

What strange or silly rules do you have in your workplace?

Here are some examples from the office where I work:

  • My colleagues asked if we could have a small bookcase, because we have heaps of reference books on the desks and a bookcase would make it much easier to store and find them. We were told that it is against the policy to have bookcases or shelves, and that "if we got a book case then people would put things on it".
  • They provide pencils but not pencil sharpeners, so when your pencil gets blunt you have to throw it away and get a new one.
  • In the canteen, they sometimes serve vegetable curry. They also serve rice.
However, you are not allowed to have vegetable curry with rice. You are allowed to have vegetable curry with a baked potato, or chicken curry with rice, but not vegetable curry with rice Confused.

Has anyone else got any silly rules?

OP posts:
NellieForbush · 22/01/2011 21:36

DH works for a company where women are obliged to wear a uniform. A man doing the same job has to wear a shirt and tie (not necessarily a suit).

This is now!!

Xenia · 22/01/2011 21:38

The UBS dress code is hard to beat:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12207296

ZillionChocolate · 22/01/2011 21:41

risingstar I'm sure there are funerals at all the best holiday destinations. Does it have to be a funeral of someone you knew??

LostInTransmogrification · 22/01/2011 21:42

We weren't allowed to get in the lift on the Ground floor as that might inconvenience customers. If we wanted to go from the basement to the staffroom on the Fifth floor we had to walk up to the Second and get in the lift, and then if all the customers had left the lift by the third or Fourth floor we had to get out and take the stairs for the rest of the way!

cwtchy · 22/01/2011 21:52

Another bizarre canteen rule here....I am free to buy a chocolate bar. Likewise, I am free to buy a drink of my choice. But nobody is allowed to purchase a drink and a chocolate bar simultaneously.

thenightsky · 22/01/2011 22:03

cwtchy - that is worse than having to sign for my egg Shock

risingstar · 22/01/2011 22:04

zillionchocolate

that is brilliant- am planning to immediately put the rules to the test.

anyone know how to scan the death notices in Sydney?

ItsMeMo · 22/01/2011 22:10

I worked in a massive open plan office. My team were allowed to eat anything at our desk as long as we didn't use a spoon.
All the other teams were allowed spoons Hmm
It was rather amusing watching people eating yogurt with a fork Grin

sayjay · 22/01/2011 22:24

thenightsky

why do you have to sign for your egg?????? Confused

thereturnofElsieTanner · 22/01/2011 22:24

Do not spit in the kitchen. Apparently you can spit anywhere else, but not in the kitchen.

StayingDavidTennantsGirl · 22/01/2011 22:25

In the operating theatres where I trained, there was a different term for vulval debris - we had to wear trousers in order to prevent perineal fallout!!

whomovedmychocolate · 22/01/2011 22:42

We used to have a morning 'rumble' which was a sharing of news stand up meeting. I took them over and completely corrupted them by massively taking the piss out of people, cracking jokes, organising marches round the room, and singing loudly 'let's get ready to rummmmmmble' a la Ant n Dec. Grin

Attendance tripled but I suspect only for comedy value.

thenightsky · 22/01/2011 22:49

Imagine, all this time i've been going to work with no tights in the summer and spreading bit of my fanjo all over the carpets Shock

potplant · 22/01/2011 22:52

We were allowed to eat at our desks but nothing which would smell too much. After a dispute about a jacket potato they wanted to have a list of unacceptable smelly foods so there was a wallchart in the kitchen which you could nominate smelly food and others could tick or cross if they agreed or not.

If you were having a meeting starting between 12 and 2 then they would order buffet lunch whether you wanted it or not. Even if it was just 2 people having a chat. You couldn't have an impromptu meeting because they wouldn't have time to order lunch in.

We also had a one pen in one pen out policy. If you wanted an envelope then you had to take the letter you wanted to send out.

We went through a phase of scrapping job titles so we had to refer to each other as employees. Didn't last long because everyone used to take the piss.

Still baffled by the logic of signing for an egg

I still want to know the logic behind signing for an egg.

OgreTripletsAreSoCute · 22/01/2011 22:55

Perineal fallout, PMSL!

whomovedmychocolate · 22/01/2011 23:00

One signs for the egg because then if you are poisoned by it, the company knows it was the canteen staff wot dun it! Grin

strawberrycake · 22/01/2011 23:08

I work in a school which has a ridiculous internet filter that checks for inappropriate language/ content.

We can't google scuntthorpe or wristwatch annoyingly or access webpages with them in the header. The second one is frustrating when doing the 'time' topic in Numeracy with year 2, or the first local geography with year 3.

It's a Catholic school and many Catholic web-pages we used are blocked as 'occult content'

Educational websites for children are largely blocked as 'games content'.

Depressingly we also have to keep a running total of photocopies made on the copier in a log, and it seems few of the staff can add. I regularly notice that the total as increased or reduced 10 times in size.

Pritt-sticks are banned, yet they moan the art cupboard/ books are encased in PVA thanks to the infant classes.

Iceaddict · 22/01/2011 23:10

we were told at one job that the toilet was only for weeing in, no poos allowed!

whomovedmychocolate · 22/01/2011 23:18

I did once work somewhere that had 'executive' pens and 'employee' pens. The 'executive' pens had a clicky bit. The employee pens were just bog standard Bic jobbies.

Presumably that clicky bit was essential to signing cheques or something Confused

Oh and you could only have your own stapler if you had a secretary. Otherwise you had to take it to someone who had a secretary and ask her secretary to staple it.

This was not a small or insignificant company.

thenightsky · 22/01/2011 23:33

To explain the signing for an egg thing.....

You sign to say you are accepting full responsibility if you fall ill from eating said egg. This signing for rule was brought in round about the time of salmonella in eggs issues in the press.

mummytowillow · 22/01/2011 23:34

A prison in Liverpool - the admin clerk had the keys to certain offices and the stationery cupboard, If she went on holiday she locked the keys in her drawer, so no one could get a pen or use the office, complete madness!! I only left three months ago and it's still happening!

MotherMountainGoat · 22/01/2011 23:36

DH works in a university, and being public service, he has to pay for external calls from his office. Not a huge problem, as he deals with most things by e-mail, but me and him phone every so often for the 'can you pick up some milk on your way home from work' type conversations.

Obviously these short local calls cost very little. Yet he still gets an itemised bill every month from the finance department, which is generally about 10p. He then has to go along to the finance woman at a specified time in the week to pay this 10p in cash. He has in the past had written reminders when he's forgotten to pay it, accompanied by warnings of the dire consequences of not paying. He has suggested that he could just give them a fiver or tenner in advance, and they just take the monthly amount out of that, but no, that is not allowed.

This is the same department that was quite happy to give him a netbook plus a 17 inch laptop for home use, both in the same month.

I am bewildered that some of these rules can be legal - how can you possibly dictate that your employees cannot wear orange? How can you control what they wear on the way to work when they're not being paid? It's potty.

Portofino · 22/01/2011 23:42

At my Belgian employer, on the first day back after NY they give out free croissants and coffee. Every one mingles and you have to kiss each and every person you meet 3 times and wish them Happy New Year.

At 10 o'clock you go back to your department where they crack open the wine. Much drinking and more kissing ensues because there is bound to be someone you didn't see yet. Then everyone goes home again. Some people commute 1.5 hours each way for this!

But! If you should choose to avoid this farce the festivities and stay home, you have to use a whole day's leave! Not half a day to cover the actual "work" that everyone else did, but a whole day!

lololizzy · 22/01/2011 23:44

Same boss who threw the wobbly over the wrong sticky tape... ruled that the landline was not to be used by staff for ANY personal calls...not even in complete emergency. (this was before mobile phones). he was a real twunt and i was quite happy when a couple of years later he ended up in prison for fraud..seems all that nitpicking didn't stretch to him paying taxes etc..

potplant · 22/01/2011 23:51

Portofino - I like the sound of that.