Strange / silly rules at work

[melpomene]

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 .

Has anyone else got any silly rules?

Sorry Bran!

I used to work for a large theme park. Some of our rules:
No sunglasses - this led to me working on sunny days, at a ticket counter with a metal tray, being blinded, because I wasn't able to wear my (prescription and recommended by optician) transitions-lensed glasses, had to wear the ones where the lenses didn't change.

No visible tattoos

No wearing own coats over uniform

No siblings/relatives/couples working together in the same kiosk/building

No unnatural hair dying - including blonde highlights or flashes in dark hair, and vice versa

I worked somewhere where the boss was obsessed with the way things where filed. They had to have one hole punched about 2 inches from the top left (the hole punch was marked with the exact measurement). Then filed in to one of 3 possible files for each client using a treasury tag. He was not pleased the hole was not in the right place or something was put in the wrong file. I always got a bit confused about whether correspondence from the VAT office should go in the correspondence or VAT file.

Suncottage..re the feng shui...all sounding v familiar!! i have to keep crystals on each light switch and a certain one where the money is to increase money flow (doesn't work!!)

Suncottage..re the feng shui...all sounding v familiar!! i have to keep crystals on each light switch and a certain one where the money is to increase money flow (doesn't work!!)

i once worked for Boots and there were these horrible posters in the bogs behind every bog door demanding (i don't think this is word for word, but pretty close) - 'It is my business to look good, feel good'. They didn't like you not wearing makeup. But i was only in the photo lab and didn't serve customers!

also as receptionist at a solicitor's..no eating garlic (at home, or any time).
Boy did i pig out on garlic bread after my temp contract was over!!

I work in the public sector, office based, not client-facing. We have a fairly standard dress code - professional looking tops designed to go under jackets are okay, men don't have to wear ties but do have to have collared shirts, etc. But weirdly the dress code used to be very specific on the issue of "no corduroy permitted". I like to think that the person who drew it up had a specifc loathing for the stuff!

At Christmas our facilities team briefly considered asking me to take the three-foot high fake tinsel christmas tree I'd brought in home, since "the box doesn't have a kite mark on it". Apparently that meant it might be a fire risk since it hadn't necessarily been treated with some fire retardent chemical. Strangely all the bog-standard non-tree-shaped tinsel around the place (also not kite marked) was fine.

If we sent personal or sensitive information out in the post we do it by special delivery. Fair enough. But if it is the "restricted" level of sensitivity, like something to do with someone's health or criminal record, then we have to take an extra level of precaution: double envelopes. You put the paper in one envelope, address it and stamp "restricted: personal" on the front. Then - and here is the important bit - you put it in another envelope, and address it again. That extra envelope will surely stop the letter getting lost or stolen, since everybody knows that a thief would never bring themself to open two envelopes.

I once ran a department (not for long though) for a place that had a rule, that said the second the radio stopped, everyone down tools, either for lunch or home.....forget what deadlines had to be met, everyone just HAD to stop..even if 10 minutes would of got the job finished....you were also expected to pack away your work too,,,& then get it out to start again later....but if work didn't get out on time, there was hell to pay....& then staff HAD to come in on Saturday & sometimes sunday morning, though paid triple time & a bonus for it......consequently cutters etc, quite happily faffed around & it was REALLY hard to get them to put there heads down & work, because they could earn a LOT more on a weekend & then throw a sicky & get paid mid week......I bet they wonder why they went bust too

Also worked for another where the Guy who owned it would follow you too the toilet & stand outside & time you....more than 10 minutes & he docked your wages......needless to say I didn't stay there long eother

My Dh said when he worked for Tesco warehouse there was a rule that you could only have 5 minutes in the toilet. He once was in there 10 mins and got a bollocking for it

not that bad but the staff in our canteen are terrifying. i once didn't take my usual soup and they nearly spat on me as they'd already poured it out. the kids also aren't allowed to have fish and chips on a friday unless they've signed up for it in the morning - there is always someone who's forgotten so i always stick on an extra couple (in case someone's forgotten and also to wind up the dinner ladies a bit...)

Really laughing at 'hope you've signed for that egg'

Wonderingstar is that bp?

Colleague of mine was admonished by a random employee when she visited ther - walking upstairs on a call on her mobile also holding a coffee was not permited. They made her stop the call and put the mobile away before she was allowed to continue up the stairs!

I worked somewhere where the smokers all got an extra 10 minute tea break morning and afternoon. The non smokers (me) couldn't have one because I didn't need to smoke!

kendodd that makes me think of one office worked in, you couldnt mingle with the other office (accounts, i was in sales) to chat with friends in there or mingle around the coffee but if you smoked you could have a 20 minute cig break in the smokers room chatting. luckily i use to bring one of the supervisors and her daughter to work so she would say to me 'you coming for a fag?' Even though i didnt smoke!

to get me out the office for a few minutes or 20

I used to work in a firm of trade mark agents where all support staff were ranked by who they worked for. So if you were using the photocopier, and a partner's secretary needed to use it, you had to stop what you were doing and let her take your place, or if you were boiling just enough water for a cup of tea, you had to let her have it.

Another office I worked in had an unwritten rule that staff would only speak to new staff members on work-related issues until they had passed their probation period. Only then would social interaction be permitted.

sign for an egg

Whoa ttalloo! that's awful! i once worked in a certain establishment where a certain well known lady (rhymes with Flangela Nippon) also worked. Same thing there..if she got to the vending machine seconds after me, who would push in to get her coffee?! Hag!!!

And the funny thing was, lololizzy, that if a partner wandered into the kitchen to use the kettle, they would always wait their turn.

And wait till I tell my mum about Flangela's vending machine antics - she'll be moooooost disappointed!

Such snobbery!
Flangela was also beyond snooty. I was very young and new and a bit

I once worked in a residential home got food poisoning after a meal in a restaurant and called in sick , we were then told not to go out if you had work the next day in case anything happened to you, thing was they were so short staffed we were all working seven day weeks we would have no social life at all , we were not allowed to eat garlic the night before a shift either .
One time i caught a severe stomach bug called in sick and the deputy called me back to demand i came back to work and they would give me a easy floor to do ! i had a mind to go in there and puke all over the floor to serve them right , the weirdest thing is the home was full of very frail vulnerable adults the bug could have killed them and when i returned to work the boss draged me into the office lectured me on how much agency staff cost as if i got the bug on purpose to annoy her .She was a total psycho though she used to get staff in the office and tell them their colleugues had been talking about them when they hadnt and deny all knowledge if it was mentioned. The wondeful working life of a carer.

I remember, back in the late 70s, temping at a seriously grim place in North London (unhelpfully a long way from anywhere useful like shops or sandwich bars) where the lunch break ran from 11.30 till 2.15 and you were randomly allocated your time - which, due to the lack of alternatives, meant a visit to the canteen since you weren't allowed to take lunch at your desk. In practice this meant that people like me who can't even face breakfast as early as 11.30 would always draw the early lunch while other girls in the office were positively fainting from lack of sustenance as they waited till 2.15. Since this was an office that operated 9 - 5.30, with absolutely no contact with the public, there was no reason for all this strict staggering of breaks. But more weirdly, the office manager would ring a little bell ten minutes before lunch and going home times and announce "Ladies! Time to powder noses!" at which signal we were expected to troop off to the lav and titivate ourselves ready to face the canteen or the train journey home. This "nose powdering" being an order, not an option based on whether you actually wanted to use the facilities.

You won't be surprised to learn that this was another office where women were not allowed to wear trousers.

if a fly comes into our office we all have to turn the lights off and open the doors and windows so it can go out (no fly swatting allowed!)