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“Rules are good. Rules help control the fun,” said Monica Geller in Season 5 of Friends. And she might be right; rules are indeed good and important as they help avoid chaos in so many situations. However, similarly to Monica, some rules can be too much.
Examples of rules taken one step too far have been discussed by members of the Quora community. In a recent thread, they’ve shared office rules that made them say "You gotta be kidding me", which we have gathered on this list for you to browse. Scroll down to find them and see for yourself how bizarre some rules can get.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
This is a million years ago when I was young and working as a secretary (pre admin assistant days) in a firm where the management was all male. The non management staff was about 50/50 male and female. In the coffee room there was a rota on the wall showing which woman employee’s turn it was to clean the coffee room up at the end of the day, make the coffee etc. I was only 22 but I immediately said to my (male) boss, why are only the women on this list? The men use the coffee room too, why don’t they have to take turns cleaning it up? There was a lot of kercluffle because no one had ever objected before. The men were indignant, THEY had to do ‘women’s work’??? Finally the rota came down and the new policy was in place: everyone cleaned up after themselves. The women refused to clean up the men’s coffee cups, so if they left them dirty in the sink, that’s where they were next morning. Small victories, decades ago.
Pickles, Pennies, & Ponies 2 years ago
One of my supervisors would just throw the dishes/coffee mugs away if they were not put in the dishwasher at the end of the day by the owners of them.
Gardener of Weeden 2 years ago
" but that was my grandmothers cup" - well you should have washed it.
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Roberta Bedard 2 years ago
yers ago I refused to wash the engineer's cups. when they grew mold, the engineer's gave in.
to old to care 2 years ago
and at the end of the week, if the dishes are still in the sink - I throw them away!!! (Yes, I have done that)
Linnoff 2 years ago
Where I used to work, the policy was everyone cleans for themselves. Of course this meant plenty of things were just left in the sink or old containers in the fridge. Cleaning wasn't exactly my job, but every now and then I'd be asked to deal with it. Well, I'm not washing out people's old food, so it all just went in the trash. If they didn't care enough about their container/dish to clean it, why should I? I felt a little bad about how many things I threw away, but again, not really my job. (20+ containers a month)
marianne eliza 2 years ago (edited)
I hated the office kitchen. 2 fridges, always overflowing with potluck leftovers or other people's food that had sat there for gawd knows how long. Since I worked the 12-8pm shift and was the only person in the office after 6pm, I made it my business to post paper signs warnings of a fridge cleanout every couple of months. Plenty of advance notice for those on vacation. If it was in the fridge after 6pm on that Friday, it was trash. Both fridges and freezers. I took home what I wanted from the freezers that still was usable and filled 2 full sized plastic trash bins, the 50 gallon ones, with the rest. Also regularly threw out used dishes and cups that spent more than 1 full day on the counter or in the sink. Jeez people are pigs.
Donna Cornell Williams 1 year ago
I remember being the only female lab scientist in the hospital I worked at. My male boss would wait for me to walk in at 10:00 AM and assign me to make coffee. I balked at it and he made jokes about it. I think I finally won.
ROSESARERED 2 years ago
My first job had a roster for women too. That manager's mug was put in a box, smashed and mailed to his new store
RELATED:
#2
In 1967, heyday of the tiny miniskirt, writing on the chalk board above eye level meant holding the back hem of the skirt down wth one hand.
Most of the younger female teachers solved this by wearing pants.
We got a new, young, male principal, who announced at a staff meeting that all female teachers were to wear skirts.
The next day, every single female teacher showed up in pants, even those who had to go out to buy a pair. This wasn't even a planned group action.
Not another word was ever said.
Donkey boi 2 years ago
I suggested 'Naked Tuesdays' to the team. They seemed onboard, but apparently, according to Michelle, the patients attending the clinic might not appreciate it.
Bouche and Audi and Shyla, Oh My! 2 years ago
Stupid patients, always ruining things.
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Mylittlecorgi 2 years ago
We got a new vice principal who insisted male staff wear dress shirt and tie, and female staff was to wear dress/skirt, along with pantyhose. I got elected to speak to him about this. It was a really short conversation, and he never mentioned staff dress codes again.
Jon Steensen 1 year ago
that is when you pull out the ugliest pantyhoes you can find, think orange and pink stribes, leopard patterned or the rainbowcoloured ones.
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BetterBitterButter 2 years ago
I love how no one planned this and yet it happened. Even if it was planned it would have been awesome.
Lisa Taylor 2 years ago
This reads very differently in the UK. 'Pants' are knickers / briefs/ underwear! :-D
#3
"'Outside a formally scheduled meeting, employees are not allowed to talk to anyone for more than two minutes.' This ended quickly after the staff started maliciously complying by just turning and walking away abruptly from managers and executives at the end of two minutes anytime they stopped to talk to them."
A Something 2 years ago
My petty self would be armed with a stop watch and a whistle and blow it when the 2 minutes were up
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Cari Owens 2 years ago
And you know these managers were like "WTF? Where are you going??" Well, you said that, outside meetings, no talking to anyone more than two minutes. Well two minutes are up so...BYE!
#4
When I was promoted to a senior manager at a major public accounting firm, it meant a new office, a piece of wall art, and a plant. Our ‘plant service’ gave me a plant that I discovered liked a bit more light and a bit more water so I moved it closer to my window and gave it additional water beyond what the plant service gave it in their weekly visit. The plant thrived.
One day the plant service showed up with a measuring tape, and then started to take my plant away. I asked why and was told only Partners could have a plant over 30 inches tall.
Sue Denham 2 years ago
Sounds to me like the partners had some insecurity issues going on there.
Per-Ole Sjuve 2 years ago
"Hey Mike, have you seen Barry's 40 incher?" "Absolutely George. That's why we call him Big Boss Barry".
Lakota Wolf 2 years ago
So they were essentially denying a living thing the stuff it needed to thrive >:( Plants may not have “thoughts” and “emotions” the way animals do, but it is still abuse to withhold nourishment and other sustenance from a plant because of stupid rules about its HEIGHT. Also why not just prune it a bit, then, if it couldn’t be over 30” tall? Sensible pruning won’t kill a plant, but will control its height without harming it.
Zenozenobee 2 years ago
Why did they even bother giving living plants? To that point, plastic ones wouldn't risk to trigger Partners' insecurities...
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Couragetcd 2 years ago
Sorry, we can't leave this plant here, it is proof you are a better manager than your boss since you managed to grow it more than 30 inches.
ZGutr 1 year ago
Plant service was always impressed with one of the plants in our office. It did better that the rest. The guy however exploded one day when he walked in and saw someone dumping old tea in the plant (which he had been doing for years). Suddenly he said the plant wasn't doing well and we were on our way of killing it fast and ruthless.
#5
I worked in college athletics and we had an athletics director that was literally a control freak nutjob. One day she sent the staff an email saying: “Effective immediately, if you leave the building for ANY reason during the day, you are required to email me prior to leaving, telling me where you are going, why you’re leaving, and when you are returning.” Wait, what? Do we work in a prison? Fed up with the totalitarian state, one of my coworkers decided to answer fire with fire: “I’m leaving to go up to the library to take a [poop]. They have the cleanest toilets on campus. This might take a while. I’ll be back when I’m done.” The next day, the new rule was revoked.
Seadog 2 years ago
It would be great if someone as they were dying, had sent a message that they were dying and would therefore soon be leaving permanently.
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Not-a-Clue (she/her) 2 years ago
I'm wondering what would happen if the fire alarm went off? Being expected to email to say you were evacuating would definitely contravene health & safety regulations!
Ken Beattie 2 years ago
Depends on your rules. Where I worked we weren't supposed to leave until our floor fire warden came through and told us to. I'd assume that was per guidelines since we were a government department and they were sticklers.
Load More Replies... White Sauce Hot Sauce 2 years ago
Fire alarm goes off. She stops everyone from leaving until they send her an email.
Cuppa tea? 2 years ago
Had similar petty rules at work - to call supervisor when leaving assigned workplace to visit toilet. In a way it made sense as they knew we are out of they will be looking for us for any reason. But one colleague took it to next level, when she called everytime with exact description of reason for toilet visit.
Ken Beattie 2 years ago (edited)
It's pretty easy to imagine why the boss implemented the rule in the first place. No doubt trying to find an employee and couldn't. Of course it'd make sense to only do "out of office" if it's for a long time (like a meeting) not 5 minutes for a pee or a smoke. When I first started work we had an "out board". Literally a whiteboard near the receptionist where you'd write down where you'd gone and expected to be back. But didn't need to note down pee breaks :)
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Celtic Pirate Queen 2 years ago
Even though I worked for the Vice President, I was technically under the supervision of the Director of Admin & HR. She was a total b*tch (probably didn't help that when I had to type a memo for her I corrected her grammar & spelling) and decided I wasn't spending my day "productively", so I had to fill out a log to account for my time. Cue malicious compliance: 8:00am - turned on computer. 8:05am - went to kitchen for coffee. 8:10am - answered phone. You get the idea. Yes, I included using the bathroom, started taking my ENTIRE one hour lunch and was STILL getting all my tasks done. She got so bad I decided to quit. My Boss (the VP) begged me not to leave. So we hatched a plan. I quit, giving her my resignation with 2 weeks notice. She actually grinned like she had won. 2 weeks later and the VP hired me to work directly for him, same exact duties, higher wage and she had no authority over me whatsoever. Who's grinning now, Patrice?
#6
Not quite an office rule, but…
In my early days working in a lab we were told we had to put expiry dates on all of our chemicals. As the most junior this task was given to me.
One month later we had an inspection. The report came through that I’d not put an expiry date on the bottle of sand. This is used for heating baths (you fill a container with sand and heat that container - it spreads the heat evenly) so it was irrelevant how old it was. However, anything to keep the peace so I put an expiry date on it.
The following month’s report had another complaint. About the sand. “But it’s got an expiry date on it! Was my plea.
“Yes, but October 15th 65,000,1978 isn’t realistic.” Came the reply.
“But that sand is already 200 million years old. It’s not going to go off before then.”
The powers that be issued an edict - nothing was to have an expiry date more than 3 years hence. So I was told I had to order new sand every three years in case the old stuff had gone off. You gotta be kidding me.
One day I’ll tell you about the edict they issued saying that pi was exactly 3.14
Stannous Flouride 2 years ago
There's a wonderful (and very addicting) UK radio panel show called "The Unbelievable Truth" that has its comedian guests create a short lecture on an assigned subject that is a mix lies and truths and their opponents have to guess which ones are true. They absolutely LOVE America's bizarre laws like this.
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martin734 2 years ago
That is a bit ridiculous about the sand but I can sort of understand the Pi thing. When doing using something like Pi, it is a good idea to have a standard definition for Pi. Otherwise people could use different rounding processes. Some could use 3.14, some could use 3.142, others could even use 3.1, all of which will give slightly different results to their calculations. That is not ideal if you are looking for precision.
Jackson 2 years ago
Look at how precise your answer has to be and use the appropriate number of digits for Pi, or use as many digits as your calculator has programmed in for the value of Pi and round the answer to the right number of digits. If you don't use enough precision, your answer could be wrong. This is dangerous in engineering. If your answer has too many digits, people assume that you have that level of precision.
Load More Replies... HolQ 2 years ago
No, but is quite important to use fresh purified/deionized water. Plastic bottle can contaminate it after longer exposure and affect results of analysis
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JL 2 years ago
So every three years, slap a new sticker on the old sand, pocket the money allocated to buy fresh sand, and take a vacation to the beach.
DC 2 years ago
... and take the new, fresh sand to the beach. You know, somebody already has dropped a lot of that there ... contribute to society, and beaches, ...
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Matthew Fox 2 years ago
This one I kind of see the point. The sand is a reusable material and can potentially become contaminated.
Susan Reid Smith 2 years ago
Maybe the person demanding an expiration date for the sand has cats?
Load More Replies... Jon Steensen 1 year ago (edited)
yeah you also sometimes see labels on rocksalt promoting how it had formed thousands of years ago, only to be dug up and delivered to your table, and then the package has an expiration date on it that is a few years into the future. I mean how lucky do you have to discover a product that is thousands of years old, right before it was about to become too old, but is still sellable?
Gurgle Queen 1 year ago
I would have just stuck a new label on the existing sand when it was time to replace it.
#7
The office manager decreed that only detectives could have lined paper pads as she believed they needed them. As a prosecutor I used such pads in court. When told I couldn’t have them anymore I simply made a template of lined paper on the pc, with nice wide gaps between lines, photocopied off 500 sheets to staple them as pads. She saw me stapling the pads and had a hissy fit at the cost - we got lined pads!
LooseSeal's $10 Banana 2 years ago
Well everyone knows that only detectives need to write in straight lines.
les 2 years ago
sherlock homes admitted that while he was perfectly capable of solving the case, unfortunatelly he wasn't able this time as watson had ordered blank medical diaries by mistake and until watson used them all he would be practicing a nurse instead. it would be fair to say that this series of 7 books did not satisfy the murder fans. but they were available to fax to other people
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Blue Bunny of Happiness 2 years ago
Reminds me of working for a local council in the early 90s. Gel pens were a newish thing. We had to hand write all our notes and so got through a lot of biros, half of which as they were cheap would block, stop working or blob everywhere. They decided to try gel pens. The office manager insisted that you took your empty gel pen back to her to swap for a new one, otherwise you got a blobby biro. I used to buy my own pens. Couldn’t be bothered with the saga!
#8
A friend at work used to like to make herself a cup of instant oatmeal when she came in, using the boiling water tap. Then she would sit with the cup on her desk and have a spoonful here and there while she worked.
Then a supervisor told her she was not allowed to eat at her desk.
But others in the office often had their own mugs that they sipped, so she asked, why could she not have a cup at her desk while everyone else did? Well, coffee, tea, hot chocolate, that is different, because it’s not food. It’s drink. But some people made cup-o-soup or ramen noodles in their cups; wasn’t that food? Well, yes, that was food, but it didn’t need a spoon.
What? That’s right, you can drink ramen noodles or instant soup without a spoon, but oatmeal requires you to lift it to your mouth with a spoon. Mugs without spoons? Ok. Mugs with spoons? Verboten.
I would have just made my oatmeal with more water so that I didn’t need a spoon, but she went to HR and complained. HR told her she could only have food at her desk (food defined as being needed to be eaten with a utensil) if she had a medical condition that required her to eat throughout the day. So she got her doctor to provide a note that she had low blood sugar and required food at her desk.
Can we all just take a moment here and realize how ridiculous this is?
Mad Dragon 2 years ago (edited)
I'm reading this at work while currently eating my bowl of mac and cheese. Our rules for food at our desk are simple. Don't bring anything strong-smelling and if there are onions on your sandwich please throw the wrapper out in the trash outside, not in the trashcan inside.
Howl's sleeping castle 2 years ago
Eating at desk was allowed in my office. But as we all know it takes a few to spoil things for everyone else. People starting leaving leftovers (apple core, fruit peels, crumbs) that caused a major rodent problem. Eating at desk was banned after that.
Robert T 2 years ago
If you've ever had to clean bits of food out of a keyboard, you'll know why such rules exist.
Leoninus Fate 2 years ago
yeah, cause you know liquids just bounce off keyboards
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Donkey boi 2 years ago
But if your gonna nit-pick, all drinks are food. Food by definition is anything that is ingested or consumed for flavour or nutritional value (except alcohol & tobacco for some reason).
Dawnieangel76 2 years ago
I work at a food wholesaler. There is literally food available all day long. We're constantly eating at our desks. We'd all laugh if someone new came along & said we couldn't anymore.
Jon Steensen 1 year ago
You need a doctor's not to inform you employeer that you are human, and that humans needs to eat every now and then? Well if your employeers level of general knowledge is at that low a level, I think it is a case for some reprecautions.
Jessica butts 2 years ago
Healthcare providers HATE that corporations waste our time On this c**p, just treat your employees like human beings!! Who cares if they do their work and clean up after themselves
#9
Banned all coffeemaking devices. And all outside coffee from home, restaurants or coffee shop. Charged $1 per generic Keurig pod and $.50 in a coin operated machine.
The machine provided only enough water for about 2/3rds of a cup.
In my experience, nothing is a clearer indication of a company's character and culture than their coffee arrangements.
This was one of the most aggressively toxic workplaces I've ever seen. Truly horrible.
Daft Mosquito 2 years ago
I suspect management got a kickback from the vending machine operator.
John Dilligaf 2 years ago
I suspect that someone in management WAS the vending machine owner/operater
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Diana Graham 2 years ago
My work said we couldn't bring food from home and had to pay for a meal in the restaurant. I said i was on a special diet for health reasons. They said I needed to have a doctors note. No problem. My doctor hates this c**p. Needed tofu and strict caloric intake and a bunch of stuff. They'd have to specially buy for my meals. We were allowed to bring our own meals in. Priceless!!!
Justin Thyme 2 years ago
If that happened in construction, nothing would get built. Coffee is our life blood.
Donkey boi 2 years ago
We've got 3 different coffee makers (pod type, filter, and espresso machine) as well as instant. It comes out of the budget.
ZGutr 1 year ago (edited)
We have free -and good- coffee. When I saw a manager started cleaning and filling the machine (we're to small to have 'kitchen-staff') I offered to take over since he most often does it. He just said "hell no! you guys are directly in contact with- and helping our customers. It's my job to facilitate you guys, and each one of you seems to run on coffee so......."
Littlemiss 2 years ago
My old place made you bring in a cup, sugar, and milk but provided a tin of the most disgusting brown gunk that was labeled coffee. I took in my own sachets of drinks. My manager stole them all and expected me to buy more for her. She was well known for thieft. Of course she was allowed to because it was a family run business and I wasn't family.
Mary Kelly 2 years ago
not a good rule to follow....all major lawfirms have unlimited free coffee and beverages (and so much free food)...and, they have someone or two or three to make sure a fresh pot is always on and the fridges are filled with your favorite sodas...and they are some of the most toxic places in the world to work...the beverages and food are just there so you never have to leave....if they could, they'd fit you with a catheter
Blue Bunny of Happiness 2 years ago
You’ll never work for the NHS then. We have a team kitty to buy these, costs too much money. We used to get tea/coffee during a training course, but they stopped funding that. Most of us trainers just buy them ourselves for our courses. People concentrate a lot better in my experience if they have access to a hot drink and feel valued! A private company won the contract for a service I used to work in, one of the things they proudly told us at the onboarding (when did that become a term??) was that they provided free tea and coffee. Pretty much the only perk, especially when they started to change working conditions as soon as they legally could….
Load More Replies... #10
I worked at a place that instituted a new policy where if you were 10 minutes late, you were docked an hour. I have no idea if this was legal as it was in the early 80s and I didn’t know what the rules were then.
Anyway, I mentioned to a manager that if I was going to be more than 10 minutes late to work, I wouldn’t bother showing up until I was an hour late as I wasn’t going to work for free. He didn’t grok what I was saying. Naturally, no one was even less than an hour late after that. It didn’t take management long to realize their error and change the policy.
Scott Rackley 2 years ago
The did the same thing at our plant with points. 10 minutes late is a full point (think discipline), same as if you didn't come in that day at all. Of course, now if employees were late they just wouldn't come in at all. So, big brain time, they'll only give you a half point if you come in before lunch. Once again, barely late employees would go back home and come in at 11:55. Eventually they learned.
A Something 2 years ago
Did this at a logistics company I worked for. If you were 3 minutes late you’d get 15 docked (even admin staff which is what I was) the amount of times I’d stand outside the gate in full view of hr and have a smoke to then clock in at 14 minutes past. She used to try and berate me but I said I don’t work for free if I’m loosing 15 pay I’m not working for it
Celtic Pirate Queen 2 years ago
Glad they came to their senses. And yes, if you were in the US I can guarantee docking you a full hour was illegal.
#11
There was one rule that I could never get behind at the place I worked around 2007.
"The playing of games on company equipment is strictly prohibited."
I never really understood why they had it in my contract. I didn't like it. I didn't agree with it. In fact nobody on my entire team agreed with it. So much so that we frequently broke it on multiple occasions, and we didn't care. Some times, at times of high stress (like when a major deadline was looming) we felt we “just needed a bit of play time”. D'you know what I mean? In fact, we probably broke this rule even MORE when deadlines were looming! Clearly my employer either didn't notice, or chose to let it slip under the rader, because they never raised it in the 3 years I was there. I've never been much of a rebel, but I really felt like one then.
The company was called Bandai Namco. My job was as a Video Game Programmer.
Not-a-Clue (she/her) 2 years ago
I was kind of in agreement with this until the revelation at the end 😂
TheSilentEngineer 2 years ago
Wow the last part made me spit my coffee on my desk. I never understood policies like this, my project manager has this weekly meeting scheduled for our group on fridays where we play scribble.io together as team bonding. That is a better approach in my opinion
Bradley Auerbach 2 years ago (edited)
How can you test games if you aren’t allowed to play them at work? If a game company has such a rule, then employees may maliciously comply and cause a game to be shipped with way too many bugs because nobody tested the game so the bugs could be discovered and fixed; I wonder if rules like this are why buggy games happen!
John L 2 years ago
What? You named the company AND your position. Hope you don't mysteriously vanish. ☺
Charles Barrow 2 years ago
There might have be a protection against accusations of plagiarism and stealing of code and assets, that was explained.
#12
When I was working as a television anchor and reporter in local news in the 1980s, our general manager set a dress code rule. Anyone reporter on camera in the studio or in the field had to be in business attire — suit and tie for men, business suit for women.
Fair enough.
But one day I’m doing a stand up from the scene of a breaking news story. It’s recorded — not live. I’m halfway through my spiel when my videographer slowly leans away from the viewfinder, shaking his head.
“It ain’t working, is it,” I asked.
“Nope,” Chad said. “Nobody wears a suit and tie to a forest fire.”
The rule was rescinded that afternoon.
marianne eliza 2 years ago
Turn out gear, like the firefighters wear but emblazoned with the station's logo. Kind of thought it was funny until I moved to a wildfire area and saw my neighbor get doused with that pink fire retardant from a plane. Okay, I get it now.
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#13
I worked at a place that made everyone sing happy birthday once a month to all the people who had a birthday that month.
If you didn’t show, you got disciplined. And you had to sing. The HR Director scanned the room to make sure everyone was singing. If you didn’t, you got spoken to.
It was the most assinine, morale-back-firing policy I have ever experienced. That place was a nightmare.
Bonus “you gotta be kidding me”:
The boss there tried to make an employee get rid of their car because it was nicer than his, and that didn’t “give the right impression”.
TiNaBoNiNa 2 years ago
Totally illegal. There are religions that do not observe birthdays. Enforcing this would violate their right of religious freedom. It would be like requiring a Muslim to sing Christmas carols or a Christian to sing Satanic hymns.
Gardener of Weeden 2 years ago
The singing would have been nixed the moment I opened my mouth. I can not carry a tune in a bucket ( as a child I got kicked out of church choir)
Ken Beattie 2 years ago
It's one time where weaponised incompetence is appropriate. Even if you had the voice of the angel sing as though you were a teenage boy whose voice was breaking!
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Sandy Smith 2 years ago
I worked somewhere like that. And the last year I was there, I refused to let them sing at me on my birthday. You've never seen such confusion over such a minor incident.
brittany 2 years ago
if anyone at the company was Jehovah's Witness, they'd have had a lawsuit on their hands. as a former witness i can tell you they are prohibited per their religious beliefs from celebrating or participating in birthdays, even their own. im no longer a witness and love my birthday but still cringe at birthday singing
Griffy 2 years ago
I worked at a company doing data entry. I had just had a deer hit my truck the night before and wrecked the grille (deer ran off, I was fine, truck was slightly unhappy). One of the higher ups asked me if my truck was the one with the wrecked grille. I said yes. He told me get it fixed, it looks bad. I left it. They fired me for unrelated reasons.
Gary Geracci 2 years ago
Oh? Why didn't he just take over the payments and give the employee his car?
Chris Sprucefield 2 years ago
That's a quick route to "I don't work here anymore - goodbye Felicia!"
#14
My husband went out to the food truck to get a soft pretzel. Others took smoke breaks so he thought he was entitled to a pretzel break. Human Resources told him if he wanted a break, he needed to take up smoking
Linda van der Pal 2 years ago
Time for chocolate cigarettes (chocolates shaped like cigarettes, wrapped in paper to make it look like a cigarette)
A. Starhawk Hunt 2 years ago
Just bring back those delicious, starch and sugar with no flavoring, CANDY CIGARETTES!
Load More Replies... Sonja 2 years ago
I'd roll sage in a cigarette paper and light it, then sway it around, spreading the arome and smoke, and if anyone asked what that was meant to be, I'd say I tried to exorcise the evil spirit that possessed HR to force people smoke cancer sticks by limiting short breaks to smokers by burning sage. Oh, and it's smoking too, didn't you see? It's a break to smoke out the devil! Now leave me to my ritual or are you trying to discriminate against my pagan religion?
Premislaus de Colo 2 years ago
Reminds me of conscription in Poland in 80s. I picked up smoking, because there were only smoking breaks, so if you didn't smoke you didn't get a break
Bill Hankel 2 years ago
Yummmmm, soft pretzels! One thing I would sorely miss if I ever moved away from the Philadelphia area. No disrespect to my German pandas ... I haven't had the pleasure yet :)
Ace 2 years ago (edited)
Yeah, this was not that unusual, that smokers were officially allowed smoke breaks which were unavailable to non-smokers. I used to smoke a lot more back then as a result. There was often a level of discussion that went on with the smokers that left others out in the cold, so it was important not to miss out.
Blaze Black 2 years ago
I think there was an episode of friends where Chandler went back to smoking because it was the only way to get breaks where they were always discussing important stuff at like this 💀💀
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Firstname Lastname 2 years ago
I knew someone who actually got addicted because of a rule like this. It's sad what people will do to get the break they need.
RajunCajun 2 years ago
when I was in the military I would buy herbal cigarettes so I could go hang out with the other smokers. Someone tried to say something about it but they got told to stay out of it. If command found out how much time people were out smoking, they would have pushed harder with the only two smoke brakes a day rule.
Samara Morgan 1 year ago
It's pathetic, smokers should be punished for their smelly addiction, not rewarded. They're worse workers than people who aren't addicted and smell disgusting.
#15
“To be on time you must be in the building 15 min before your official shift start. You must be downstairs ready 10 min before.” Which meant prepping your area, getting things ready, all off the clock. If you were a supervisor or was be on the floor 15 min early. If you didn’t adhere you were marked late, 2 or more in a 30 day period you were written up.
it seemed kind of fishy and all the management had “it’s just how things are” attitude.
me and a few others formally complained to home office about it. After a few weeks we got an email saying “You may clock in and begin your shift at its planned start time, but we’d sure appreciate if you showed some care and prep work ahead of time to ensure blah blah blah.” Yeah I’m sure they’d appreciate it, that’s free labor.
Diana Graham 2 years ago
Us too. We had to be at work 15 min prior to shift to prepare. My manager asked what I was doing one day, 'having coffee'. You need to get ready to work. I am. She said we need to talk, sure I walked over and punched in. She asked what I was doing. You are discussing work with me so I need to be paid. Keep it up, I can do this compliance s**t all day. Union strong ppl!!
Sandy Smith 2 years ago
Worked for a company who wouldn't pay for anything punched in before 8 AM, but you had to be at your desk and ready to work at 8 AM. So no time to take off your coat and put it away, go to the bathroom, etc. Malicious compliance: A bunch of us would punch in around 7:30-7:45, then go and drink coffee and read the paper in the lunchroom until 7:59. It irked the company president to see us casually sitting in the lunchroom doing nothing for so long that he changed the policy.
Attila Ángyán 2 years ago
I don't know, I don't agree with such rules that states how early you have to be. However I think it's ok to expect an employee to be ready to work at their scheduled time.
Scott Rackley 2 years ago
I worked for a company that was 180 to this. They would lose their s**t if you were inside the building and not clocked in.
KittyMommy 2 years ago
So have I. The place had a high potential for hazardous events so they were very rabid on safety. If you were onsite you had to be clocked in so they had a headcount of who was there
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Joshua Moore 2 years ago
I'd be damned, I sit down at my desk about 2 minutes before I have to clock in
Disgruntled Pelican 2 years ago
My last job did this. If you were not at your station ready to go 10 minutes before opening, you would quite literally be screamed at in person or by phone (because they constantly watched the cameras). They felt that we did not have to be compensated for the extra 10 minutes per day because it was "our duty to be prepared."
Gurgle Queen 1 year ago
If you want me to start working fifteen minutes early, I'm clocking in and you're lying me for those fifteen minutes.
#16
At a company many years ago (early 1980s), I used post-it notes to mark comments on computer print-outs. A supervisor saw me doing this and admonished me by stating that post-it notes were reserved for management.
I responded with the fact that I had not known about that rule. He told me to stop and return the rest of the booklet to the supply cabinet.
I stated that I had actually purchased the pack at the UofMinnesota bookstore and they were actually mine.
…..crickets.
John Dilligaf 2 years ago
this could be the result of a supervisor enforcing a misunderstood rule. ...... For example - the office has a policy where managers will comment on print-outs and other documents using specific color post-it notes. One manager uses yellow, one uses blue, one uses pink, etc. ........ If that's the case then you using post it notes to make comments on a document is going to screw up things.
George Douglass 2 years ago
I once caught s...t for having a cup of water and cookies while catching up on my paper work,the smokers could go outside 3-4 times an hour.That was fine.
#17
Finally, "One company I worked for required the window blinds remain at a prescribed distance from the floor, and be at a specific angle. They literally had 'office décor police' go office to office and measure the blinds to ensure that you were following the rules. I had the audacity to try to do work by closing the blinds one day to prevent glare on my computer screen. The CEO saw it and threatened to demote me."
Sue Denham 2 years ago
Do these people not have a small country, or even just a suburb, to be the dictator of?
Mylittlecorgi 2 years ago
Can you imagine being one of the decor police? What a job! "Kevin, have you touched these blinds? Be honest." Or "Sally, your office plant is out of compliance. We're going to have to let you go."
JK 2 years ago
I worked somewhere like this, owner refused to pay out for blinds to be fitted, but we were not allowed to block the window or cover it in any way shape or form. Weren't allowed to move our desks ans monitors had to be in a set position so he could make sure you were working when he walked in. Even though for 3 hours minimum (even in winter) you couldnt see your screen due to the glare. That was just 1 of his pissant rules, and my lord were some of his rules idiotic!
Not-a-Clue (she/her) 2 years ago
So blinds are just there to look nice, not to serve the purpose for which they were designed 🤦🏼♀️
Justin Thyme 2 years ago
Malicious compliance-- turn everything in late because u can't see the screen with the glare
ZGutr 1 year ago
Ow, yes.... standards ... rules .....I know a marketing manager that had three boards with company logo roughly 25x5 meters in size, on a mast 30 meters above ground replaced because of the wrong ratio between height to width (I think no one could tell). The new board where ugly as hell, they had white all around. Different margins on the sides compared to the top/bottom. Three weeks later he had them replaced AGAIN for being the wrong shade of blue. That too I believe no one could tell. Must have cost a small fortune, everyone agreed is looked shi.t after the changes. The first made all proud, the end result was a total embarrassment.
Celtic Pirate Queen 2 years ago
Okay, I'll just sit here doing nothing since I can't see to use the computer.
Chris Sprucefield 2 years ago
Screen glare? banned from remedy? Sounds like high time for a OHSA visit...
Mary Kelly 2 years ago
the blinds in my agency have to be all the way up or all the way down, and have been modified to only stay in those two positions per local ordinance...i enjoy seeing all the work arounds people have come up with to maintain their blinds at whatever length suits their needs...
#18
We had an “office manager” in my early days in a government office role. One day, I snagged a pen from the supply room and was using it to write notes at my desk. It happened to have green ink, which was atypical but I didn't care. The OM wandered by one day and started chastising me for using green ink in my notes. I said, “a” who cares if it's green, and “b” I got the pen from the supply room that she managed. She started raising her voice, causing a scene, repeating “Green ink is only for Auditors!”. I calmly asked “Why do you stock green pens in the supply room when we have no auditors in this office, in fact, no auditors on staff in the entire department?” She went silent. At that time, there was a Department-wide anti-waste/efficiency initiative underway, so I said “I think I'm going to file a submission to the “Paydirt Program””! She turned on her heel and left. “Mysteriously” all the green pens disappeared from the supply room. I never learned why we had stocked green pens that nobody was allowed to use. Gotta love government bureaucrats.
John Dilligaf 2 years ago
It's not at all unusual in some organizations that specific color ink is only used by people in certain positions when they're annotating documents with comments. Very easy way to tell who wrote what comment on the document. So “Green ink is only for auditors” isn't far fetched or unresonable at all. ........ Now, why your supply room has green pens when yu have no auditors, that's a different question
Robert Trebor 2 years ago
Navy again: Captains of ships usually used red, Executive Officers (2nd-in-command) green. My last seagoing Captain used green, so the XO reluctantly had to use red. P.issed him off.
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#19
One place I worked temp at told me I could only go to the bathroom at break time. WTF?!
I told the manager my bladder is not on their clock and I will not risk a urinary tract infection or an embarrassing accident holding it in for hours at a time. He insisted. I got my purse and jacked and went to the bathroom and right out the door. Turned out I was in the early stages of pregnancy which is why I was going so much, but I didn’t know that yet. All I knew is I had to go and bad, and holding it was not an option! lol
Robert T 2 years ago
I've had this when I worked on a supermarket checkout. Somebody had to come to relieve you if you needed to go to the toilet. You couldn't just close your till and go. It was always a bit of a major inconvenience, so we just went when we were on our breaks whether we really needed to or not. Something my family refers to as an "investment widdle", usually in relation to motorway services!
Richard Willis 2 years ago
When you get to a certain age you never pass up the opportunity for a wee!
Load More Replies... Blue Bunny of Happiness 2 years ago
Reminds me of going to military dinners. You weren’t allowed to leave to go to the bathroom unless you had a medical reason. Amazing how many of us ladies all had a urine infection at the same time….
BM Khalid Hasan 2 years ago
You should have called the cops or lawyers. What are they? Savages who keep prisoners?
#20
At the time this happened I had worked for the same company for over 20 years. Following a remodeling of the area, I was assigned an office in the renovated sector. About two weeks later some construction workers show up with 2x4’s and sheet rock. The issue? They had measured my new office and it had 20 square feet too much space for a manager at my level. So they were going to build a 2 foot wide by 10 foot long “dummy wall” to deprive me of the 20 sq feet. i appealed the decision, but the wall went up! The only concession they made was to put a door in the wall so I had a “closet” of sorts.
GirlFriday 2 years ago
I worked at government job. On my first day, my boss pointed out my office and I set up and started working. I worked there for three weeks when someone stopped by to see the boss and kept staring at my office. I just went about my business. Two days later, there was a maintenance crew there to remove the carpet from my office. I was not at the "level" of employee to have carpet in my office. I had to stop work for hours so they could remove the furniture, remove the carpet, clean the floor, and replace the furniture.
Sandy Smith 2 years ago
Worked for a government agency in the 2000s. We had offices in the basement. Someone from 5th floor came downstairs for something (the big wigs never came downstairs, so this was unusual), saw that some of us had little offices that were above our pay grade, and had a full remodel done so we could only have cubicles. They took down concrete walls to do this. Remodel was unnecessary and expensive, and on taxpayer $ because someone got upset over small basement rooms.
Couragetcd 2 years ago
Count yourself lucky that area didn't have a healthy plant. They would have made it stay in the new closet to get it down to proper managerial size
Peter Trudell Jr 2 years ago
That's a major concession they made. That's a lot of storage space they gave you.
Jacob B. 2 years ago
Heh, I used to work for a company that instituted "dress your day". Business attire with clients, vendors, etc. Jeans and a polo any other day. One VP hated this (he was a three piece suit guy) and had all the departments under him required to wear business attire. They were at an off site location until the floor of the new building we were at was done for them. Every floor was the same, VP's had their own office but it was interior, no window except for the cubicles outside. Rest of the office was designed best as possible to have every cubicle close to a window. Not this VP's floor, the exact opposite. He didn't last long and I ended up working in one of the departments that got a "cleaning" afterwards.
John Leavitt 2 years ago
I worked for a company with a similar rule. Two-man office was to be a set size. My office mate had worked for the company a long time. He told admin. we both would need temp help in the future. We got a four-man office and never any temps.
#21
"Ink pens were locked in the boss’s office. Everyone received one ink pen. To get another pen, you had to turn in a non-working ink pen. You couldn’t just turn in any ink pen, it had to be the type you were given. You were allowed one ink pen every three months whether or not your old pen was still working. The boss ordered other supplies as needed but kept one pen from each order so he could match them up to keep people from turning in random pens."
JoNo 2 years ago
My first job I had to use a lead pencil until only an inch was left, and show the boss to get a new one. And the paper roll in an adding machine (back then) when used up had to be threaded back through the machine to use the other side. Both were to save money.
TiNaBoNiNa 2 years ago
They probably would have had you rinse and reuse toilet paper if it didn't disintegrate so easily.
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Vasana Phong 2 years ago (edited)
I had a new office manager that hated ordering supplies ( whichever office manager of about 10 offices that went under monthly budget would get a bonus) I was in medical records at the time and used the fax machine a lot, I always had a spear toner, but this new manager wouldn’t allow that, so when the low toner blinker came on I told her, ( she said she still had some time) well it was empty in 2 days, when she tried to order it , out of stock for another 3 days , she had to send someone out to the warehouse to get one, of course she blamed me me, said I didn’t tell her in time 😡
Sandy Smith 2 years ago
Had one of these bosses, too. You got one pen. If you lost it, you were out of luck. People would scramble for any spare pen they saw lying around. This was also the company that would re-use paper in the printer and print on the back side of it. And punching in and out had to be exact to the minute. If you were 1 minute over on lunch, you were in trouble. I worked there less than 6 months. All the other employees were willing to put up with this. I though it was ridiculously unprofessional to micromanage to this extent.
Scott Rackley 2 years ago
I would have silently about faced and left the company. I don't have the patience to deal with this stuff anymore.
Richard Willis 2 years ago
Worked in accounts for nearly 40 years. One of my long-serving colleagues, who had been with the company since she left school, told us that when adlisters (calculators with a paper roll) were first introduced, the company's founder insisted that one couldn't tear off the paper but had to have it pile up on the floor and, when it ran out, rewind it and put it back in the machine the other way up.
thegolfball 2 years ago
Pentel (there are other brands) automatic pencils using 0.5 mm and 0.7 mm refill leads were the standard for computer programmers in the 70's and 80's. The leads came in small plastic containers with 12 or 24 pieces of lead. Our supply admin, at the direction of the department lead, would issue you two (2!!) pieces of lead when you asked for refills. Draconian!
Chris Sprucefield 2 years ago
Okey. You keep your pens, and i'll use my own. On second thought, you keep the job... I'll find another one...
Seadog 2 years ago
Had a bean counter try to tell me I couldn't grab a box of staples from the supply room, that I had to get them 1 stick at a time. Yeah right. I use more staples than anyone in the company due to the paperwork involved with my job. I'm not going to waste more time per week than the staples cost following that rule. Tried to tell to stop taking copy paper 3 reams at a time too. Here again, due to the job, I have the largest printer in the company, it holds 1 1/2 reams.
#22
All repairs on office equipment required three estimates. Our printer broke and the receptionist called three companies to come and give us estimates. All three charged a $200 service call plus repairs making the minimum possible $600 plus repairs. If a repair company was called back to make the repairs it would and additional $200 for service call plus repairs for a total of $800 plus repairs.
The first guy came out and said he could do the repairs for a total of $400. The receptionist did quick math and determined that $400 was $200 cheaper than just getting three estimates so she had the first guy fix it figuring she would be praised for saving $400 for two more estimates plus repairs.
Nope, the office manager lady chewed her a new A hole stating the rule was to get three estimates before allowing any work to be done. She could not comprehend that they saved about $600 or more.
Robert T 2 years ago
Who the hell charges to come and give an estimate for a job? Charging to diagnose a problem, yes, but to estimate for a basic job, no.
badger 2 years ago
if the estimate would take virtually as long as doing the job, then hell yes.
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Two_rolling_black_eyes 2 years ago
On day 1 at a Fortune 100 company, I was reprimanded for fixing a paper jam on my desktop printer because I was not a HP certified technician. It was the first of many lessons that when you can afford to waste money, time and money will be wasted.
Ken Beattie 2 years ago
We typically called for quotes for everything we bought but I'm sure we had standing maintenance agreements for things like copiers and printers. So we called for quotes to "fix a copier" and got several companies to quote. Effectively it meant that no matter what the problem was it'd cost a flat service fee + parts. I don't remember how long we did the agreements for, but it would have been at least a year. We also did multiple quotes for things like pens and other stationary, but only bulk purchases. So one pen - petty cash. A carton of pens - 3 quotes.
#23
Blue pens are bad no blue pens. Blue pens are forbidden.
—but—
Only forbidden in the software team and QA department. Everybody else can use blue or black or whatever color they want.
Why?
We were a medical device company and submitted validation paperwork to the FDA. This was back in the 90’s when everything was done on paper records. Apparently, one FDA auditor suggested that blue is bad because some brand of copy machine (I think it was xerox) couldn't pick up the blue pen color. We didn't use those kinds of machines but it didn't matter. The FDA auditor says something and it becomes gospel, no questions asked. It made no sense, didn't matter.
We spent more time redoing data sheets and other paperwork because of wrong pen color. The company kept buying them and stocking them in the supply cabinet. I suggested that we should stop buying them in a staff meeting and everybody looked at me like I had the heads. So we just kept buying them and redoing paperwork.
Dumbest rule ever.
MaireC 2 years ago
That's an odd practice, because I worked in Doc Control for a Medical Device company and the entire company could only use blue pens. So it shows if something is photocopied, so the signatures etc would be black
Dixie Girl 2 years ago
I am a paralegal and this is true. Except now we sign all our documents in blue ink so we can tell if it is an original at just a glance.
Load More Replies... Richard Willis 2 years ago
Before the days of colour printers, I was told that ALL important documents HAD to be signed in blue so that a copy couldn't be passed off as an original.
Justin Thyme 2 years ago
goes back to early days of copier that couldn't read LIGHT BLUE-- regular blue or blue/black was fine-- this is a complete idiot misinterpretation of what was a common sense practice much earlier
B Jones 2 years ago
Early days? I was rejecting contracts at work up until 10 years ago because they it was light blue ink that didn't scan :-D.
Load More Replies... Ace 2 years ago (edited)
The blue photocopy thing was real. Not just one brand of machine either, but all of them that used the same basic technology. Back in the day we used to use special blue-lined or -checked paper specifically for certain things so that the lines would not show when you went through the reprographics process to get your finished transparent slide or whatever. A quick google shows that 'non-photo blue' colour is still used for this purpose to this day.
John Dilligaf 2 years ago
the US military has an official policy (because of course they do ) about ink. In filling out official forms only black or blue ink is allowed. They also have an official policy about fonts and font size when writing official documents.
Amy Watson 2 years ago
I worked as an inclusion science teacher in a middle school special education classroom. Any time we filled out data sheets, signed individualized education plans, wrote student referrals or progress notes....anything in our handwriting that would become or could become part of a student's record, we were required to do it in dark blue ink. That way any copies could be distinguished from the originals.
Ruth Harper 2 years ago
We have to use blue pens. But we're a legal office and it is important for signatures to be obvious.
Gourdeous 2 years ago
No blue pens allowed in UK medical notes. Black only. Pharmacists write in green.
Blue Bunny of Happiness 2 years ago (edited)
Didn’t know pharmacists can write in green though, I’ve never seen that in record keeping policies, where I’ve worked, it’s black only. Mind you it says you should write legibly too. Have they ever met a doctor??
Load More Replies... Two_rolling_black_eyes 2 years ago
The FDA recommendation is to use black ink for anything printed and blue ink for anything signed. Since blue ink used to copy as black, this was to ensure anything with blue ink was an original signature. Anything black is the standard approved boiler plate for the document.
#24
My former boss went to one of those time management seminars and came back full of the most impractical ideas ever: all aimed at increasing my productivity. The wackiest idea was that I should always have everything in a specific spot on my desk. He then proceeded to use masking tape to show me where the stapler, pens, paper clips etc were to be put. Problem was I’m left handed and he set everything up right handed. Instead of pre printing forms I used dozens of times a day I had to print out a single form each time one was needed. He went out of his way to make my job less efficient until things came to a head and he fired me. He then installed his girlfriend in my job. I was so happy to leave that micromanaging micro brained boss.
Not-a-Clue (she/her) 2 years ago
Part of good workstation health & safety practice is for people to be able to customise their desk layout. We're not all the same size, so don't have the same reach, quite apart from other accessibility issues. Expecting everyone to work in exactly the same way is inefficient, unsafe and potentially discriminatory.
Chris Sprucefield 2 years ago
that boss never heard of RSI.... Some are microbrained, indeed...
Load More Replies... Sandy Smith 2 years ago
Worked at a medical clinic. We had a typical and functional filing system. Regional manager came in one day and spent the entire day redoing our files to how she wanted them. She was in our clinic one day a month and was happy to inconvenience us to make the system into some non-standard set up that only she wanted. After she left we started to change it back, but our office manager balked. I waited until she left for the day and did it, anyway. Neither the regional nor office manager were ever in the file system for the rest of the time I was there and didn't realize I'd done it.
Ken Beattie 2 years ago
The last paragraph made me think it was never really about improving efficiency.
HolQ 2 years ago
This boss wanted implement 5S, Lean management method, but he propably didn't listen too carefully how it works...it's very useful when one workstation is used by many ppl, not just one person. And designated places for each tool means after You end Your job or shift You must put the tool in that place...you dont have to put it back each time You use it.
Spittnimage 2 years ago
The boss unexpectedly became celibate when he treated his girlfriend the same way.
#25
A company I worked for had an office secretary that brought in a ridiculous rule regarding sugar. Because our sugar consumption was so high we had to make our coffee then take it to her for the sugar. She would unlock her cupboard and dispense some sugar for you. Ridiculous! I simply brought my own sugar to work.
RajunCajun 2 years ago
did they tell you how much you could have a day? I would have gone to her every hour on the hour for my sugar.
Anna Harding 2 years ago
We had that issue with toilet paper, back in 2008! Purchasing had just bought a huge case but the owner took 1/2 home and one of their her daughters took all but three rolls. Soon it ran out - 16 workers. Other daughter refused to buy more and would not believe her family took it all home. So one girl bought some with her own money and for a few days we all went to her desk to borrow it until we each bought our own.
Couragetcd 2 years ago
Unless every single person there was diabetic, how did this get approved?
Wilfredo 2 years ago
Yes it is because sugar is cheap (unless you live in North Korea), and he/she skips the part where he/she has to visit the Sugaröberstführer
Load More Replies... #26
We had a rule that every electronics box installed in the place where I worked had to have a special label tied on. This label gave lots of useful information about what the box was, what the part number was, serial number of the box etc etc. Right at the end there was a section for any safety information.
Unless there was any specific safety information for the box, it was normally left blank. New boss comes in, and decides that the safety instructions need to be filled in on all the labels. First we had to work out what the safety instruction would be, most of these boxes were electrionics and while they may be a bit hefty there didn’t contain any nasty chemicals or need to be handled with care so picking something that was appropriate but obviously not just there because we had to meant we started getting creative.
One wag decided that in the case of a large black box of electronics, roughly the size of four shoe boxes and weighing some 40 pounds, the most appropraiate safety advice should be “Do not swallow. If swallowed do not induce vomiting”.
It was found, there was a fuss, the fuss came to an end when the boss of the new boss found out and had a quiet word with the new boss
John Dilligaf 2 years ago (edited)
"do not drop on foot. If dropped on foot curse loudly and seek appropriate medical attention"
#27
You had to email an IT administrator if you wanted to print double sided. Large retail pharmacy chain. I was in charge of life altering meds but needed approval for two sided printing.
#28
One place I worked still expected everyone to wear formal business attire even if they never met any clients. Amazingly, they issued an email that announced a trial run of “dress down Friday”. No guidance was given it was just dress down. This experiment was to run for a month.
After the second Friday we received another email cancelling all future dress down Fridays as some people had taken things too far. After a bit of discussion about what could have caused such a reaction, it is eventually revealed that some people wore jeans! Not scruffy jeans, jeans with holes in, slung too low, cut offs, just jeans.
Pa4040 2 years ago
I never understood what is the big deal with having to look professional at an office that doesn't ever work directly with customers face to face. Okay, don't work in your underwear, but jeans and a hoodie are perfectly fine
Terran 2 years ago
Control and power. They want to dictate how you should dress, behave and act.
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Javelina Poppers 2 years ago (edited)
I worked in the manufacturing shop of a large aerospace company. One old time employee always wore t-shirts with the sleeves cut off because it was more comfortable for him. Not tank tops or wife beaters, just a t-shirt with the sleeves cut off at the shoulder. The new HR rep came through the shop and told him to go home because tank tops weren't allowed, despite the fact it wasn't a tank top. She told him to wear more appropriate clothes the next day. Following morning he came to work looking like a Guys and Dolls 1930s gangster. A pin striped suit with wide lapels, saddle shoes, a tie that was at least 8 inches wide with a nude woman painted on it and topped off with a wide brimmed fedora. Seems he stopped at a thrift store and got the entire rig for $25. Word of his appearance spread so fast that the manufacturing director came to see him and ask why he looked like that. He was given the day off with pay and reappeared the next day wearing a t-shirt with the sleeves cut off and not another word was said about it.
Raphapablap 2 years ago
I worked for one company that had a uniform as it was a chain of shops. Every other company I've worked for (all office jobs) has not had a dress code, the harshest was men couldn't wear flip-flops, even though the director used to turn up in them. Never had any impact on how anyone worked.
marianne eliza 2 years ago
Actually, there have been studies done that show your attitude can be affected by how you dress. Dress professional and you'll act more professional, and you'll also have some pride in your appearance. Even non customer facing positions should dress, at the bare minimum, as casual business dress. Blue jeans and other colored denim is fine as long as clean, neat, undamaged, unstained, and with a decent shirt, like a polo or camp style shirt. And always the exact same dress code for men and women.
Samara Morgan 1 year ago
Being uncomfortable definitely makes you more professional 🙄
Load More Replies... #29
I worked in a psychiatric hospital. The staff often talked about our personal lives (our families, our medical and mental health and whatever medications we were on… Often there were a lot od sexual and inappropriate jokes. It was that way for years. One day some new policies were created because of complaints. The first was no more inappropriate and sexual jokes it was considered sexual harrassment. We understood just wished somebody bad said something to the jokes. The other new policy was that we could no longer discuss our mental health which was all depression and anxiety. We also could no longer discuss whaf we took for medications to treat it…Now we were doing this in areas where patients could not hear. I questioned this becuase it seemed ridiculous. I asked if we could talk about medical issues such as my frozen shoulder or gastro issues or Susie's diabities or Debbie's grandchild who was batteling cancer…Another person pointed out we on occasion talked about her MS especially when she was in a lot of pain. . My boss said that someone in our office felt it was inappropriate to discuss our mental health so that was the focus.. I told her we work in mental health and yet it was taboo to talk about. Most of us rolled our eyes…
John Dilligaf 2 years ago
counter that with "We feel it is inappropriate to NOT discuss our mental health since that is a form of impromptu group therapy. Is the company unconcerned with our mental health and denying us appropriate medical treatment? "
Calyx Teren 2 years ago
It depends on what the jokes were. I personally enjoy coworkers who are sarcastic and funny and offbeat, but jokes can also be exclusionary. When I was a kid it was considered quite acceptable to tell jokes about “Polacks”and “ret***s,” as well as blondes, women, Black people, Jewish people, Asians, etc. I’m pretty happy that we don’t consider any of that acceptable any more.
Seadog 2 years ago
LP and the DM came to the place I worked in the 90's to show everyone a company required film about sexual harassment. They both knew it was a waste of time but had to do it. As we watched the film the punches kept coming because we would call out things that all of us had done at some point in time. The DM and LPA just shook their heads. For us, the girls gave the guys just as much c**p as the guys dished out. It was all in good fun and made the job more bearable.
#30
No Black Jeans. “Unless you're Me” I worked as a Meat Troll for a very large grocery store. I was moved from store to store filling in for holidays and time off. It's a dirty, wet, smelly job, and light fabric dress pants just didn't last. On the second day of my second month I went to my boss, “This is ridiculous, I have torn three pairs of dress pants so far. At $25 each I am done. Tomorrow I will wearing black jeans. They will be a huge improvement working in here. “I will fire you!” “Not a problem. I always have other work lined up” The next day I wore black jeans and was called into the Store Managers office. The store manager looked them over. “They look more professional then the dress pants. Done. Here is a letter authorizing YOU too wear black denim jeans. A letter has been emailed to all store and meat managers about it. Oh and You work too hard. Go for your coffee breaks, or I will take you to the union to get spanked. Have a great day!” Department Boss was absolutely pissed but I was covered. The “No black jeans” rule eventually faded into the dust, and it's now it's “Any Black Pants, except for Stampede, when Blue Jeans are allowed!”
Justin Thyme 2 years ago
Sounds like they should be providing uniforms, at their cost, including professional laundering.
Seadog 2 years ago
One company I worked for didn't provide our uniforms but they did have a company (Todd) that we could order from. Great clothing at a great price. You really couldn't beat it. Then they expanded operations into California. That was the end of a lot of things. Apparently California has laws/rules that said if they even had an agreement with a company then the company had to supply the clothing. Goodbye Todd. Also goodbye to 2 of the 3 salaried positions in the store. Something about either there could only be one or they all had to have the same benefits so the manager became the only salaried person per store. Health insurance changed, pay changed, holiday pay/compensation changed. And none of it for the better.
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Ken Beattie 2 years ago
I like the Store Manager's attitude. Actually viewing them and making a decision on a per case basis. Seems like a good manager to me.
#31
When I still worked for the Forest Service, right after 9/11, the newly created Department of Homeland Security went crazy issuing all kinds of new rules for federal employees. One was knives and sharp objects were no longer allowed in federal buildings. We all shook our heads and muttered “WTF!!! This is the Forest Service. Axes and knives are part our EDC. Tools of the trade.” All field going personnel carried a 4″ folding blade knife, that was mandatory, and most had a favorite tool they carried. Mine was a double bit axe I shaped and filed to my specifications. I did not leave it in my pickup at the end of the day. I carried it to my desk. Most others did too. Walking down the hallway carrying a sharp hand tool was a common sight. We had a warehouse full of sharp tools and chainsaws. We used incendiary devices and napalm for prescribed burning. We used a scoped rifle to shoot cones out of trees for seed collection I received fire investigation training that showed me how to commit arson without detection. Yet we could not be trusted to carry a knife in the office. The rule was ignored by everyone, including top management.
Cat servant 2 years ago
Government job 2021 or 2022 bought folding knives for maintenance department. All were confiscated by security as "weapons". So staff can have a linoleum knife, wire cutters, carpet knife but not 1 tool that can be used for all cutting tasks.
Robert Trebor 2 years ago
US Navy yet again. 1970s. Edict came down from on high that only deck workers could carry knives. Universally ignored.
#32
The owner of a shop I worked at sent out a memo that we were to make sure the pen caps stayed on the pens because they were important for balance when writing.
TiNaBoNiNa 2 years ago
"The pen is mightier than the sword!" Swords need to be balanced so they are effective tools, therefore so should pens!
Load More Replies... #33
One of my fathers by choice is a PhD in electrical engineering and may be one of the most brilliant people around. His new supervisor told him he could not have a Coca Cola and bag of peanuts at his desk. My friend cleared his desk and went home. The supervisor was fired and he was called back to work.
Javelina Poppers 2 years ago
My daughter worked for Coca Cola and managers would cruise the employee parking lot and god help you if they spotted anything Pepsi owned inside your car such as a Doritos or Cheetos bag or Mountain Dew can.
Leoninus Fate 2 years ago
oh they still do, my sister's bio dad "Quit"{ got fired} from Pepsi like 6 years ago since he shared a picture on Facebook that showed him drinking a Coca-Cola from like 25-30 years before {like in the early 90's late 80's} and the management there saw it {apparently that Coco-Cola was like one of the last ones he drunk before working for them too so its not like he actually "cheated" while working}, on the bright side he found his true calling teaching woodwork like week later
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#34
At my university they once announced that, before we could agree to accept the terms of any software license, we had to send it to the university lawyer. The lawyer would then send it back all marked up with changes that would need to be made before it could be approved. It was never explained how we were supposed to get a major software company to change its licensing terms to accommodate our small university. I had to purchase one program out of my own pocket. I really needed it and did not have time to go through all the red tape. The policy did not last long as the absurdity of it quickly became clear, but I still could not believe that it was ever attempted.
Adorable Davelands 2 years ago
Reminds me of the time one of my clients (whose company bought about 15 laptops a year) told me to contact HP because they had made the caps lock key smaller on the model the company liked to use and insist that they go back to the old style.
#35
I started a new job. My office was perfectly nice, rather plain an institutional, but fine. The only problem was that my printer was on my desk, and this meant that a power cord ran across the space I had to walk through to sit in my chair. By moving the printer to the top of my file cabinet, I could avoid this problem. So I did. The next week, the Admin director stopped in my office to see how I was settling in. She saw where my printer was, and her eyes literally, visibly widened. She immediately left. The next day, I was written up by my manager. The first and only time in my career that happened. Written up not for having the printer in a new place, but for moving it myself. This was a very basic printer that weighed maybe 15 pounds. I could not see this issue, so I went to my manager and demanded an explanation. It turned out that moving a printer, or any other piece of furniture or equipment, was “bargaining unit work” as far as the union representing our facilities people was concerned, and me moving a printer 4 feet could have resulted in an expensive grievance. Idiotic.
John L 2 years ago
While the director should have said something directly to you, I can see a lot of valid reasons for this. You injure yourself. Someone comes looking for it and it's not where it's supposed to be. Contractual reasons, etc. The kicker being you wouldn't know any of that, so they should have let you know...not "write you up".
Tim Douglass 2 years ago
And this is why unions, which we desperately need in this country, have such a bad reputation. Friend did booth stuff at trade fairs and more than once had to pay an electrician to come by and plug in his booth lights. Two seconds of work, one hour of pay, but if you did it yourself you got kicked out of the convention center.
Justin Thyme 2 years ago
Must have been a union shop. The contracts are very specific-- stupid, yes, but contract
Robert Trebor 2 years ago
In the US Navy Radarmen (RD) were operators of Radar (!). They were not supposed to do repairs. Electronics Technicians (ET) were the repairers. One new officer on one of my ships saw an RD open a cabinet and fiddle something and put out an edict that RDs don't fiddle. Call an ET. Radarscope needs a fiddle, ET called, RD waiting for ET. Captain comes in sees the down scope and asks why. ETs fiddle, RDs don't, was reply. New rule. The new rule was rescinded right then and there.
Herringbone 2 years ago
Printing unions used to be powerful in the industry in the UK. I was auditing a newspaper in the 80s, and put my hand on a desk to help someone move it - I nearly caused a strike because of it. In the same building, there was a corridor that could be used only by union members: the rest of us had to go downstairs, along, and up again if we needed to cross it. Later, at another job I had to join a print union, as it was a closed shop - I had to be pragmatic, I needed the job: the management was trying to run a profitable company, and the unions were trying their hardest to stop them. I have been very anti-union ever since.
oddly_informed_raven 2 years ago
this is almost identical to a Dilbert comic. not a comment on the truthfulness, but on the hilarity of the accuracy of the comic
Paul Brown 2 years ago
I know some union guys who hang sheetrock and they told me that by union rules they are only allowed to hang so many pieces of sheet rock per day. I can't remember the exact number but it was some ridiculously low number. I just remember thinking that to hang that number of sheetrock would only take about 3 or 4 hours.
#36
Before I answer the question, I need to mention: We're prohibited from touching/viewing our phones (while in the office space) for any reason whatsoever. For that matter, my boss has thrown absolute hissy fits if employees simply have their phone sitting on their desk (And no, this isn't the rule that makes me go “wtf.” It gets even worse, as hard as that is to believe) Here's the rule that left me speechless: One day my boss said “I have a treat for you. Starting today, you're permitted to listen to music while you work. And no, that doesn't mean you can have your phone on the desk, nor can you touch/view your phone, even if it's only to adjust the volume or change the song. You're to set your playlist, and put the audio at a good volume, from the breakroom or hallway before you enter the office”
Jackson 2 years ago
A friend of mine was told not to touch his phone at the office. He is profoundly hearing impaired, and the phone controls his hearing aids. He needs to manually switch programming modes on the hearing aids and manually change the bluetooth pairing from computer to landline phone (with a bluetooth adapter) because his $10,000 hearing aids will not switch automatically. He explained this to his boss and was told to "work it out". He wrote a memo to the head office explaining that he could no longer use the phone because his boss would not let him touch the phone that controlled his hearing aids.
Adam Belaire 2 years ago
Sounds like it's time to see if Spotify has a good yodeling playlist!
#37
1978 at a nation wide picture company. Women are not allowed to use the front office rest room because business men frequent the office. I was told I didn’t get a raise since I wasn’t the bread winner. In fact hubby was in college, so I was, the next company gave me one.
Robert Trebor 2 years ago
I'm a man. Brand new Certified Nurses' Aide. I got more per hour than female CNAs with over two year's experience because, (male)...
#38
You should have some sick leave leftover at the end of the year? I was the new guy at the plant, they offered 48 hrs. of paid sick leave a year, which they paid at the rate of your pay. But if you didn't use your sick leave at the end of the year you received “ the bonus “ which was 50% of your normal rate for any remaining sick leave. What?? I thought they were pulling my leg, but nope, at my yearly evaluation. I was asked how come I didn't have any sick leave left, my reply was they didn't give me enough, my manager strongly suggested I try harder next year. The following year I had 10 minutes remaining, he never said a word about it . But he did want to know how come I didn't give them 24 hr. notice when I called in sick. All I got was a blank stare when I said I don't have predictable illnesses as for the 10 minutes I had remaining, they actually cut me a bonus check for 5 minutes.
Barbara Kayton 2 years ago
How can there be such a limit of sick days? “I’m sorry you’re ill and in hospital, but you have no sick days left, so we won’t be paying you.”
Nathan Pogorzala 2 years ago
Yes, but that is how it goes. many companies won't discipline you for being out with no sick leave but you won't get paid.
Load More Replies... Vasana Phong 2 years ago
Wow, 50% of your sick pay??!! I was too loyal at my old job ( you know the one where if you bust your a*s you get rewarded with more work) never called out sick( hardly) in my 15 years there, left there as it was getting too much, had accumulated 800 hours of sick pay that rolls over, half of that would’ve been like a whole year’s pay😫
#39
Nothing at your desk after 8 am. No water. No coffee. No snacks. Your personal items had to be locked in a locker by the door - EVERYTHING short of a hair tie. No cell phones. Family couldn’t call you at your desk. (So if there was an emergency? Oh well.) I never showed up for first day. I am an adult, not a toddler. At another place you only got paid till 5, but had to stay until 5:10 because if you left at 5:02 the boss was sure you were just sitting there with your things ready to run out the door. Sir, I come in a few minutes early so I am at my desk working by 8 am. I am leaving at 5… same place I had to make calls all over the country on all these different time zones so I would eat lunch starting at like 1 or 1:30…. so he made a new rule just for me instead of talking with me about it. All lunches had to be done by 1 pm. Ok but that plumber in Oklahoma isn’t getting his permit on time.
Robert Trebor 2 years ago
My dad worked in New York for a major corporation. Many customers (my fingers typed suctomers) were in Europe. so, he'd be in the office an hour early to talk to Europe before the phone lines got all too busy. Basically getting the actual business of the day done in that first hour. So, he'd leave 20 minutes early in the afternoons to catch the 5:00 Staten Island Ferry. New mini-boss shows up and sees my dad leaving early every day and tells him he has to stay to five. So, he stops coming in early. Chaos. Europe calling head office to know why suddenly they can't get ahold of (my dad). Semi-maxi-boss calls my dad (they had started at the company together in 1945) and gets the story. Mini-boss told to leave (my dad) alone.
#40
The law office across the hall from us paid their legal secretaries well. But one catch: you were not allowed to wear slacks. Not even arrive at work and change into a skirt. Nope. You were informed right up front that would not be tolerated, and you would be fired. They justified this by paying an extra $3000 above the normal rate per year (in those days a nice increase). Keep in mind this was in the Midwest where it gets COLD. They had no problem filling the positions but they did have trouble keeping them.
#41
Fearing that people are taking advantage of the sick leave, the boss issued a new rule: Whether you took 30 minutes, an hour, or a few hours of sick leave, it will be counted as one day. You would also need to present a hospital receipt when you do. Overnight, people can no longer file for sick leave even when they get sick if they couldn’t present a medical slip. This is esp. difficult because the employees are foreigners and majority can’t speak the language well enough to communicate with doctors without someone translating for them. This made it difficult for people who had fever and wanted to rest for the day instead of getting sicker forcing themselves to go to the doctor and wait for their turn. It also became difficult for people who suffered from diarrhea or intense migraine. Worse, the boss applied the rule retroactively instead of right after making it known to everyone.
#42
Management declared no desk fans because they use too much electricity. I got an ADA exemption.
Seadog 2 years ago
My desk is next to a large window. When they renovated the building before we moved in the owner wouldn't pay for an insulated window. so now I have to use a space heater to make it bearable in the winter. That heater uses more power every year than the window would've cost.
#43
Corporate rules of throwing outdated merchandise into the dumpster when it could be donated to shelters, and discarding outdated magazines that could be donated to nursing homes, shelters, and hospitals.
Robert Trebor 2 years ago
US Navy again. Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, near Seattle, Washington. Packing crates for equipment for ships in the shipyard were very well built to protect the equipment. Pieces of the crates went into the dumpster. Sailors took pieces of the crates home for projects (I had a very nice 3-foot by 6-foot panel that I used for a worktable at home). Foreman saw sailors taking crates from dumpsters and put out word that someone was to be there to render all such scrap unusable by cutting it into small pieces. The ship's superintendent saw this and asked whose budget the cutters work was coming from. It went all the way to the Shipyard Commander who could see no reason why sailors couldn't take usable scrap, and the foreman was told to pack sand. One of my shipmates took almost a ton of wood back to Hawaii in his household goods shipment when the ship went back after the yard period. Such wood is extremely expensive in Hawaii, as all has to be shipped from the mainland.
Seadog 2 years ago
My son worked for A Rose's Department Store and their policy was everything goes in the compactor, regardless. Someone returns product that can't go back on the floor for sale? Compactor. For example, you buy a bookcase you assemble yourself. Maybe it's missing something. Rather than sell it at a reduced price, they trash it and employees aren't allowed to get any part of it. Someone bought a Compaq computer and returned it claiming it wouldn't work. Idiot manager refunded them. My son did get him to let me have a look before trashing it since I built computers. First thing I see is a broken security seal. That is all that's needed to deny the return. Yep, they opened it up, took the RAM and hard drive and returned it. I offered to buy the remains. Nope, in the compactor it went. Over $1000.
Load More Replies... TiNaBoNiNa 2 years ago
In the US, health & safety laws dictate that food past the date must be disposed of due to bacteria/spoilage concerns. Some large retailers will sell the close to expiration date at a discount to get rid of it. Some have deals with local food banks to take the bread that hasn't sold, or just outright donate a certain percentage. Many large grocers put their unpackaged food waste into special bins that go to local compost used by local farms. However, there are some low-cost discount chains that do not do this and just throw away large amounts of unexpired goods. The magazine issue is problematic. Many times they go straight to the dumpster instead of recycled. The publishers require them to be destroyed. This can be achieved by tearing the cover off and then being putting into paper recycling. Exception is Target (at least in my state). They have separate recycle bins for everything that can be recycled. I suppose it depends on how much corporate values profit over environmental impact
David 2 years ago
Doesn't make it less moronic, given they said magazines and merchandise.
Load More Replies... #44
I remember when I was desperate for a job after getting laid off. I accepted a job in a small office processing inspection paperwork. The owners kept two cats there and when the office manager was out I was in charge of cleaning the cat pans. When they told me about it I said “ you've got to be kidding me”.
#45
At one of the previous company I worked for, we had an HR (male ) who came up with these new rules and among them was a rule that girls are not allowed to take their hand bags in the washroom. How come they don't know we have shit going around there… It took a day to talk to our country head and get that rule scraped off… I wonder how did they even come up with the reasoning that we may drop stuff in the flush, we have been doing it for ages…it won’t look good to them only if we are carrying around pads/tampons in our hands to the washroom..
#46
Not an office rule. A workshop floor rule. In the middle of a heatwave - not allowed to get water from the fountain more than once an hour, and not allowed to add electrolytes.
David 2 years ago
I doubt this is happening live, but also there's a crazy possibility they may not even live in the USA!
Load More Replies... #47
I kid you not “women should not wear thong underwear”. Was a rule made at one of my places of work.
Na Schi 2 years ago
If this weren't the early 2000s with ultra low riding jeans and ultra high riding thong strips... how are they going to control this absolute offensive rule? Or was it introduced because the (male) manager was a fūcking creep who especially looked to control it? Or are we talking about Australia, and women not being allowed to wear flip flops? If yes, then why?
#48
One place I worked if you wanted staples, you had to go to an office manager and request them, and he would go into his store, take out a box of staples, take one row out of the box and then break it and give you about a third of a row. Taking my salary and his into account, the effective cost of those staples must have been a huge multiple of the actual cost.
Seadog 2 years ago
I've been through this exact insanity so many time on so many levels including having some corporate idiot buy a small car instead of a small truck for a delivery vehicle. The car actually cost more, got less MPG and had 3X the maintenance cost. And in the end only lasted a couple years before going belly up compared to the Ranger pickup that was still going strong 10 years and 250000 miles later.
Isabel Care 2 years ago
I got the last decent stapler that the office was allowed to buy. All the others were the cheapest cr*p that worked once then broke. Mine had my name on it so everyone knew where it lived when they borrowed it. Wasted so much money buying the cheapest stuff when the next price up would last for years rather than days
#49
That everyone needs to shave, while the boss has a beard. The smart uniform was for men long sleeve shirt, tie and trousers. Women however were cool to wear shorts or even shorter skirts and vest style tops under a lose jacket(which they can take off). It got very hot working in the data centre in the summer. I guess the boss needed his secretary to look a certain way.
Isabel Care 2 years ago
No shorts for the delivery drivers, until me (large curvy female) said "OK, I'll wear a short skirt" Suddenly the drivers are allowed to wear plain Bermuda shorts. The younger guy worried about their image too much to stay cool in 35degrees C. They also laughed at my sun block and wet cotton scarf, until they got sun burn and heat stroke.
Seadog 2 years ago
OP says data center and all I can think about was one I was in many years ago where they had some problem and even the IBM guys were amazed the servers were still running. It was 118 degrees at the door to the data center. They had fans set up to move air in and out of the room and it was still that hot at the door. No idea what the temps were inside the equipment.
#50
My father once worked at a company where management ordered all employees to attend the annual Christmas party. My parents went for the two years when my father worked for them. Some of the big managers belonged to a certain strange religion, won’t say which one. That was a strange company and it got a bit unpleasant because my father didn’t convert to their religion. My parents sent me to a manager’s house for the Christmas party evening and I’d be bored to tears each year. If my parents had not bought ice cream, I probably would have starved for those 4 hours. The party wasn’t fun, just a lot of jabber and boasting or whatever. Neither of my parents wanted to attend. My father also had to attend the company event like one year the event was at a water park, was in the summer. The whole time his direct manager ignored him, never looked him in the face or greeted him or even chatted with him. It shocked my mother and so after that, my father started job hunting and we left maybe half a year later. People should not have to attend company events if they don’t want to. This was during the 90s.
TiNaBoNiNa 2 years ago
Illegal. This violates freedom of religion for people who do not observe Christmas. If they want to promote team building, they should have a paid event specifically for that.
Mary Guerinot 1 year ago
I once worked for a non-profit that held a fundraising dinner every year. The tickets were $75 and everyone was encouraged STRONGLY to attend. In addition to the dinner tickets, you had to dress up. It was just wrong to those of us who didn't make much money.
#51
When I first started working in the Labs, you always had to go to the Chief for anything that got broken in normal use - even a glass pipette. There was never a real problem, just a boring lecture of how things were when he first started work. This meant 10 minutes at least of wasted time and then you would be given a chit for a replacement electric bulb to take to the electricians dept. or given the keys to get the pipette out of the store cupboard. After a time, I found that I could get away with ‘ could you let the electricians have a chitty for the bulb that I got from them” or “I noticed we were getting a bit short of …… when I went to the cupboard” and I was always thanked for telling him!
#52
I quit my job at a mom and pop lumber yard/ home center. I was a salesman and purchasing agent. Owner demanded I give him my card index file with all the names and phone numbers in it of customers and suppliers. He had a policy of buying those for new hires. I bought my own and never used his. He called me a liar and demanded “his” files. I called the office manager and she told him I refused to use the supplied one and I did indeed buy the one I used. I told him I would give him any numbers out of it he wanted but I was taking that with me. At one point he reached for it and I grabbed it first and explained there was no f**king way he was getting it. Back then it was the same as todays cell phone, it contained lots of info that I would need if I went to work for the competition. It also had personal info in it. Imagine a written record of the info in your cell phone.
TiNaBoNiNa 2 years ago
If it was that important to him, he should have had it written into your employment contract that any client information gathered during your employ was company property and had you sign a non-disclosure/non-compete clause.
Seadog 2 years ago
First place I left where I handled commercial sales, 75% of my customers followed me to the competition without me even asking. Small town and they don't take kindly to corporate a****les mistreating workers. When I left the industry completely the manager took my commercial list. Tried to say there was no list. Oh, the list you yourself have referenced a thousand times doesn't exist? Okay, play that game if you want. Where did he think that list came from? I printed off my home PC. That was 12 years ago. I still have the list. The only thing he kept me from getting were some personal cell phone number I wrote on the margin that if he called them he likely got laid out. Ironically, he wasn't manager much longer after I left.
#53
I had a boss who decided every Friday at 5:30 pm in the office was going to be happy hour. Might sound nice in theory, but in practice it included: * it didn’t matter if you were working on some project to urgently finish so you could head out for the weekend, or were on something the client was expecting. You were “in trouble” if you didn’t come to the conference room. * Choosing to just go home, out with coworkers or friends instead of staying late into a weekend was unacceptable. * “Happy hour” mainly consisted of rolling out the same half-dozen bottles of nothing special that were there the week before and just sat in the office all the time not particularly appealing to anybody.
Mary Guerinot 1 year ago
I once worked for a college admissions office. Some of us had been there for several years when we got a new supervisor. She tried to be "friends" and insisted on having everyone gather at the coffee area every morning to talk about what we did the evening/weekend before. I wasn't there to make friends, but to do a job, so got my coffee and went to my desk to do my work. This did not go over well and I was eventually laid off. She was a hot mess and I was thrilled to get away from her.
Isabel Care 2 years ago
I was asked why I never socialised after work, "I scare all of you enough when I censor myself, do you want to see me drunk?" I didn't tell them that I don't drink.
Jessica Cooney 2 years ago
Ah lovely, lets tempt our recovering alcoholic employees and when they actually refuse the alcohol, write them up....
#54
I worked for a company which was taken over by the insurer CU, the company became CGU and they treated us very badly. They emailed us saying that we weren’t allowed to send Christmas cards to each other via the internal mail system. We decided that CGU was short for “Christmas Greetings Unwanted”. You’ll never guess, before the merger, what their acronym was in the Northern Territory and how fitting it was as a pejorative for us.
#55
One day, a memo came down from on high—surprisingly high—to the effect that there had been a significant increase in the consumption of paper clips. We were urged to be mindful and not waste them. I should have seen it coming: a year later, the company was bought out by a larger company…
Pickles, Pennies, & Ponies 2 years ago
My clue was that, Christmas parties stopped, no more monthly catered lunch and having to start dressing business casual in a call center that nobody saw you in. One year later and the company was sold.
What do you think ?
Kenny Kulbiski 2 years ago
For years if we needed a part under a $100 we went to a supplier, charged it and turned in the invoice at the end of the day. A new directive came down that all purchases had to be pre approved by the business manager. After a couple of days of being flooded with requests for a 25 cent bolt or $2 pipe fitting the directive was cancelled. Not saying we did it on purpose but it was kinda fun.
Antonia 2 years ago
Worked in an office over the holidays. Was 17 years old somewhere in the "70. We worked till 18.00h and on the first day everybody puts their coats on and waits by the door at 17.59h. I asked what are we waiting for? Answer: at 18.00h a bell rings and then we can leave. I commented I felt I was in kindergarten. Manager was standing right behind me... oeps
Hester 1 year ago (edited)
I just moved floors in our building, down 3 levels. The new floor only has windows at the front and rear of the building, so the vast majority of the staff in this large open plan space have no natural light, let alone a view. The decor is preddominantly white and grey, with LED lighting. YUCK. I commented pre-move to my boss about all the plastic plants. Apparently they had originally got real plants, but then they had a problem with vinegar flies, so the rule is no real plants. I brought my REAL, vinegar fly free, pot plants - 6 of them currently - with me. Go on, try me. You make me work in this horrid space, I WILL have something natural to look at .
Adnaan Sabireen 1 year ago
Worked at a leading travel agency straight out of Highschool. At the time, there was a company rule that we had to fill out a form and get it signed by a manager to take photocopies. Even for a single copy. My job required me to take a lot of photocopies (tour itineraries and such), so my manager would sign a whole heap of these forms at one go and give me, so I can use whenever required.
sassawrasse 2 years ago
Just this past June, some of us newbies inquired as to whether we had Juneteenth off. We were genuinely curious. Boss said "no, you already have MLK day off". I no longer work there.
Kenny Kulbiski 2 years ago
For years if we needed a part under a $100 we went to a supplier, charged it and turned in the invoice at the end of the day. A new directive came down that all purchases had to be pre approved by the business manager. After a couple of days of being flooded with requests for a 25 cent bolt or $2 pipe fitting the directive was cancelled. Not saying we did it on purpose but it was kinda fun.
Antonia 2 years ago
Worked in an office over the holidays. Was 17 years old somewhere in the "70. We worked till 18.00h and on the first day everybody puts their coats on and waits by the door at 17.59h. I asked what are we waiting for? Answer: at 18.00h a bell rings and then we can leave. I commented I felt I was in kindergarten. Manager was standing right behind me... oeps
Hester 1 year ago (edited)
I just moved floors in our building, down 3 levels. The new floor only has windows at the front and rear of the building, so the vast majority of the staff in this large open plan space have no natural light, let alone a view. The decor is preddominantly white and grey, with LED lighting. YUCK. I commented pre-move to my boss about all the plastic plants. Apparently they had originally got real plants, but then they had a problem with vinegar flies, so the rule is no real plants. I brought my REAL, vinegar fly free, pot plants - 6 of them currently - with me. Go on, try me. You make me work in this horrid space, I WILL have something natural to look at .
Adnaan Sabireen 1 year ago
Worked at a leading travel agency straight out of Highschool. At the time, there was a company rule that we had to fill out a form and get it signed by a manager to take photocopies. Even for a single copy. My job required me to take a lot of photocopies (tour itineraries and such), so my manager would sign a whole heap of these forms at one go and give me, so I can use whenever required.
sassawrasse 2 years ago
Just this past June, some of us newbies inquired as to whether we had Juneteenth off. We were genuinely curious. Boss said "no, you already have MLK day off". I no longer work there.
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