Every aspect of our participation in society is governed by rules, and good for every one of us. Unless you call yourself an anarchist, you most probably agree that they are the basis of law, order, or security, and that we all benefit from them, whether we like them or not.
But some rules, whether rushed or unthoughtful, may cause more harm than good. And if you want proof, let’s take a look at this thread from the Ask Reddit subreddit. “What's a rule that was implemented somewhere, that massively backfired?” asked someone, sparking a heated thread with 52k upvotes and 21k comments.
From a city putting up decibel meters to deter loud vehicles and realizing reckless drivers were competing for the highest decibel count to implementing a strict no-alcohol policy and giving your staff an emergency way out if there’s a staff shortage, some rules have surely brought some regrets to whoever implemented them.
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My company has a strict no-alcohol policy. You can't begin work within 10 hours of having had a drink.
So whenever there's a staff shortage and they need me to come in right away, guess who just cracked open a cold one?
One summer in Sweden, bus drivers in some counties started wearing shorts due to the heatwave. After being denied to continue doing so by management, they started wearing skirts instead. Dress code policy had banned shorts, but not skirts.
You can also do this in any formal environment which forbids you to wear shorts.
In French Indochina, there was a major problem with rodents eating supplies and bringing disease. Given the plentiful supply of cheap unemployed workers, the colonial authorities thought they could be used to kill the rats and bring their numbers down. The French had a somewhat racially prejudiced view of the work ethic of the locals, so decided to pay them per rat killed rather than per hour worked. Each was compensated for every dead rat they handed over.
A year or so later, the colonial authorities discovered the peasants had set up rat-breeding farms in the jungle.
Policies and punishment can have a direct effect on people’s urge to break them, researchers found. Rice Business professor Marlon Mooijman and colleagues Wilco W. van Dijk and Eric van Dijk of Leiden University along with Naomi Ellemers of Utrecht University studied 883 people to understand the links between deterrence, threats and rule following.
So they conducted a series of games in which participants reported or hid taxable income depending on whether they were threatened with fines, fined with an explanation, or fined with no explanation.
My work has an infraction system. If you're a minute late that's half a point, if you're up to four hours late that's half a point. So if you're going to be a minute late you might as well be four hours late because it's the same penalty.
The previous school I worked at decided that all shirts needed to have the school name or emblem (which was a fancy letter 'E') on them to be dress code appropriate. That's all the handbook said. No clarification on how the name or emblem was designed or the color or if it had to be permanently affixed to the clothing. The students hated the policy and, being in high school, looked for any loophole possible. They found one due to the lack of clarity of the handbook policy. The kids would make paper 'E's and pin them to their shirts. Thus, they could wear whatever they wanted and by pinning the 'E' to the shirt, were still dress code compliant. I thought it was pretty genius. The administration did not.
I used to wait tables in college. It was a very popular hangout for business professionals, movers, shakers, etc. The restaurant/bar was always very busy and the "in" place to be. After work, the staff would frequently drink in the bar. We paid full price for drinks and any food we ate. We shared tables, danced, and socialized with the patrons and everyone was happy.
Except for the owners.
The owners decided we were cluttering up the place and "reserved" a special table for us. Upstairs behind the dirty laundry pickup station. So we all decided we really didn't need to spend our money there if we weren't wanted so we moved to another bar for our after-hours fun. And we took all those movers and shakers with us.
The restaurant went out of business about six months later.
As you may have suspected, with adults as with children, the researchers found, threats and punishments often backfire. This can be explained by the fact that they signal distrust by the authorities of the very people they're supposed to control. Therefore, the immediate response to such distrust is an urge to rebel.
The researchers concluded that the more perceived distrust people feel, the less likely they are to follow the rules. Moreover, the researchers discovered, justifications and threats of punishment leave a bad taste, overall. Instead, they suggested that people respond way better to rules that have zero justification.
I worked at Macy’s one Christmas and found out the reason why you can never find anyone at the registers is that they don’t allow employees to stand at the register because it’s “intimidating.” I can’t tell you how many times I gave up trying to purchase something there because I couldn’t find anyone to ring me up.
The middle school wanted to create a "trash-free environment" so they removed the trash cans from the parking lots, halls, and cafeteria. Then just told the kids to "toss your trash when you get home or in a classroom"
The amount of litter skyrocketed overnight, after a week or so they brought back the cans.
Zero Tolerance Policy for no violence at school. Punishing the victims for getting bullied... yea, THAT was a smart idea...
My city has issues with loud bikes/vehicles. So as a deterrent, the city put up decibel meters that displayed how loud your engine is(similar to those signs that read your speed and display it to you) but instead of deterring anyone, people would pull up to these signs and rev the heck out of their engines to see who could get the highest decibel count. The city took the counters down within a week.
Washington State made it mandatory for schools to drop their room temperatures to save on electricity. The result: teachers brought their own heaters into their offices and the use of electricity increased.
I remember that. How fun was it for kids to try to learn while having bulky coats on trying to squeeze their butts into the student desks. Meanwhile, I can guarantee that rule did not apply to the admin....
When a daycare started charging a small fine for parents who picked up their children late. Instead of resulting in more on-time arrivals, the new policy actually caused more late pick-ups. This is because the parents were originally worried that a late pick-up would be a significant burden on the daycare employees, but because the fine was so small (only a few dollars), they decided that it must not be a big inconvenience for the daycare.
Yes. They no longer have to feel guilty for a transgression. They merely pay a convenience fee. I'm assuming this is the same story I read. IIRC the daycare was in Israel. The workers actually were rather put out at being kept late and did find the behavior disrespectful of their time. They assumed the fee would discourage the behavior. It turns out the late parents no longer felt the social pressure which made them feel bad for inconveniencing people. There was a price attached, so it became a matter of payment, not politeness.
One of the high-rise blocks I have to maintain has a sign saying "Anything left here will be removed due to it being a fire risk". People just dump the s**t there they don't want like fridges and sofas and by law, we have to take it
The one-child policy in China has led to a serious gender imbalance in the population.
And a dwindling population, as nobody wants to have more than 2 children now . Most people are not having children in China , which is causing huge concern for the future
During prohibition, the US Government decided to add poison to industrial alcohol as a deterrent to people drinking it since booze was illegal. Except they didn’t tell anyone that they were doing it... so the public had no idea there was poison in the alcohol. AT LEAST 10,000 people passed away.
Air pollution became a big problem in late-80's/early-90's Athens, mostly due to the number of old, heavily-polluting cars on the roads. So the Greek government made a law where only cars with odd-numbered final digits on their number plates (1, 3, 5, 7, and 9, etc.) could be driven on odd-numbered days (1st, 3rd, 5th, etc.)- and only evenly-numbered cars could drive on evenly-numbered days. Sounds great doesn't it, they'll halve the number of cars on their roads right - nope, they doubled it - everyone bought one old, highly-polluting car that had an odd-numbered plate and another with an even-numbered plate - nobody could park and the air was worse than before.
A failing school district in Colorado last year decided to get rid of the recess so the students had more academic time which would hopefully increase test scores.
Except without recess, the kids had no outlet for their seemingly endless kid energy, and afternoons became a s**t show. Disruptive behavior increased, suspensions increased, and test scores remained incredibly low. It was a horrible idea.
What kind of idiot think people, children at that, can work continuously without break and suffer no consequences?
When Domino’s said all pizzas would be delivered in 30min. or less or your pizza was FREE.
All the delivery drivers kept getting in car accidents to get your pizza to you on time, so it wouldn’t come out of their paycheck. It was a short-lived venture.
I worked somewhere with a clean desk policy on Friday afternoons. The common way around this was that everyone would just sweep all their paperwork into an envelope, stick it in the internal mail, and then it would arrive back on your desk on Monday morning.
December 3, 2018. No cellphones at work, company-wide policy. They have to be left in your vehicle. On December 3rd the boss asked me why I wasn't answering his calls. This rule lasted less than an hour.
I would not comply. I have a very high chance of having to go home because of an emergency, and I will not risk missing THAT call. Fück everyone trying to pull such a stunt ... also - try that in europe, and you're n trouble. We have rights here that are enforcable AND taken seriously.
At one point in history, the president of Paraguay tried to eliminate racism by making it illegal to marry someone within your own ethnic group.
Needless to say, this was quite racist.
How TF do people like this come into power?? I'm in the US, so I've had occasion to ponder this question over and over. Have yet to arrive at a satisfactory answer.
Infamous Barbados vs Grenada soccer match.
The organizers of the 1994 Caribbean tournament cup had a rather odd change to the rules for extra time. If a game was still drawn at full time, it would go to extra time but the first goal scored would win - this is perfectly normal (the "golden goal" rule). What was different is that they ruled that winning this way would count as having won by two goals for the purpose of tournament qualification, instead of just one.
Barbados went into a match against Grenada needing two goals to qualify for the main tournament. If they lost, or won by only one goal, Grenada would qualify instead. Under the regular rule, this would mean that if the match went to extra time, there would basically be no point Barbados playing because even if they scored, they would only win by one goal, and not qualify. But the two point rule would motivate them to play on. Sound good?
Well, you might be able to guess what happened.
The match looked like it was about to end with Barbados 2-1 Grenada - a win for Barbados, but not the two goals they needed. So Barbados deliberately scored an own goal in the last few minutes of the match, making the score 2-2, hoping to trigger extra time and a chance to score the magic 2-value goal.
The Grenada players quickly realized they could do the same - score an own goal to make the match 3-2 to Barbados, which would have Barbados winning by only one goal, so Grenada would qualify.
But the Barbados players realized that too.. and so they began to defend Grenada's goal.
So for the last 7 minutes of the match, Grenada were trying to score a goal in either net (since scoring a goal against Barbados would give them 3-2 and they would win the match, and scoring in their own goal would make it 3-2 to Barbados so they would lose the match but win the qualification), and Barbados were defending both.
Amazingly Barbados did actually manage to do so, successfully defending themselves while half of their team were defending Grenada's goal against Grenada, and then scored the golden goal in extra time and qualified!
At a preschool I worked at if we called out sick (even if we had sick time to use), we'd have to have a doctor's note when we came back or we'd be written up. Three write-ups equaled termination. So people would just come to work sick and then go homesick later in the morning since that wasn't considered calling out. Illnesses would spread like crazy and as far as I know, the policy still stands.
There was a teacher who fainted on her way out the door because she was so sick. Then we got in trouble with corporate for calling an ambulance and not some emergency service vehicle we had on contract. Probably the worst place I've ever worked.
I got in trouble when I was long term ill for coming in on the days I felt well enough. I was taking sick leave too often. I left. I've often wondered if I could have sued (UK law) but it was my mental health and I just didn't have the energy to look into it.
The utility I worked for hired a new Human Resources Manager. One of the first new rules she implemented to 'cut overtime' was if you worked over one day you came in late by the same amount the next day. Ex: work over 15 min on Monday you came in at 8:15 Tuesday. No un-pre-approved exceptions.
The new rule went into effect Monday.
Wednesday a tractor-trailer accident resulted in my whole department working over 6 hours.
When the entire department came in at 3 pm the next day (yes I know that's 7 hours but lunch hour is noon), EVERYONE was freaking out. The head honcho-o looked like he was ready to have a heart attack. The Human Resources Manager was in his office getting a new asshole.
The new rule was rescinded that day. Human Resources Manager didn't last a year.
During an economic downturn, like everyone else, we had a series of layoffs, which left only the hard workers; the marginal workers and slackers were let go. The remaining staff was the best of the best, worked really hard, worked extra hours, and were a great team. Then, we get a new HR director. Their big idea was to jam everyone into a curve, meaning 10% of the staff had to be placed into the lower section, indicating that they were substandard workers and they got 0% raise. Hmmm. Guess what that did to morale? Yep – no more long hours, no more extra tasks, missed deadlines, etc. If you are trying to convey "Employees, you mean nothing to us" – this is how you do it.
Dry Counties were meant to reduce the use of alcohol in certain areas, but they result in people who want to get drunk driving further away from home to do so, increasing the odds and frequency of drunk driving accidents. Also, many attempts to rescind dry county laws end up getting countered by campaigns paid for by the bars and liquor stores that are set up on the edge of dry counties, typically under the guise of religious messages.
"You have to eat whatever you touch" was a rule in my kindergarten which led to all the children touching all the food to call dibs on it.
My friends sister is developmentally disabled easily in her 40s and always wanted to go shopping my friend said “no we can’t go shopping until the shampoo bottle is empty.” So her sister promptly emptied the entire full bottle of shampoo down the drain in the shower. I was laughing my ass off said to her my friend you know your sister is not a stupid she think she is. That was a genius move on her sisters part.
A Buddy of mine told me about a Happy Hour promotion a bar ran close to his campus. Apparently the special was something stupid like 50-cent beers that lasted until the first person went to the bathroom.
As he tells it, the first few weeks went without incident, but once it got more popular, people were going to extreme lengths to not be "that guy" including wearing adult diapers. Once people tried to covertly pee in corners and trash cans, the bar cancelled the promotion.
Alcohol bans at college football games have led to increased intoxication problems because fans are loading up before going to the stadium.
Brazil in the 1980s (I think) had a massive debt problem, which they tried to solve by simply printing a bunch more money.
Any economist worth their salt would have told Brazil that would cause massive inflation, and that's exactly what happened. People found their life savings were barely enough to buy groceries for a week.
Yeah, I remember that, I was a child back then. Prices in supermarkets changed (always up) sometimes more than once a day. My parents went to the supermarket as soon as they were paid to buy groceries for the whole month.
The military used to have a 2 beer lunch rule...they never specified the size of the beers.
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During exams sometimes if students didn’t know the answers they would leave blank spaces. The co-ordinator did not like that for some reason and started yelling at students. So when I didn’t know an answer I wrote a paragraph on why I didn’t know the answer and what not. I got punished and the teacher still hasn’t changed the rule.
It seems you had not mastered the Art of Bullshietting when in school. My classmates were capable of writing such bullshiet that there was literally no topic under the heaven they couldn't write about.
Load More Replies...
There was one from the 80s, the LA Olympics of 1984. McDonalds had a promotion going for whenever a US athlete won a gold medal, they would give out free items every day. Well, because of the Eastern Bloc boycott (done in retaliation of the boycott of the Moscow 1980 Games), the USA were win ing go.d medals left, right and centre. Cost McDonalds millions.
Google ottawa student dies of asthma. It was a school rule that inhalers had to be kept in the nurses office. Nurse wasnt there when he needed it, student dies. Because Canada, as far as I know, noone was charged for his death. Policy remains in place.
This is so sad and school should be charged with manslaughter.
Load More Replies... I used to work in the frame shop of a popular arts & crafts store. One day, the regional manager came by and held a meeting with all of us. He was looking for ways to get sales up, and asked us what the biggest problem was. I piped up and said "EVERY customer complains that the prices are too high." He then went into a speech about how it's our job to TELL the customer what they want cuz they don't know, etc. Basically, he was trying to turn us into high-pressure salesmen. I didn't stay there long.
A lot of these policies are made with the assumption that the staff is comprised of dirtbags and if they do anything the company doesn't want them to do it's because they're bad people and need to be punished for it.
My text: China still mass quarantining people into quarantine camps (even separating little kids from their parents) due to COVID-19 when all other countries live with the virus (3x vaccinated, tests). 1. Shanghai has problems getting room for quarantining 20,000 people every day 2. Business and economy shut down 3. People don't get enough food 4. People don't get fast enough medical help for other diseases 5. Children will be traumatized because they were forcely separated from parents and more
During exams sometimes if students didn’t know the answers they would leave blank spaces. The co-ordinator did not like that for some reason and started yelling at students. So when I didn’t know an answer I wrote a paragraph on why I didn’t know the answer and what not. I got punished and the teacher still hasn’t changed the rule.
It seems you had not mastered the Art of Bullshietting when in school. My classmates were capable of writing such bullshiet that there was literally no topic under the heaven they couldn't write about.
Load More Replies... There was one from the 80s, the LA Olympics of 1984. McDonalds had a promotion going for whenever a US athlete won a gold medal, they would give out free items every day. Well, because of the Eastern Bloc boycott (done in retaliation of the boycott of the Moscow 1980 Games), the USA were win ing go.d medals left, right and centre. Cost McDonalds millions.
Google ottawa student dies of asthma. It was a school rule that inhalers had to be kept in the nurses office. Nurse wasnt there when he needed it, student dies. Because Canada, as far as I know, noone was charged for his death. Policy remains in place.
This is so sad and school should be charged with manslaughter.
Load More Replies... I used to work in the frame shop of a popular arts & crafts store. One day, the regional manager came by and held a meeting with all of us. He was looking for ways to get sales up, and asked us what the biggest problem was. I piped up and said "EVERY customer complains that the prices are too high." He then went into a speech about how it's our job to TELL the customer what they want cuz they don't know, etc. Basically, he was trying to turn us into high-pressure salesmen. I didn't stay there long.
A lot of these policies are made with the assumption that the staff is comprised of dirtbags and if they do anything the company doesn't want them to do it's because they're bad people and need to be punished for it.
My text: China still mass quarantining people into quarantine camps (even separating little kids from their parents) due to COVID-19 when all other countries live with the virus (3x vaccinated, tests). 1. Shanghai has problems getting room for quarantining 20,000 people every day 2. Business and economy shut down 3. People don't get enough food 4. People don't get fast enough medical help for other diseases 5. Children will be traumatized because they were forcely separated from parents and more
