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?

Just remembered, there is one company I have to deal with at work, who arrange training courses. I called them one day at about 12.25pm to book a course, and was just about to embark on credit card details etc. when the woman stopped me and said "don't bother starting to give your details now, as you won't get through them before our lunchbreak starts at 12.30pm".

How unprofessional, I thought, and asked her if maybe she wouldn't mind losing a minute or two from her break so we could finish the call.

"No, you don't understand", she said. "Our phones actually switch off at 12.30pm, and don't come back on again until 1.30pm." Apparently something to do with ensuring they all take their lunch breaks.

So she could be in the middle of a conversation WITH A PAYING CUSTOMER and the phone will just go dead, no questions asked.

Quite frankly, I'm amazed they are still in business.

i once worked in a place where you could only start a conversation with someone of the same seniority as yourself - as a junior clerk i could not to speak to anyone senior to myself unless they had initiated the conversation !

In my previous job, I was the first person on my floor to arrive at work one Monday morning, and went to open the window nearest to me, as it was a rather muggy day. However I could only open it about an inch-and-a-half.

I thought maybe the window was jammed, so spent about 5 minutes pulling and pulling at it, with no luck.

In defeat, I thought I'd open another window, but the same thing happened. I tried other windows, all the same.

At this point I was utterly bemused, as when we'd all gone home on the Friday, the windows had been fine.

Then someone from another floor popped in to drop something off for someone, and she laughed at my confused face, and told me the new management (the company had just been taken over a few months before) had ordered the modification of all the windows so they could only be opened slightly. This was to "avoid accidents or other distressing incidents."

I assumed by other distressing incidents, they meant to prevent anyone jumping out of the windows, which isn't really a good selling point for a company is it? "Our windows only open a fraction, to stop our staff jumping out the windows."

Seriously though, everyone thought it was utterly bonkers, and it meant we spent that summer sweating like pigs (we had no air conditioning, as it was an older building, and it wasn't economical to put AC in).

A new rule got added to the company code of conduct, which was that anyone who modified a window or windows themselves, so they would open further, would face disciplinary action!

They brought in a few other bonkers things too, for example we had a subsidised canteen, and to apparently save money there was a notice one day that said "you can now only have one filling with jacket potatoes." However, in the past, if you had two fillings you obviously got 'half and half', so you got the same amount of filling as someone who had one filling, it wasn't as though you were getting whole servings of both fillings! None of us could work out how banning 'two fillings' would save money!

I had gone back to work there part-time after my DS was born, but the place had become such a joke to work for, then when I found out I was pregnant with my twin DDs, I decided there and then I'd not go back and would WAHM instead.

CointreauVersial - you have reminded me of mine again, we were not allowed to leave any piece of paper with the words confidential on show overnight. However if you turned them over so that the word "confidential" could not be seen that was OK, because the security guards who went round checking and issuing the warning notes were not allowed to touch anything on the desks, much less turn over a sheet of paper.

Someone also told me once that I should not leave loose paper on my desk in case there was a bomb blast that sucked broke the windows and sucked all the paper out. Not sure if that was official company policy though or just a rumour.

Our office rules are as follows:

No cut flowers or plants - strictly enforced by building manager, so if we want to bring in flowers for someone's birthday, they have to receive them in the car park.

No visiting children anywhere in building except in canteen - so when I took my newborn twins in to see colleagues, I couldn't have them by my relatively safe desk in case something happened, but I could have them in the canetten with people carrying round knives, forks and hot food and drinks.

No kettles, we have hyrdo taps with safety buttons

No toasters, and not allowed to use canteen toaster for own bread as apparently toasting bread brought in from outside is against H&S (nothing to do with profit margins apparently)

All give a travel cup with lid for hot drinks at all times, no exceptions

When pg I wasn't allowed to use the building stairs either, but also wasn't allowed to change my parking space to one closer to the building to avoid using the steps in the carpark.

at the ones around not starting conversations during initiation / with people more senior!
Whn did you lot work - the 19thC??

To be fair to some businesses, I think some of these silly rules may derive from their company insurance regulations. Children in the workplace may be one of them. If there is an accident, the company may not be covered.

Of course there are others made up be 'jobsworth' and small minded people.

If you get sent away on a training course you can claim back for a "reasonable price" lunch. All hell broke loose when someone super-sized their McDonalds. There was even a memo sent around to everyone,"this sort of abuse of the system will not be tolerated". Flipping 'eck!

working in a well known dept store floor rules disallowed the wearing of 'poison' perfume - this is the perfume hall.

I used to work for a company where you got a three course meal free every day. Soup and roll or fruit juice, followed by about five choices of main course and then dessert. Only water was provided to drink but most people used their fruit juice starter as their drink during the meal. If you didn't feel well and thought you'd just have soup for lunch you were stopped by the Dinnerladies and sternly informed:

"You can NOT have soup AND orange juice." "Look, I've got a rotten cold, I'm not hungry, it's ALL I'M HAVING"

"It doesn't matter that it's all you're having, you can't have soup AND orange juice"
"Are you saying that a 150ml of orange juice costs more than roast chicken with all the trimmings and apple crumble and custard?"
"You can't have soup AND orange juice."

When I went for my maternity leave briefing the HR woman told me that all children (and dogs incidentally, but I wasn't planning on giving birth to one of those) were banned from campus.

I said, "Hang on, we run visit days for school kids, community open days, and also I had to have a CRB check when I started in case I lectured someone under 18. We have nappy changing tables in the toilets and high chairs in all the catering outlets. We even have a nursery on site. Since when were they banned?"

Her response was, "You're twisting my words".

WTF?

I heart this thread, it justifies me taking redundancy

At college we HAVE to wear a lanyard with our id card on it at all times. But we aren't allowed to wear anything dangly whilst using the sewing machines, this would make doing a fashion course a tiny bit difficult.

LaughedHerselfStupidAtThisThreadTiggaxx

Shuddering at these! The only unreasnable Work Rule we operate under at the moment is, no playdough over the carpet. At least, DS thinks it's unreasnable!

I used to work in an academic department where things were very laid-back and lax - the occasional directive would come in from on high, but it was treated with the derision it deserved. We were meant to have any personal electric equipment (like a phone charger) checked out and stickered by the safety staff, but nobody ever bothered. Like boffinmum, we were told no booze consumed on the premises, but unlike her, this had no time limit, the bastards. We held regular student/staff quiz nights where various people would get trollied, so theoretically, those were now dry. Were they hell...

The only time things were taken seriously was after a freak accident involving a pair of tweezers, after which, our H&S policy was rewritten.

unreasonable, I mean. tch

Now Reshape, you have to tell us more. Was it a rude accident??????????

Sorry, ChasingRainbows, that sounds like an eminently sensible rule to me!! That stuff is radioactive - the smell could knock you out.

Nope, really boring. Just unexpected. Someone who should probably have known better managed to gouge really quite a large hole in her chest with the sharp end of the tweezers after walking into a door!

I had quite a few temp jobs in a further education college. One, in the library was for one whole week.

When checking on the last day what time I should go to lunch, I was informed rather frostily by the librarian that on Friday all the library staff ate their lunch together in the library as a team-building exercise, and that I was expected to join them.

To my dying day I will wonder why I didn't ask her why the Fucking Hell she thought she could tell someone who wasn't going to be there the following week anyway that they had to essentially stay at work during their lunch hour, for which they were not being paid. I desperately wish I had informed her that if she wanted me to do something particular during my lunchbreak then it constituted work and I should be paid for it.

I suppose I sucked it up in case it affected me being offered any other work at the same place.

I worked for a very large charity which forbade staff to smoke within 5 miles of the building.

i worked in a factory once, where you had 2 20 minute breaks.
Your drink would be put out for you every time by the man in charge of it all (think he was also caretaker?), and that meant you had to have the same one every single time.
I managed to get it through to him (eventually) that i only wanted a hot drink in the morning, not the afternoon, but once I wanted soup instead of my usual cup of tea (i very often had to drink it even though I didn't fancy it) and he was grumpy towards me for a week

Lol at signing for egg and Mick who vaults over desks. I am horrified though at the many women who are not allowed to wear trousers in this day and age. Does sex discrimination legislation not apply to those offices? Unless of course the men have to wear skirts too which would be fine

Boring really but my old boss when I was pregnant didn't want me to carry tea up the stairs on a tray... because it could cause miscarriage apparently It was ok though to get second degree burns from scaling tea double

No bleach in toilets because it is a hazardous substance and would be checked at audit. Cue much panic when auditor turns up as the bleach has to be hidden and the fridge checked for mouldy food. Because that is the priority in a bank.

But have to say I loved, loved, loved every minute I worked there and their old fashioned, slightly bonkers ways. Good old Bradford and Bingley

when I worked at Powergen, if you had a hot drink, you had to use a cup holder.
fair enough, hot drinks etc.
most of us had <a class="break-all" href="http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=www.allianceonline.co.uk/product_images/DCPH0100.jpg&imgrefurl=www.allianceonline.co.uk/catering-disposables/cups/carry-trays-and-cup-holders/plastic-cup-holder-for-2025cl-cups-dcph0100.html&usg=__Z3qJPsOQo3muNvD0oKLU3wbR8_c=&h=500&w=500&sz=35&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=yDXFfyet8H3bmM:&tbnh=142&tbnw=145&ei=kwQ7TcOnFoKAhQe00ZicCg&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dplastic%2Bcup%2Bholder%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26hs%3DIj1%26sa%3DX%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-GB:official%26biw%3D1280%26bih%3D847%26tbs%3Disch:1%26prmd%3Divns&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=128&vpy=171&dur=379&hovh=225&hovw=225&tx=105&ty=112&oei=kwQ7TcOnFoKAhQe00ZicCg&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=24&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">executive cup holders so if we were getting a drink for ourselves only, that's fine.
there were also <a class="break-all" href="http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=www.officepad.co.uk/media/A/AU12446.jpg&imgrefurl=www.officepad.co.uk/categories/catering-catering-cups-and-glasses-byprice.shtml&usg=__jfzEJLw67JpdKgYjEssUwUfW9-A=&h=156&w=200&sz=6&hl=en&start=35&zoom=1&tbnid=dRdnT5h5gYMKoM:&tbnh=124&tbnw=160&ei=tQQ7TevaD9qShAfLx6T1Cg&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dplastic%2Bcup%2Btray%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26hs%3DX4g%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-GB:official%26biw%3D1280%26bih%3D847%26tbs%3Disch:10%2C228&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=865&vpy=640&dur=6&hovh=124&hovw=160&tx=101&ty=71&oei=sAQ7TZT4CoG2hAeJtdWeCg&esq=2&page=2&ndsp=20&ved=1t:429,r:3,s:35&biw=1280&bih=847" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">cup trays for multiple cups.
Once 2 of us went up for drinks, and we had the cup tray, but I wanted to drink mine as we went. my colleague took the tray with the rest of the drinks and i took my cup (without holder). I got stopped and told off for not having a cup holder, I was about 10 yards away from my desk, so I pointed this out. I was told no, i must use a cup holder. He made me walk all the way down the office with him to pick up a cup holder to take it back to my desk. I was totally and properly arguing against it!
When I got back to my desk, everyone went "why were you arguing with

Being told we were not allowed to work without tights in 90 degree summer heat on a ward with radiators still blasting due to the risk of 'vulval debris'