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It only takes one clueless dude or dudette to do something so silly others have to pay for it. You probably remember it from the early school days when the teacher would give the whole class extra homework if that one little daredevil was disturbing the class. No wonder they’d be the least liked person in the entire school, and that’s something you don’t just get rid of easily.

Such cases of group punishment, whether by establishing a new rule or by giving a task, are unsurprisingly a very relatable experience. So we looked at a couple of Reddit threads where people shared their frustration with that one person who made things go downhill for a bunch of people, so scroll down through the stories below. Also, make sure to share your own similar experiences in the comment section below!

#1

Someone Asked, "What Rule Was Changed Because Of One Stupid Person?", 40 Delivered My high school choir allowed the seniors (in choir) to vote on a song to perform at graduation. We would spend a day sorting nominated songs to narrow down to a couple which would have a brief defense of the song and why it should be chosen put before the group and then we'd all vote. Simple democratic process. It was usually some moderately popular pop song, no big deal. My senior year, several of us are huge Freddie Mercury / Queen fans so we grouped together to nominate Bohemian Rhapsody, which won the vote by a huge (over 95% margin). We were happy, the choir was happy, the director and administration were happy. Life was good.

Then... The next week... One senior girl approached the director in tears about how "this song about DRUGS is going to ruin MY graduation!" (she didn't understand the line "so you think you can stone me and spit in my eye." She literally thought it was about getting stoned...)

Anyway, the director tells is all what happened, we laugh at how ridiculous it is, until she says that because of this, we will have to change the song.

Wut...

No f*****g way, we selected it democratically and it was voted for by a massive margin. So we were forced to go before the choir AGAIN, opposite little miss still crying dumbass, and argue for the song again and she gets to argue her case as well. Her only words to the class were how "if this song is picked I REFUSE to participate in graduation, because I don't believe in drugs!"

There was no vote this time. The director decided we would not sing the song. And substituted it with an African freedom song, which we neither picked nor voted on at any stage. We threatened to not sing at graduation if that was the case and she just told is to "not cause any additional drama.". The administration tried to offer is a compromise by playing the song as we exited at the end, which we begrudgingly accepted.

Graduation comes, little Miss Priss stands in the top row with a s**t eating grin on her face, and proudly sings the African freedom song, while a bunch of us stand and refuse to open our mouths but it's moot at that point.

And as one final f**k you to us, it seemed, we get to the end of the ceremony and instead of Bohemian Rhapsody playing, they put on Bittersweet Symphony... I heard that the next year they had a "banned songs" list that we're not allowed for the senior vote. It was full of random rap and pop songs (like someone googled a top 40 list) and right there at the top was Bohemian Rhapsody.

I don't know what that girl's problem really was, but she somehow bested a 400 person graduating class and effectively banned a modern masterpiece purely because she was too stupid to understand the lyrics... This was 15 years ago and I'm still bitter...

closetothesilence , Oregon City High School Report

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Bored Panda reached out to professor Jeffrey Thomas, student engagement leader and lecturer in behavior management at University Of Tasmania to find out more about group punishment, which punishes a group of people for the actions of one or more unidentified culprits. Thomas explained that we see this frequently in the school system where a teacher may require all students to stay in at lunchtime because one student did not follow a class rule.

Sometimes the punishment can be applied to a whole school community, Thomas told us. “For example, not being allowed to go on an excursion because rubbish was left in the yard. It is a technique that has been around ever since schools have existed and is based on the understanding of behaviorism –the idea that you can modify a person’s behavior through the introduction of external factors,” he explained.

#2

Someone Asked, "What Rule Was Changed Because Of One Stupid Person?", 40 Delivered Every July 4th, there's a great parade in Willimantic, CT - the Boom Box Parade. It's unique and totally inclusive; literally anyone can join, from political groups to the local food co-op, to the karate dojo kids and the Victorian house association, some dude on a skateboard, 4-H clubs, stilt walkers, local businesses, local weirdos, etc. Oh, and did I mention, there's no band, so you have to bring your boom box and tune to the local station - they broadcast the parade music and it fills the air. Very loony, very fun.


Anyway, the street is lined with folks in lawn chairs watching and cheering for people on floats. It USED to be that people on floats would bring super soakers and blast the crowd (in addition to throwing candy and beads), and the best of all was the Hosmer Mountain Soda Company - they had a water cannon in the back of their delivery truck, and they'd fill it with a couple of gallons of water and BLAST this huge squirt of water into the watching throngs. It was great, because of course it's usually around 90 degrees on July 4th in CT, so everyone enjoyed it and screamed and laughed and had a great time.


Or so we thought - a few years ago some lady got mad because their hair got wet, so now there's a rule against any kind of squirt guns or water balloons. Also no "throwing" candy (they can gently place it into a kid's hand). Thanks, you miserable old bag.

disqeau , Clay Banks Report

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V Martinez
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I hate when 1 person ruins it for the masses. Just ban the 1 lone idiot and let the rest of live happy, fun-filled, crazy parade lives!

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#3

Someone Asked, "What Rule Was Changed Because Of One Stupid Person?", 40 Delivered When I was in middle school, I used to play MTG or Yugioh with friends during lunch. Some jackass decided it would be fun to grab my cards while I was in the middle of a game, run to the bathroom, and toss them in the toilet. I brought the issue up to the principal. He responded by banning all trading cards.
Wow, way to punish the victim.

StalinsPerfectHair , Erik Mclean Report

In terms of punishment, the professor argues, the external factors are designed to be so unpleasant that the person will not carry out the same behavior in the future. “At an individual level, common classroom punishments could include detentions, cleaning, or missing out on activities that other students enjoy.”

On the other hand, strategies of group punishment are morally and educationally questionable. However, “it is possible to gain short term compliance through the threat of punishment,” Thomas said and added that “in group punishment, the culprit’s actions result in them – and everyone else in the group – being punished.” According to the professor, in this way, students realize that they are the reason for their peers’ punishment and that idea of the associated social harm aims to be the unpleasant external factor that will modify their future behavior.

#4

Someone Asked, "What Rule Was Changed Because Of One Stupid Person?", 40 Delivered My office used to provide coffee for employees, until one woman complained that this "wasn't fair" to employees who didn't drink coffee. She drank Diet Coke, yes even at 8:00 AM, and she said that if they were going to provide coffee they should also provide Diet Coke. They don't provide coffee anymore.

ThrowAwy6678 , Andrew Neel Report

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Lauren Caswell
Community Member
1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Boo. I worked at an investment firm that provided drinks (alcohol) on Fridays. I couldn't drink due to meds but sat with them anyway. They started buying cokes for me :) Very nice of them. I didn't mind buying my own: I was free to leave early instead of partaking with the others, but it was like an office bonding thing 🤷‍♀️

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#5

Someone Asked, "What Rule Was Changed Because Of One Stupid Person?", 40 Delivered A company I worked for had free feminine products in the bathrooms. They stopped stocking them because someone would take every single pad and tampon. An email was sent warning that the products wouldnt be stocked if the theft continued. And some f****r still stole them.

analyticalscience11 , Natracare Report

#6

Someone Asked, "What Rule Was Changed Because Of One Stupid Person?", 40 Delivered TD Bank used to have a free “Penny Arcade” for customers, that would count all of your change, and give you a slip to get cash from the teller. It was so convenient. And fun for the kids, as they made a guessing game out of it.

Some guy said he was shorted a few pennies, and filed a lawsuit against the bank. And poof, all the penny arcades in all of the banks got closed down.

Even if they missed a few pennies here and there, it’s still way cheaper than the ones in the supermarket that charge for use.

So long story short, f**k that guy.

clover-the-clever , Acton Crawford Report

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TheDivineMsM
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

So he sued, which costs hundreds of dollars, over missing like 3 cents, 5 cents.... what a douche.

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However, the education system is not the only place where group punishment is used. In a workplace, group (or collective) punishment may look like less flexibility, more accountability or additional restrictions placed on when and how employees can work, Thomas argues.

“The aim, like in schools, is to rely on individual members of the team to pressure the less productive members into being more diligent and therefore more profitable. The problem is that this approach is unlikely to work in the long term for the underperformer, and is probably going to damage the performance of the other team members,” the professor explained.

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The way that punishments produce compliance is by making the person afraid of being caught doing the wrong thing. “This leads to either modifying future behavior through shame and guilt – or being better at not being caught!”

#7

Someone Asked, "What Rule Was Changed Because Of One Stupid Person?", 40 Delivered I worked for a company that micromanaged the s**t out of its employees. About 8 of us were in a large section together, with individual work stations where we did our jobs, but could see, interact and talk with everyone else. It was a mind numbing job, so socialization is the only way the clock went by faster. If someone was too far away, you’d usually just walk over and talk with them and head back to your work station. As long as we weren’t disruptive, management didn’t care.

Well one lady gets hired that couldn’t understand the concept of an “indoor voice” so she would shout at coworkers from across the room. She also liked to take 20-25 minute breaks instead of 15, thinking nobody noticed. Eventually, management got tired of it and changed the rules. We were no longer allowed to leave our work station, even if the place was empty of customers and we now had to have a timer with us when we went to breaks. If the time read longer than 15 minutes, we would be written up. If we left our work station or spoke too loudly, we’d get written up.

A lot of us ended up quitting shortly afterwards.

anon , Tima Miroshnichenko Report

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Debra McGeorge
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

That's the perfect example of how to mis-manage a company. Their loss.

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#8

Someone Asked, "What Rule Was Changed Because Of One Stupid Person?", 40 Delivered I worked at a graphic design and website company, and we had an in-house photography studio too. Nobody there was over 40, and the atmosphere was really relaxed. Almost every member of the team had visible tattoos and we wore jeans/whatever to work every day.

Then an educational software company looking to diversify bought us and put in a corporate dress code stating that we all had to have collared shirts, no visible tattoos, dress shoes, and if I was wearing a skirt it had to be longer than knee length.

We just ignored the rule until the IT guy from corporate stopped in unannounced and snitched on us.

F**k you Mike.

internetdiscocat , JESHOOTS.COM Report

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#9

Someone Asked, "What Rule Was Changed Because Of One Stupid Person?", 40 Delivered I work for a company in Massachusetts. We have gps's in our vans now because someone called and asked for a quote to put in a security system in their commerical building. One of our people asked them how they found us (we like to find what ways reach people the best for advertising) and they said they saw one of our company vans........on the strip in Vegas.

anon , grassrootsgroundswell Report

However, the result of group punishment may be exactly the opposite. “In a group punishment situation, the unidentified culprit is doing his or her best to not be caught by not taking responsibility for the behavior – which demonstrates that the initial threat of punishment was ineffective at modifying future behavior – and that culprit has no regard for the class or team.”

According to Thomas, the only mechanism left for being an effective strategy is that the group imposes its own punishment on the culprit. “In a school, this might look like social exclusion or even violence (no one likes their lunchtime taken away!) and can lead to a ‘toxic’ work environment,” he added.

#10

Someone Asked, "What Rule Was Changed Because Of One Stupid Person?", 40 Delivered One dumb s***head year seven decided to burn their mouth on the coffee they bought at school. Their mother decided to try and sue the school and now we don’t have hot drinks anymore. Hate that kid

anon , Steffan Mitchell Report

#11

Someone Asked, "What Rule Was Changed Because Of One Stupid Person?", 40 Delivered In my office, we used to have free candy bars (the small / bite size) at the exec admin's desk. Someone demanded a certain candy bar or complained that there was too much of one kind of candy, not sure which was the issue. The EA got really annoyed at their brattiness and got rid of the free candy. No more afternoon snackies.

GorditoCat , Juushika Redgrave Report

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NannyChachi
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

When I was working as a paper nurse at a clinic I kept a big jar of candy on my desk. Never had any complaints, but sure got alot of smiles.

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#12

Someone Asked, "What Rule Was Changed Because Of One Stupid Person?", 40 Delivered One of my coworkers was snooping around and opening people's pay stub letters. He managed to keep his job (union...) but now all paystubs are sent through email.

But that's not the kicker. This same guy complained that the part time staff where getting paid to much. As a result, the full time staff didn't get a wage increase, but they cut the rate for part time staff. This resulted in a $10 per hour difference gap now. He was no better off, he just made life worse for all the part time staff.

Over time, they have closed the gap a little, but wow.

IceBear14 , Andy Nguyen Report

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Joe Blowe
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Full time staff get benefits, part time staff do not. That could have been part of the reason for the difference in pay.

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In addition to being unlikely to change the culprit’s behavior, group punishment is likely to create worse behaviour in the rest of the group, the professor argues. “Being punished for something you did not do causes resentment towards the authority (teacher or manager), which in turn will lead to less productive behavior in the workplace or classroom. We know that students who have a good relationship with their teachers are much more likely to exhibit positive classroom behavior, and group punishment is a perfect way to destroy that relationship,” he commented and added that “similarly, a workplace wants to create a culture where the team is intrinsically motivated to be the best.”

#13

Someone Asked, "What Rule Was Changed Because Of One Stupid Person?", 40 Delivered Well, at my work we’re on the verge of losing the privilege of being able to listen to our own music/podcasts/audiobooks because one guy thought it would be okay to loudly listen to a podcast about pornstars and the making of porn.

TonyDanzer , Alvaro Felipe Report

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JK Rowling
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

For some reason, the only people that ever listen to things out loud are the ones that listen to obnoxious rap or weird podcasts like this. You never hear lo-fi or classic music in public because the types of people to listen to those things are the ones that respectfully wear headphones and sit in the corner.

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#14

Someone Asked, "What Rule Was Changed Because Of One Stupid Person?", 40 Delivered I work in healthcare. On Fridays we used to be able to dress casual instead of our usual color assigned scrubs (colors are based on title ex: CNAs purple, housekeeping blue, etc). One day a CNA showed up in a cleavage baring belly shirt, mini skirt, knee high boots and heavy make up. I don't know what the hell she was thinking, but ever since we're only allowed to wear different colored scrubs on Fridays. Even more annoying because she hasn't worked there in years but the rule stuck.

TuesDazeGone , Nenad StojkovicFollow Report

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Wolfe
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

during the height of covid, my dad's job decided to allow only one person in the break room a time. sounds great on paper, but when you have, say 8 people, with a half hour lunch break, that's a 4 hour lunch window. one person has lunch at 10, and is starving by 7, while another starves til 1:30. Luckily, my dad set them straight

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#15

Someone Asked, "What Rule Was Changed Because Of One Stupid Person?", 40 Delivered People can’t bring their dogs into work because one person brought in their puppy who had an accident and she wouldn’t clean up after it because the cleaner should do it. Awful

SydneyHalifax , Samuel Regan-Asante Report

For these reasons, group punishment is not the most ideal way to deal with problematic behavior. Thomas argues that instead, the best way to do so, whether it be in the school or in the workplace, is to address the underlying cause of the behavior.

He explained: “A teacher or manager can only do this if they understand the reasons why the individual is acting the way they do. Is the student acting out because they have no friends? Is the employee not productive because they are unsure of the task? When these underlying causes are known, then a solution can be implemented that is likely to benefit the whole group.”

#16

Someone Asked, "What Rule Was Changed Because Of One Stupid Person?", 40 Delivered Local swimming lessons my daughter goes to requires any child 4 or younger to wear a swimming diaper. It used to be a “heavily encouraged” kind of rule. Now it’s reusable swim diaper over disposable diaper, mandatory.

This is because of one mother. They asked her to put a diaper on her 3.5 year old, she swore she was potty trained and made a big fuss about it. Kid pooped within like 5 minutes of getting in the pool. So pool was shut down. Next lesson same thing, a couple of us parents even offered to give her diapers for her child. Nope she refused, saying her kid will never poop in the pool again. 10 minutes later pool was shut down.

After that they made it mandatory and got very strict about it. My daughter was a month away from turning 4 but they said she has to wear a diaper. My kid was pissed about it but I understood.

anon , Alexandr Podvalny Report

#17

Someone Asked, "What Rule Was Changed Because Of One Stupid Person?", 40 Delivered My fourth grade teacher allowed us to chew gum in class. He said that if he found evidence of misuse, like sticking it under desktop, he would ban chewing gum. One kid stuck it on a window sill and ruined it for all of us.

markko79 , Matthew Brodeur Report

#18

Someone Asked, "What Rule Was Changed Because Of One Stupid Person?", 40 Delivered This happened earlier this week. I work in a kindergarten and a standard practice, for years. was to reward kids with stickers. Well, earlier this week one little angel decided that a sticker is edible and ate it. The sticker, living up to it's name, got stuck and lodged in the throat.... Hospital, angry parents and no more stickers

StoppedListeningToMe , Janine Report

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Max M
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Sounds strange. It worked for years. Her kid is on the brat and brainless scale. And that changes a rule?

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Moreover, Thomas added that addressing problematic or unproductive behavior is part of a teacher or manager’s job. “They need to be equipped with the knowledge and strategies that will produce long-term gains rather than short-term compliance.”

“Group punishment may look like it is working when it is applied – students and employees will appear to be doing the right thing for a while – but without addressing the underlying cause of the problem, leaders who impose this strategy should expect an increase in undesirable behavior in the future,” the professor concluded.

#19

Someone Asked, "What Rule Was Changed Because Of One Stupid Person?", 40 Delivered Any time work had a company-wide meeting, they'd buy large cases of soda and have a lot left over. They'd put them in the various fridges around the office and you were free to take one or two a day if you wanted it. Some a*****e loaded up a dufflebag with full cans one Friday as he left, and the next week or so later the sodas were all locked in the supply closet. Now they buy much smaller cases so that there's almost no left overs.

Arch27 , Dan Keck Report

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Happy Blue Panda
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

All it takes is that one a*****e. This is why it's some times difficult for an employer to want to provide free items because there is always someone like this.

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#20

Someone Asked, "What Rule Was Changed Because Of One Stupid Person?", 40 Delivered Worked for large company. When we hired contract workers, we let them go to company BBQs and picnics.

Then when we didn't renew one's contract, they claimed "we treated them like employees" and sued us for unemployment benefits.

No more BBQs and picnics for contract workers.

catdude142 , Lee Myungseong Report

#21

Someone Asked, "What Rule Was Changed Because Of One Stupid Person?", 40 Delivered We are not allowed to wear trash bags as rain coats since someone forgot to cut arm holes and couldn't catch themselves when they fell down.

kelpfrog , Simone Daino Report

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#22

Someone Asked, "What Rule Was Changed Because Of One Stupid Person?", 40 Delivered We used to play our own music at the store. Well, someone plays explicit music with customers on the floor. No more music at work.

the_vent , @felipepelaquim Report

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Snowfoxrox
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I work in a childrens hospital. I listen exclusively to Disney music. I know it's 100% safe, the kids get a kick and my coworkers think its great.

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#23

Someone Asked, "What Rule Was Changed Because Of One Stupid Person?", 40 Delivered Worked for a pub that didn't have a specific rule about not drinking (alcohol) on shift, but it was well known that you didn't do it. After an event, when we cleaning down, the boss would buy us a drink and we would drink it whilst finishing up.
Then one day one of the younger staff members (above legal drinking age, but still young enough to be stupid), decided to drink on shift, get hammered, and f**k up at his job. Boss tries to discipline him, but the fact there was no rule about not drinking on shift meant co worker got away with it. Cue new rule being added to say drinking on shift was forbidden, and there goes our 'reward' drinks from our boss. And due to the staff member betraying his trust, the boss became a lot more stand-offish and the whole atmosphere of the place changed.

anon , Jonas Jacobsson Report

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Ross Warren
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

They should be in trouble for messing up the job. Alcohol is no excuse.

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#24

Someone Asked, "What Rule Was Changed Because Of One Stupid Person?", 40 Delivered I worked as an English teacher in South Korea for a few years. It used to be that if school was off, you didn't have to go in. It made sense. What happened was a vocal person decided it was not fair that certain people didn't have to go in because their school's calendar was different. They started complaining about it and the result was that everyone has a set number of vacation days and you have to schedule your days off. That person was not very popular and ended up leaving before long. They ruined it for future teachers though.

Vlaed , Estée Janssens Report

#25

Someone Asked, "What Rule Was Changed Because Of One Stupid Person?", 40 Delivered This happened before I joined the company but dress rules were very relaxed, including shorts (which if I could I would wear shorts ALL THE TIME, even in blizzard conditions).

So one idiot comes in on Friday with his bike and his racing bike gear including those nylon biker shorts which show off his junk and a*s. He was surprised when he was sent home to change and the rules got a lot stiffer after that. So now we don't even get regular shorts for casual fridays (They allowed it one month during the summer when sales were amazing).

jaytrade21 , David Dvořáček Report

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Nightshade1972
Community Member
1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My family moved from Chicago to Houston when I was 12. In Chicago, if you wanted to wear shorts to school during the warmer months, nobody cared. In Houston, gasp! You can only wear shorts during gym class! The rest of the time, no matter how hot/humid it is, you must wear long pants! That rule didn't change until the student council president broke his leg so high up that the cast went all the way up to his thigh. The school tried to insist he wear sweatpants over the cast, instead of shorts. His parents had to threaten to sue before they backed down and finally got rid of the "no shorts" rule for everyone, not just him.

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#26

Someone Asked, "What Rule Was Changed Because Of One Stupid Person?", 40 Delivered We used to have little wine and food mixers in the office every month.

Then f*****g Jessica had to bring vodka. Next thing you knows she’s running around the office with no shoes trying to play tag, flirting with bosses, calling a female co-worked a b***h, eventually passing out in her cubicle and we had to call her husband to collect her.


No more wine and appetizers :-(

Hiredgun77 , sk Report

#27

Someone Asked, "What Rule Was Changed Because Of One Stupid Person?", 40 Delivered A restaurant I worked at changed a policy just weeks after I started.

Old rule: Employees may drink up to 2 alcoholic beverages after their shift, provided they change out of work clothes.

New Rule: No employee of 'Hoover Street Cafe' may drink ANY alcohol at ANY location. Period. EVER. Or you're fired.

What happened? A soon-to-be ex-GM came in after serving hours, made a sh*t-ton of drinks for her, her husband, and her friends and then comped the tab.

Yep, that'll do it.

KnitBrewTimeTravel , Giovanna Gomes Report

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Dav Carro-Ripalda
Community Member
1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The problem with some of these is the lack of sindicates to protect the employees. Here, some of these would have not been able to get rid of so easily, as they are "gained rights", and the sindicates representatives and layers would have fought and won. I am talking about my country, obviously. In Europe.

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#28

Someone Asked, "What Rule Was Changed Because Of One Stupid Person?", 40 Delivered Phones were removed from break rooms in the building because one guy decided to use them to call his family overseas.

Zero tolerance on being late for work because several people decided that because there was a 15 minute buffer before being considered late then they actually didn't have to be there until 15 minutes after the hour, and some of them couldn't even handle that...

Ryokurin , LinkedIn Sales Solutions Report

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Nightshade1972
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I'm reminded of a guy who, for years, managed to make it to work on time every day (M-F 8-5). Suddenly, he starts showing up 15 minutes late every day--but he still leaves promptly at 5. Turned out he'd moved to a new apartment, that was 15 minutes further away than his old place was. Absolutely could not understand the concept of needing to get up 15 minutes earlier now that he's in the new place. His employers even tried changing his schedule so that he could do 8:15-5:15 every day, and he *still* showed up late. When they let him go for chronic tardiness, he whined. Oh well...

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#29

Someone Asked, "What Rule Was Changed Because Of One Stupid Person?", 40 Delivered We had a cube farm at work. Many people had things like cup warmers and coffee pots in their cubes. I myself had a coffee grinder and coffee maker. I'd fresh grind the beans and set the timer on my coffee maker, and have fresh coffee waiting for me when I arrived in the morning.

Then one guy left a crock pot on when he went home. It smoked out the whole building. Fire department was called, building was evacuated, etc.

Suddenly we were not allowed to have anything other than normal office stuff plugged in.

Zorkeldschorken , Edgar Castrejon Report

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Kamie Jones
Community Member
1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Lol, this happened at my old employer but a girl brought a hair straightener and was doing her hair while on the clock at her desk 🤣

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#30

Someone Asked, "What Rule Was Changed Because Of One Stupid Person?", 40 Delivered I used to work at a therapy farm for people with mental health issues/learning difficulties. Never had any problem until we had an open day for the general public when, after a panicked rush to the hospital, we had to put up huge signs telling people not to put their whole hands into the pigs mouth when feeding them.

(These were BIG pigs with enormous tusks, most of our clients were wary even going near them not sure what that lady was thinking. She was lucky she kept all her fingers!)

Svg47 , Hans Splinter Report

#31

Someone Asked, "What Rule Was Changed Because Of One Stupid Person?", 40 Delivered Used to work in car sales that sold all kinds of second hand cars. If you needed to take a car to another branch in a different town you used to be able to take the car home that night and have it ready at your house in the morning to head straight there without going into work and swapping over. One guy at another branch faked a move request on a high end Range Rover so he could use it that night on a date which would have been fine really but he got drunk and wrote it off on the high street by rolling it over.. goes without saying no one was ever allowed to take cars home again after that

djzedcarter , Sourav Mishra Report

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#32

Some dumbass burned up a bag of microwave popcorn and set off the fire alarm in the state psych hospital, on 3rd shift (around 2-3 am). The entire building had to be evacuated, which involved about 15-20 staff and 150 psych patients being herded out in the middle of the night. After that, there was a ban on microwave popcorn.

Edit: Also, the city fire department showed up. They weren't happy.

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Snowfoxrox
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I have to wonder if this was in Atascadero...lol... Another hospital in that area also had a popcorn ban.

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#33

At my undergrad university TAs are no longer allowed to answer questions about the problems during exams if medical students are taking the exam. Apparently somebody complained that answering questions during the exam gives some students an unfair advantage. I have to add, though, that the questions that are answered by TAs during an exam are usually about unclarities/ambiguities/missing information in the exam problems. They will not give the students hints on how to solve the problem.

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Tim
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I had a strong dislike for all the premed people while I was in school. Grade grubbing was bad enough among the general population, but they took it to a whole new level. Apparently, if you don't ace all your classes, they just throw your med school application in the garbage.

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#34

Our company had to buy all office staff steel toecap shoes as one woman in the office decided to wear flip flops to work and dropped a full box of paper on her foot. Everyone else already wore sensible shoes and carried one ream at a time because it was safer.

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Amy Taylor
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

They did that in the film industry. I'm in CA and summers are brutal here so I would wear sandals to work when we were outside on location. In retrospect, it probably wasn't smart because there's too much heavy equipment being moved around, so you can't wear open toed shoes of any kind now.

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#35

Someone Asked, "What Rule Was Changed Because Of One Stupid Person?", 40 Delivered One year in high school they instituted a "no dunking" rule.

It was because some guy dunked and decided to hang on the rim like he was Shaq, and that might have been okay, but dude did chin ups on it and wriggled around as he swung like he was being tasered.

A rain of 'glass' or fibreglass or whatever the hell the backboard was made of came down as the guy screamed louder.

So of course, game was over, and the bused us back to our school and we were all pissed at the guy.

Then next day in praise, they tell us our league - high school basketball for a large region - decided just 'f**k this' and immediately there was a rule that dunks weren't allowed, were a technical and immediately disqualification and suspension.

Thanks Ben!

billbapapa , LOGAN WEAVER | @LGNWVR Report

#36

Someone Asked, "What Rule Was Changed Because Of One Stupid Person?", 40 Delivered This one guy in my school got into 4 wrecks in the parking lot. They implemented a 5 mph speed limit. Everyone was angry and the guy got into a another wreck 2 weeks later anyway.

Hetaliafan1 , Andy Arthur Report

#37

Someone Asked, "What Rule Was Changed Because Of One Stupid Person?", 40 Delivered We were given work from home access so we can login and work, in case of emergencies. However, management didn't bat an eye if one day a week we logged in from home instead of coming to the office.

One idiot, when working from Home, was clearly stating "I'll work on it when i'm back in the office." during email and IMs. They immediately stopped all work at home requests and all work had to be done in the office.

It was clear that nobody was really "working" from home, but work was reasonable enough where as long as we showed face and addressed issues as they came up, we were fine. They didnt expect somebody to be that stupid....

lFalseShepardl , Thought Catalog Report

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Random Panda
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I mean if people weren't actually working when at home, I get why it was banned. I've had several jobs that let you work from home a few days a week and we were in fact expected to work.

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#38

We weren’t allowed to play dodgeball at school anymore because some kid was domed in the head and bitched to his parents. They suspended the game, so being supportive young kids, we threw those hard leathered basketballs at him the next day.

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Pumpkin Spice
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Not the kid's fault. It's the parents' and the school's. Throw balls at them!

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Terry Tobias
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I hated playing dodgeball in school! My anxiety level goes through the roof just thinking about it.

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Pheebs
Community Member
1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

We had a kid get a concussion after getting hit in the head with a soft, foam dodgeball. All that happened is we were asked to aim lower. Years before that, at another school, I got unlucky enough to get two hard rubber dodgeballs to the head during a game - at the same time. All that happened was the teacher blamed me for not having 360 peripheral vision, and getting used as example for the rest of the class on how “not” to play. No concussion for me, thankfully, and I learned how to dodge and catch quite well. 🙄

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Logan Duffy
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

well the kid bitched to his parents,what did it do?make things worse.lemme guess,they banned baseball,football,baseball,or any game with balls because of one little shite of a hellspawn

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Al B. Wright
Community Member
1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Exactly what I was going to say, he just made himself a target! Also, a friendly tip, you can edit your comments so you don't have to leave another with a *.

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Joy Hunter
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Getting hit in the head with a ball can cause serious injury. I once got a tetherball smack on my forehead and was out several days with a concussion. Dodgeball is a pretty disgusting, as well as dangerous, game.

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Linds
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Anyone remember "Red Rover"? 😂 how that game was allowed is beyond me but oh man it was FUN! Just clothesline the kid you don't like.

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Luna Lovegood for Justice
Community Member
1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Actually, in my experience it is the kid who threw the ball. When I was at summer camp (11yo) there was this one guy who would throw way harder than he needed too. Hits someone in the head and boom! No dodgeball. Next summer, I am at the same camp and the counselor decides we can play dodgeball one more time. At first, it looks like everyone is playing fair. Then, the same guy from last year decides to throw it super hard at a small girl. This time, not only is dodgeball banned we were all "grounded" where we had to put our heads down for like, an hour. During that time, I was screaming at the guy in my head and I am pretty sure others were too.

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Al Connor
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

ah here this game should not be allowed anyways, its insane! Wonder if any other country in the world play this, event though as I say this, when people look at one of my countries national sports they say its a mix between hockey and murder :D i.e Hurling :)

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Sonnovab Kegeles
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Not the kids or the parents fault, dodge ball is simply school encouraged bullying. Should not be allowed period. Of course I'm the guy no one liked (gay) so I got heavily bombarded every time.

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#39

At a store i used to work at there is a no employees under 18 can use a ladder without supervision due to a ladder jousting tournament i hosted while working there involving all 6 under 18 employees

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#40

Someone Asked, "What Rule Was Changed Because Of One Stupid Person?", 40 Delivered We're doing 12 hour nightshifts in China, and normally we would sneak off to our empty office and take a 40 minute nap. It was great and left us refreshed until our moron coworker kept falling asleep in the control room loudly snoring. Now we have received some very stern warnings about sleeping on the job.

ooo-ooo-oooyea , Peijia Li Report

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