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Gaming the system is as easy as one, two, three. First, you learn about the things it allows and prohibits, then convince yourself that no universal moral values exist, and finally, figure out how far you can stretch those boundaries without getting caught. Just don't underestimate the importance of the last point. Once you find a loophole to exploit, it can be pretty hard to step on the brakes if needed. When Reddit user FOB_cures_my_sadness posted a question asking people what rules were made because of them, it received over 5,200 replies, proving that if you're not careful, they will catch up.
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#1
No singing *Les Miserables* at work. That first song with the prisoners working. Me with a mop.
Edit: Earlier in that shift, I brought about a rule against "Bohemian Rhapsody" too.
RELATED:
#2
My high school used to have a d**g project where we’d have to give a presentation on a certain d**g. There was a little thing on how it’s made, like in a lab or it’s a plant or whatever.
I misunderstood how in depth that part was supposed to be.
Long story short, I spent fifteen minutes teaching the entire freshman boys health class how to make black tar h**oin.
They don’t have that part of the project anymore.
KatSaidWhat 9 months ago
Yeah, I got both a B and a lecture when 15 year old me did a project on d***s having just read Go Ask Alice... Apparently my work was good but REALLY not suitable for my age or the class. It might have been a precursor though...
#3
The library started putting up signs about "Authorized computer activities" because I remotely rebooted the computers of noisy kids over and over. To be fair, it was a *library*.
#4
There is a required pin to change profile pictures on the classroom iPads now. This is because I decided to change every staff member’s profile picture in the school iPads to a smiling, old Mexican man on April 1st.
#5
The place I work used to have unlimited coffee for their employees. Three weeks after I started working, there was a sign above the coffee maker that stated that employees were limited to 3 cups a day.
#6
"Students are prohibited from organizing, advertising, playing, observing, or otherwise engaging in any form of rummy, blackjack, Texas Hold 'Em, 5/7 card stud/draw, Pai Gow, or poker during lunch period. Poker chips and cards are prohibited from school grounds except when required for specific, pre-approved activities or projects. Violation of this policy is subject to expulsion and referral to law enforcement for illegal gambling."
This was middle school, decades ago. Our first (and last) Annual [school district] Texas Hold 'Em Tournament, presented by Jr's Bait Shop, was a resounding success.
#7
My cousins and I were banned from playing near glass surfaces when we were younger
When I was six my cousin told me I wasn’t as strong as him because I was a girl, and proceeded to hold the handle of the glass back door shut from the outside. I was pushing on the door to open it and somehow ended up with my left arm through the glass. My mom walked in and was horrified. Ended up getting 13 stitches on my arm, but at least my cousin will never forgot the sheer strength of determined women :).
Brian Droste 9 months ago (edited)
I wasn't banned from glass surfaces but 4 of my siblings and I were playing hide and seek. The back screen/glass door was the safety area. There was a small hill a little way from the door. After the count down was done, I went up the hill to see if I could see any of my siblings. I seen one of them peeking around the corner of the house. I came running down the hill and put my arms out thinking the glass door would stop me. Nope. Went right through the glass and cut my left arm. Cut my arm in three different places. I don't recall how many stiches I had. Had to be rush to a doctor. Side note, the Doctors name was Dr. Green. I remember this was because he had a name of a color. When he was examining my arm, he flashed a light on my arm. I remember ask him why he was doing that,. His response, to look for pieces of glass in my arm. I was probably 11/12 years old at the time. Plus this was how I learned my left and right side of my body.
#8
No aluminum bats on campus.
Spanish class Piñata party gone very wrong. Still have the scar.
#9
When I was a kid we had a contest where we got divided into teams and had to design and build solar-powered model boats which we were then supposed to race on the pond behind the school. We had an odd number of people so I was put on the one team that had 3 people instead of 2, and I got stuck with a pair of idiots that just wanted to f**k off the whole time, so I asked if I could just be on a team by myself. I made my boat a catamaran design, made in one piece out of insulating foam, and made it an airboat instead of trying to fiddlefuck a water propeller (I used one of the little red plastic props off the old balsa fliers we all loved as kids)
My s**t TROUNCED the field, so they ran the race three more times with the same result, then made a rule that you had to be on a team defined as "more than one person" to compete. Right, it's totally unfair that I had no one to help while you other a******s did. Unfair to THEM, somehow. :D
Edit: minor typo, plus: Just to make it worse there were several teams where a parent had clearly done the entire project for the kids involved or bought a model and just fixed the project kit to it. Most other designs were made out of wood, or lacked any way of trimming out the steering or thrust to account for a crosswind or tendency to track crooked while mine drew basically no water and the pylon with the prop on it could be rotated.
I hadn't thought about this in years but now I'm a a little butt-mad all over again. :P.
#10
Tarantulas are not permitted on school property.
#11
I was going to my first guitar lesson at school so I asked someone where the band room was and he pointed in its general direction. I tried to open the door that led to the room he pointed at, but it was kind of hard to open. So I pushed harder, and a giant bookcase came crashing down onto the floor. I don’t have any idea why they put a huge bookcase in front of a push door. But now there’s a permanent sign on the door that says: “DO NOT OPEN THIS DOOR—EVER!!!”
TL;DR: I accidentally pushed down a huge bookshelf and now there’s a super angry sign on the door.
Beak Hookage 9 months ago
Or they could have been really radical and just locked the damn door, but what would I know?
#13
Coffee was banned in the training room at EarthLink after I spilled a whole cup into a CRT monitor.
#14
My senior year in HS, I had an English teacher who allowed all work to be turned in up to the last week of class. I turned in pretty much every assignment right about then, apart from the end-of-unit projects.
Next semester, all the work for all units was due at the end of the unit.
#15
I recently just beat cancer at 13. When I would stay at the hospital they would have to test my urine. Capri suns made me pee better, and the floor had Capri suns on the floor. Long story short, I depleted the Capri sun supply on the whole floor twice. The cafeteria ended up making a rule that you have to order Capri suns through them.
#16
In elementary school, 2nd grade I think, I had to pee really really bad, but I was in music class and my teacher was singing us a song ans playing guitar, so I went up to her anyways and asked to pee and she got upset. And since then she would remind us all that we can't go up to her while she's singing to ask to pee. I just didn't want to pee my pants, woman.
Regina Holt 9 months ago
And you would have gotten in trouble if you just got up and left the classroom.
#17
Students are forbidden to jump out through the windows.
#18
If you can solve a rubik's cube, you're not allowed to have one in class.
#19
Only two servings of fried okra allowed at my college cafeteria. I went to college in the south. I had never tasted fried okra before. I went crazy and ate plateful after plateful.
#20
Coworkers must respect the costume choices of others.
Kim Kermes 9 months ago
What did you do, wear an interesting costume or have a hissy about one?
#21
No more Pictionary at Grandma’s house.
My sister and I were on the same team. I pulled “9/11” (my aunt made some really odd topics). I drew 2 tall lines for the buildings and the. Started to draw a plane/bird as two arches. I got halfway through the first arch and she got it. A giant fight erupted with my big Italian family they we were cheating.
This was, of course, not the first or last game banned by my Grandma. Our highly competitive and argumentative family isn’t allowed to play spoons (bloody nose), apples to apples (old people don’t get younger people choosing the funniest answer, not the correct one), or musical chairs (broken arms).
#22
Birds are not considered a “pattern” on polos for school dress code, I had a shirt with toucans on it and the Dean called me out in front of the whole school.
geezeronthehill 9 months ago
How about polo shirts with the little horse above the pocket? How far down the road to idiocy were they willing to travel?
#23
My high schools marching band is no longer allowed to
Stack bunk beds at the dorms we stayed at for band camp
Bring video game consoles to band camp
Visit the girls dorm at band camp period
Sit next to the opposite gender on the band bus trips
All the bags need to be thoroughly searched for all band trips
*Note : This was not my sole doing, but the combined efforts of basically my entire senior class in the band.
#24
No "obscene or disturbing" costumes. For halloween last year in school, I applied makeup following some YT tutorial I saw to make myself look like 2face from that Batman movie. Looked like my face was ripped off.
Marla Singer 9 months ago
I once won a work costume contest with a similar zombie face makeup. People were disturbed. I did it for fun and didn't know it was going to be judged. Pretty sure they didn't do any rule making afterward though.
#25
My high school made us leave our backpacks in our lockers because my Spanish teacher tripped over mine and sprained her ankle. She was on crutches and everything. She was a raging b***h, but I still felt really bad.
Hellcaste's Wife 9 months ago
That wouldn't work at my son's school. They don't even issue lockers there anymore, since they only get 4 mins between bells.
#26
The lacrosse team I played for in college isn’t allowed to drink on team trips anymore.
Huddo's sister 9 months ago
My sister is a Rover Scout (over 18s) and they are allowed to drink, but not allowed to post any photos of themselves drinking even at non-scout events.
#28
There was supposed to be a cap on vacation time at one of my previous employers.
I don’t know why no one ever picked this up (it was a startup, still people had left before I did) but the vacation kept accruing. When I left instead of 2 weeks in the “bank” there were 5 weeks in there and they had to pay me. I’m sure they could have jumped through hoops but there wasn’t anything in the handbook that had a cap in writing (although we were told it was 2 weeks) so they just paid me. The fact I didn’t leave on bad terms helped a lot I’m sure.
When I got the check, it was for 9 weeks, not 5. Why 9 you ask? We also had a policy that after 5 years you could take a month long sabbatical. This was considered earned time and if you didn’t take it and left the company, it was payable as unused PTO.
After I left they made damn sure no one had more than 2 weeks of PTO banked, put out a new handbook, and they ended the sabbatical for new employees going forward (people grandfathered in got to keep it).
geezeronthehill 9 months ago
When I left one factory I took my vacation accrual check and bought a used pickup truck with it. (The only way we supervisors could take PTO was to have another supervisor cover our team and project. The math didn't math, so nobody took PTO.)
#29
My old job, my numbers were suffering, and I was told I needed to shape up or I would be done. The way I saw it, there was no possible way to meet the numbers by following the process. It turned out I was right. Everyone else came to the conclusion, but no one challenged leadership. So everyone was doing their own thing, then doctoring up the system notes after the fact to make it look like the established business rules were effective. So I'm like f**k it, I'm getting fired anyway. I documented everything I was doing different, in great detail, showing how my way was faster. Eventually I was found out, and I presented my findings, as well as my evidence of the doctoring everyone else was doing. As a result they asked me to evaluate the processes for the entire department, and I ended up finding numerous areas of waste and inefficiencies, which we implemented to streamline things 2-3 times faster than before. On top of that I was placed in charge of a special "expedite" team, to whom the rules did not apply, and we were given free reign to accomplish our assigned high-priority tasks by any means necessary.
I've moved on to another division, but the policies are still in effect today, and the expedite team is still a thing.
Edit: Skimmed the comments and I figure I'll address some of the recurring themes.
I would say it wasn't "courageous" per se, I just literally had nothing to lose. If you wanted to pin a virtue to it I would say "integrity", because I wasn't going to lie.
I'm not going to reveal any identifying information but this was for a CVO. Basically if you say you're a board certified cardiologist, it's our job to verify that your credentials are all accurate, current, and there are no sanctions against your ability to practice. We don't want people to go sending patients to Dr. Hannibal Lecter or anything.
I'm no longer in that department--I've moved on to IT doing site administration, web development, etc.
And yes, I'm aware of how lucky I am my leadership LISTENED to me instead of just stonewalling! I was kind of dumbstruck, as I was fully expecting an obstinate "We don't care about your facts, we care about the process," line. I'd even taken home most of my personal effects by then, and everything else I could fit in my duffel bag. To find out I didn't need it was not only a relief, but also a bit panic inducing, because I was totally NOT prepared to audit every other function's process. But anyway, that mentality sort of spread throughout the organization, and now we have dedicated individuals whose sole purpose is to sit down with people and watch them do their jobs, and ask the stupid questions. "That looks like it takes a long time, why do you have to do it that way?" or etc. And you'd be surprised how many times (at least at first...it's been a good 10 years now so we've cut away a lot of fat) people just stopped and went "You know....I have no idea. That really doesn't make sense does it?" In project management circles that's known as a gemba walk. You go to where the work is done, and try to find ways it can be done more efficiently, without sacrificing quality. A lot of the time it's because people simply don't know there's a better way. Like manually drawing a chart because they were completely unaware Excel could draw a chart for them based on a data table.
And thanks for the Gold! I just recently started using Reddit and that's actually my first one!
#30
My elementary school banned plastic knives from the cafeteria because my friends and I would steal a bunch and pretend to be in the hunger games and fake-stab each other at lunch.
#31
So in 4th grade we had this thing called wax museum where you dressed up as a historical figure and gave presentation. So my friend was Harry Houdini and so he had handcuffs. So as 10 year olds we were messing with them and my friend put them on me. These were not the cheap plastic ones at the dollar store they were prop ones made from real metal. So they get stuck and long story short i was in the office with 3 people around me trying to get the handcuffs open with pens and a pumpkin knife. My sister said when she had to do it there was no handcuffs allowed. Thanks Nathan for trapping me.
#32
No throwing grass when you're on school grounds.
This was in junior high. School grass was just cut, and drying up, so in just a few seconds you easily could get a big handful of grass. Friend and I were throwing it at each other (I started it), and a couple other people did after seeing us. They had an announcement each morning for the next couple days to not throw grass.
#33
The winery we had our wedding at, no longer has weddings.
Nothing particularly unexpected, but essentially my groomsmen could/can really drink. Most everyone else - not so much.
There wasn't supposed to be any hard alcohol at the venue, so of course my gifts to the groomsmen were engraved flasks. Which of course we all promptly filled with who knows what devil juice they pilfered, distilled, or otherwise acquired. I should note that our wedding planner was pretty uptight in general and especially about this "no hard liquor" thing, which my dudes essentially took as a challenge. They (ok, ok...we) proceeded to get pretty smashed, and get my old man pretty smashed, and several members of the bridal party, and I'm pretty sure some of the catering staff too lol. Thank Odin this mostly went down after the ceremony.
Naturally, drunken shenanigans ensue. Best man had to have the mic taken from him after revealing my arrest record to my new in-laws, one groomsman fell into and somehow damaged the fountain out front, another groomsman passed out in the parking lot (big fella, too), and I can't really remember what else. All in all it was really just a hell of a party, but the venue was definitely not prepared for our level of...energy.
Just celebrated our seven year anniversary one month ago today.
Melancholy Kitty 9 months ago
Having a party like this at home sounds amazing. Doing it at someone's work? YTA
#34
A friend and I were skipping state mandated senior-year testing because we didn't have homeroom classes, and were having breakfast at a restaurant (with our parents permission) when the School District Superintendent and our High School Principal got seated at the booth right behind us.
Some snarky comments and a couple of parental get-out-of-jail free cards later, we both got off with no consequences, but from the next year on the school worked with city & county law enforcement to ensure no-one else got away with the same thing.
As far as I know they're still doing county-wide restaurant sweeps 20-some odd year later.
#35
No throwing graded homework assignments in the garbage after they’re returned.
I got into an argument with a high school teacher that had been gone for 3 weeks about how a paper was graded as the sub we had did not relay instructions correctly. We talked and talked and talked about how instructions where relayed vs what he had told the sub to tell us. Several other students backed me up. He wouldn’t consider a redo on the assignment that half the class failed. Argument ended with me tearing the paper in half and tossing it in the garbage right at his desk. He tried saying that was extremely disrespectful to do as he spent a long time grading it. I said “its extremely disrespectful that you claim your instructions were relayed a certain way when you werent even here and you have no student agreeing with you.”
(Quick note: the teacher i had argued with was a LONG time family friend of the principal. They went to the same church, had children in the same grade, grew up in the same small town)
I was sent to the office and was kicked out of that class. The principal tried to suspend me for being insubordinate with throwing away my paper that was handed back. I said “I dare you to suspend me for something that every single one of your students does, including your daughter in my class. *Insert smug look*”
3 days later grades K-12 gathered for an all school assembly and the rule was unveiled. All the guys in my class laughed because they knew the story. The principals daughter and her friends glared. Good times. Good times.
#36
No playing darts by throwing scissors at the cork wall in the classroom.
#37
My mum is the reason they chain down the nativity scene at our local casino. Last year she tried to make off with the baby Jesus.
#38
At the old office we had a sign that says when doing technical repairs above the ground, DO NOT throw components at people below.
#39
My roommate in college documented everything I did in a blog, which included pictures of my stuff. I tried immature ways of getting her to stop (I followed her blog) bc I didn't know how to do proper conflict resolution (I had already asked if something was up and she said no, which turned out to be a lie, as I then found the blog). She made a new blog about me and when I found that, I asked her to stop. She wouldn't. A friend told an RA. Nothing happened to her, but the next year, there were new cyberbullying rules in place.
For those curious, her main complaints were how quickly I got out of bed, how I would nap before my work shifts, and how I wouldn't take out her recycling.
#40
In highschool my group of friends and me started bringing a grill to school to make toasted ham cheese sandwiches in the lunchbreaks. Soon after, more and more kids brought their grills to school. After about a week, the school banned grills on schoolproperty completely as they claimed it was a fire hazard.
Marla Singer 9 months ago
Taking advantage of the "Air Bud Rule". (It doesn't say anywhere that a particular obscure thing is against the rules...)
#41
At a previous place of work: you cannot lock the wheels on the rolling carts.
I had a micromanager that did not know how to do f*****g anything my job entailed, but wouldn't let that stop him from telling me b******t like we need to 83 of a specific unit through to stress testing by the end of today or else there will be repurcussions (except we can't because a certain micromanager failed to order the f*****g parts we needed to do that..)
Anyway, one day I was feeling like s**t and did not want to deal with him, so I got every unit I'd need for that day, made some walls around me and locked the wheels on them so no one could get to me. Then for good measure I put on some music and cranked it up loud. It was hard to keep the smirk off my face when micromanager started poking his head into the open slots of units I'd already worked on trying to get my attention.
My floor manager just sent me emails that day for whatever she needed, and all of that got done of course
Edit: forgot to mention, I have no idea why the music was apparently fine but locking wheels was the issue.
#42
My cabin at a summer camp got glowsticks banned because we cut them open and sprayed the glowy s**t all over the place.
Joseph Miller 9 months ago
I just recently saw glowsticks going through a shredder. It looked really great!
#43
No climbing trees. I climbed to the top of a tree (it was pretty big), and then I made a branch fall that almost landed on top of a teacher's head. Needless to say, climbing trees are now banned at my school.
#44
Pokémon was banned in our Catholic elementary school because the principal thought my friend and I were praising it instead of Jesus.
It was quite a ride.
#45
You can no longer write “whatever you want” for the creative component in the English exam.
So, in high school we had to read the most boring book ever, “The Secret River.” I didn’t read it.
So, for our SACs (state wide "School assessed coursework,” in Australia it basically defines your life) there is a creative exam where we have a visual prompt, and we were told you can “write whatever you want”. What they meant was you could write a news article, or a new perspective of one of the characters or a book review.
So, I thought, screw it, **I’m writing Secret River, the Musical**.
2 pages, 10 verses. None of the teachers knew what to do with it. Some thought I deserved an A because I was a mad genius, some thought I was clearly trying to hide the fact I didn’t read the book. It has to be examined and cross-examined twice. But because they have to give everyone back their results AT THE SAME TIME, no one got their results back for a month. Everyone was pissed.
When we got it back I was told I was never to do that again.
#46
Board operators at the radio station have to show up 30 minutes early because I slept through a fill-in shift to run the morning news show.
#47
The christmas tree will be anchored to the wall.
#48
College changed its policy of allowing free printing and now charges 10 cents per page.
#49
No black lipstick in my high school dress code. Then further amended to no unnatural lip colors.
#50
I played against john carmack in quake 3. (he kicked my a*s bad)
I text spammed using the high ascii characters.
the update right after that , those characters no longer worked.
MyNameIsNotAPortent 9 months ago (edited)
Good, because there is no such thing as High ASCII. Did you send it over Cat6e/RJ45? Or maybe DB9?
#51
No throwing plaster blocks off the 4th floor.
#52
All forklift drivers must wear seatbelts. I'm the safety coordinator.
Brian Droste 9 months ago
One factory I worked for, you had to put your sestbelt on EVEN before you start the forklift.
#53
They banned handball (the school one with the rubber ball)l at my primary because I kept on hitting the ball too hard and injured some people.
#54
It isn't a rule but I once ran away to home while I was in kindergarten. They put up a button that only can be reached by grown ups so it won't happen again.
#56
No more phones in classes, breaks or otherwise. You want to use your phone, dash to the cafeteria and hope that the 10-minute break is worth it and enough.
No more going on ‘cultural exchanges’ with other schools. And if we are, then they’re going to have to check us for alcohol content. And you have to make a promise that you will *never* get into any sort of altercations with students from other schools.
No more wearing whatever you like. Students now have to wear proper school uniforms.
My boys and I acted so wild we literally changed how our high school works. To this day, our juniors f*****g hate us. This is in Japan btw. KEK.
#57
Let’s just say that you aren’t really supposed to lean towards the middle of the fountains in Florida Mall anymore...
#58
No towel whipping new employees.
What do you think ?
Lee Gilliland 9 months ago
It is against regulations to dye an animal any other color than its natural one in the US military. That was my finest hour.
veryvenasaur 9 months ago
I caused a rule to be created on my sports team that "All workouts must be counted using the base 10 system." after I used binary to count my 100 crunches. I am also the cause of the rule that "Juggling is banned in class along with Yoyo's Diabolo's and unicycles."
Scarlett O'Hara's Ghost 9 months ago
I love exotic pets. Think fish and birds. I had several 100 gallon fish tanks and desperately wanted to try my hand at keeping Piranha. Husband said no. I came up with a viable lid lock to prevent the very slim chance that our 9 year old son would put his hands in the tank. Husband said hell no, new rule: If it can eat you, you can't have it. This also ruined my dreams of keeping morey eels .. It's been able 20 years since I lost the last of my exotic pets. Now my son and I collect uranium glass from the depression and radium clocks. After about 6 months of antique collecting, my husband insisted on the purchase of a Geiger counter! Last weekend he went to an antique mall with us and just shook his head while we played with radioactive antiques, lol. He says he should have been more clear with the original rule: "If it can eat you or kill you, you can't have it" We told him no take backsies!
Magenta Blu 7 months ago
A piranha won't k**l anyone if they are not bleeding.. and even so, there must been dozens of piranha to actually k**l a person.. one or two piranha won't cause too much harm.. and they don't have rabies either
Load More Replies... Lee Gilliland 9 months ago
It is against regulations to dye an animal any other color than its natural one in the US military. That was my finest hour.
veryvenasaur 9 months ago
I caused a rule to be created on my sports team that "All workouts must be counted using the base 10 system." after I used binary to count my 100 crunches. I am also the cause of the rule that "Juggling is banned in class along with Yoyo's Diabolo's and unicycles."
Scarlett O'Hara's Ghost 9 months ago
I love exotic pets. Think fish and birds. I had several 100 gallon fish tanks and desperately wanted to try my hand at keeping Piranha. Husband said no. I came up with a viable lid lock to prevent the very slim chance that our 9 year old son would put his hands in the tank. Husband said hell no, new rule: If it can eat you, you can't have it. This also ruined my dreams of keeping morey eels .. It's been able 20 years since I lost the last of my exotic pets. Now my son and I collect uranium glass from the depression and radium clocks. After about 6 months of antique collecting, my husband insisted on the purchase of a Geiger counter! Last weekend he went to an antique mall with us and just shook his head while we played with radioactive antiques, lol. He says he should have been more clear with the original rule: "If it can eat you or kill you, you can't have it" We told him no take backsies!
Magenta Blu 7 months ago
A piranha won't k**l anyone if they are not bleeding.. and even so, there must been dozens of piranha to actually k**l a person.. one or two piranha won't cause too much harm.. and they don't have rabies either
Load More Replies... You May Like 30 Fun Old People Jokes That Can Be Appreciated By Everyone People Share Things That Exist Only Because People Are Dumb
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