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Workplaces can have many different rules and policies. Some of them make sense, and others don't. For many young employees, dress codes at work are off the table, as a 2019 study revealed that 33% of workers would quit their jobs if they had to wear formal attire.
Other company policies can be dangerous and detrimental to workers' health. Like the pressure Amazon delivery drivers faced from service partners, who denied them bathroom breaks. The company faced a class action lawsuit in Colorado last year because the workers said they suffered "degrading experiences."
The least the people who work in such companies can do is tell their stories online. So, when someone asked, "What's the most surprising company policy you've encountered that the public doesn't know about?", the thread quickly went viral. It had almost everything: from stories that might make you chuckle to companies seriously endangering their employees.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
I work for a small family run bakery. They own 2 shops. If you have cancer, they keep you on the payroll. You get full pay for 2 years, then half pay for another 2 years.
I've heard a lot of people s**t on family owned workplaces. Yes, some of them deserve it, but not all of them. I've honestly never heard of any place else that has done anything like that for their people.
Trophy Husband 1 year ago
The Padres (major league baseball team) has a player on payroll for a long time now. He only makes a dollar a year, but he gets free medical care compliments of the team. He came down with something debilitating in his first season, and they wanted to make sure he wouldn't fall victim to America's medical crisis. I forget the details, but that's awesome.
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#2
Theres a company in the UK which will dry clean your suit if you are unemployed and have a job interview. And despite their business being key cutting, they still actively recruit former prisoners, and have developed training programmes for convicts.
Their boss has become the new prisons minister following the recent election. He genuinely believes in reform.
Thanks Timpsons .
Tabitha 1 year ago
TBH, if more ex-cons could find decent-paying work after they’re released, the rate of recidivism would plummet. Problem is, no one wants to take the chance that they’re really reformed, so they can’t find work at all, even if they got a diploma plus training certification in a good-paying field while incarcerated. If they do get a job, by some fluke, it’s usually extremely low-paying. All of which ends up driving them back into their former careers, which tend to pay better, even though they’re extremely hazardous.
#3
I work at a smallish company. We have ~50 branches. Each branch has an associate of the year winner. That winner gets airfare for two anywhere in continental US, hotel paid for, a week PTO, and spending cash for the trip.
Best company I've ever worked for.
#4
I work for a utility company and we have "storm duty".
The basic idea is that whenever there's a big storm and enough people lose power, everyone in the company drops what they're doing and has a role to play to keep the public safe and get people restored faster.
Some examples:
- Office workers may get sent out to put caution tape up around down wires or to help with triage efforts
- Call center workers may switch from taking customer calls to do dispatching for all the extra people who get sent out into the field (both employees and repair crews from other utilities who get called in to assist)
- Extra IT workers may get called on to monitor systems related to outage reporting or dispatching crews 24/7 while they're under load.
#5
If a Google employee dies, their surviving spouse or partner receives 50% of their base salary for 10 years, and any child receives an additional $1k/month. This is in addition to a life insurance base policy of 3x one's annual salary, and the immediate vesting of all unvested stock units.
#6
At a hotel I worked at, somebody f****d up the employee handbook: during fires we were to huddle indoors away from windows and during tornadoes we were to wait outside in the parking lot.
Teutonic Disaster 1 year ago
Also when there's flooding, everybody go and meet up in the underground parking garage and in case of a drone attack, everyone head to the roof! 🤣
#7
I used to work for an internationally known bank (but I was low in terms of pay and rank). If a customer got charged for exceeding their overdraft limit we could not refund it. UNLESS... they had money.
If the customer had savings or a large mortgage then then the charge was refunded. But if they were poor... no refund.
I later got promoted where I was authorised to refund up to $250 without question. So if a poor person was charged $30 three times in a month and I felt it was unfair, I'd refund the $90 and then put words in their mouth like "I imagine you've spent a lot of time phoning us over this and your phone bill might be about $50? So I'll credit an extra $50 to your account for that. And you know what, you mentioned you have your daughter's wedding coming up? I would love it if you could buy people a round of drinks but as long as you say this is because Carblays Bank made it happen? And then I can justify crediting your account with another $110.".
#8
I never worked there, but Discount Tire has a policy of never letting a customer drive off the lot with potentially dangerous tires (bald, poor condition, etc.). There are many stories of people who can't afford tires going in there and just begging for what they can get. They'll replace them for free.
Edit: this post got a lot of traction. I'm not editing the original post because that was my original comment, but using the word "begging" was inappropriate. Please replace it with the word "asking" as you read it.
#9
I recently broke my phone like a moron and had to go get a replacement at t- mobile. Upon talking to the guy, I was told that my drivers license had expired, and therefore I couldn't access my account. No amount of argument from me could change this, never mind having the credit card that has paid the bill for the last 10 years, etc.
Long story short luckily I had my gf as an authorized user on the account and we were able to get a new phone later that day, but afterwards I asked the manager, "what if I didn't have anyone, or say I just moved here and knew no one", to which he replied that I could call t mobile customer service, give them my user pin or whatever, and add someone as an authorized user. I then asked if I could add that guy over there, and he said yes, anyone with a valid ID. Because somehow that's more secure than using a secondary form of ID. Asinine.
Tobias Reaper 1 year ago (edited)
i dont get the reason that they cant accept your id if its expired i mean im still me its not like when it expires i turn into 9ft tall blue alien call Frank
#10
I worked for a very large corporation. We were not allowed to ride in hot air balloons. I have no idea why, but it was in the employee handbook.
Manic Mama 1 year ago
The day my employer tells me what I can/can't do in my own time, is the day i tell them to f*** off, and find another job.
#11
American Airlines began offering $400 per ticket to take the next flight out, then $500, then $600. I saw the next string of flights could hit a connection and land my family of four only 90 minutes later. Offered $800 each, and we scored $3200 that covered the hotel, meals, and entertainment for the whole vacation.
#12
During COVID times, if we tested positive for Covid we weren't allowed to send proof, and we weren't allowed to discuss it over the phone. You had to go in, show them the test then you were sent home.
Michael Largey 1 year ago
Why am I assuming that the person who made this policy is not the person who you showed your test to?
#13
I worked in IT for an insurance company. Whenever anyone filed a claim on their automobile policy, before the company did anything, they sent a letter that said they had investigated the claim and determined it was without merit. However if the claimant wished to have the decision reviewed, they could, but should be aware of the specific penalties for insurance fraud in their state.
Most people called screaming about how the accident was not their fault. Those claims were handled promptly and professionally. But they assumed some percentage of the claimants were too intimidated to complain.
#14
I work in healthcare. During COVID, we were so shortstaffed that employees who tested positive but were asymptomatic were denied PTO/sick leave. They just made you wear a mask. And if you wanted to be off because you were sick with something that wasn't COVID, you had to call the agency nurse, describe your symptoms, and she would decide if you got to stay home or not. Even if you felt like death, if you were not deemed contageous, you were fully expected to come in. Because of that policy in several healthcare agencies, I think a lot of patients would be surprised and possibly disturbed to know that they were being taken care of by staff actively ill and even COVID positive.
Jack Burton 1 year ago
Same in France at the time, we were so much nurses tested positive they asked to come working if we were ok.
#15
Many airlines intentionally overbook flights, betting that some passengers won't show up. When too many people do, they offer incentives for volunteers to give up their seats. It's a calculated gamble, prioritizing profits over customer convenience and satisfaction.
Niels Veldhoven 1 year ago
It is even location dependent.. some crowds are more prone to not show up.. for instance.. Japan has one of the lowest overbooking rate if any since Japanese people will be there..
#16
At PNC Bank, if you transfer money from one of your accounts with them, for example from money market into checking, they put a hold on the money for several days so if you are writing a check w using the transferred money you can incur an "insufficent funds fee". They tried that c**p on me but when I threatened to pull everything they waived the insufficient funds fee.
#17
My favorite one was that if a customer sexually harassed us we should deal with it because the customer is always right and it keeps them coming back.
Luis Hernandez Dauajare 1 year ago
"IN MATTER OF TASTE!!". The saying goes "The customer is always right in matter of taste". I am pretty confident that does not cover taste for harassing employees...
#18
At AutoZone, answering the phone was priority over the customer standing in front of you. The idea was the customer standing in line is already a guaranteed sale while a phone call is potential for more.
Seanette Blaylock 1 year ago
Really? I'd be very inclined to down the goods in my hands and head for a nearby competitor that actually cared about making a sale to the person who is actually there.
#19
I worked for a company where all men had to wear suits Monday through Thursday, shirts could only be white or light blue, ties couldn’t have any graphics on them aside from lines or dots One guy wore a tie with teeny golf clubs on it and the owner sent him home to get a different tie. He lived an hour away.
#20
At a retail chain I worked for, they had a policy where employees had to clock out for bathroom breaks. This wasn't common knowledge outside the company, and it felt really unfair and demeaning. It made a lot of us upset and frustrated, as we had to carefully plan when we could use the restroom without losing pay.
#21
In the US, flood zone maps are modified by Congress and lobbying. It’s not a pure science & engineering map.
#22
High end European car company offers leases to all employees. Said leased cars come with included fleet insurance. Company policy is that you can let literally any licensed driver, even some rando walking down the street, use your lease car for up to 7 days, fully covered by insurance, to promote the experience.
No down payment, discounted lease payment, no insurance or registration costs, you get a brand new car with ~8 miles on it every year (or less depending how many miles you put on it), and you can let almost anyone drive it.
Boris Long-Johnson 1 year ago
My old work used to have a clause that any licensed driver could drive your company car as long as it was “for your benefit”. If one of my mates needed to borrow a car I could ask them to pick me up something specific from where they were going and that was them insured. They also covered ANY household member with a driving license - 17 year old kids driving range rovers etc no issues.
#23
There is a wedding venue company in San Diego that makes their clients and all vendors sign basically an NDA, disallowing them from speaking ill of the company, venues, or their experiences.
I will never understand how that isn't a red flag for people.
arthbach 1 year ago
This is not a problem. Simply get a person who has not signed an NDA to give the reviews. eg. "My niece was recently married at the San Diego Winery/Petting Zoo. The whole thing was a shambles from start to finish. The Winery/Petting Zoo promised the earth, and gave us sh*t instead." The aunt/uncle was not the client, nor a vendor, so they can speak their mind, provided it is truthful.
#24
When I was a F&B department head for a large golf resort, I was tasked with "bringing new blood" into the department. Problem was that I could not increase my head count and if someone left I could not place a request in until after their last day. The process of hiring someone new took about 10 weeks. In which time I would be short handed.
I would get s**t from my boss that certain people were still there, then get s**t for paying overtime. When I would bring this up to my HR recruiter she would just give me a knowing look. Basically middle management hell.
Guess Undheit 1 year ago
Responsibility is for other people, not for those who create the problem.
#25
If you are an American Express Platinum member and you book a bargain vacation package, your Platinum benefits do not apply. It's there in the fine print on the website... somewhere.
#26
I worked for an insurance company. Insurance companies are the **worst**.
People would call and ask why their rates were raised. The closest thing I got to a real answer was, "Because they'll pay more, and if not, they'll threaten to cancel. If they do that, then we'll send them to retention, who will then lower their rate."
Rates were being raised simply because they could.
Also, when signing up for an auto policy, your mileage directly correlates to your risk rating and will either lower or raise your rate. The company I worked for would allow your mileage to be what you said for the first 6 months. At renewal, your mileage per month always jumped for 12k. Or higher if your initial mileage estimate was already over 12k. It'd be about a $50 increased a month, depending on your state.
F*****g criminals.
Garth 1 year ago
A friend of mine worked at the corporate headquarters of the "Good Neighbor" company in central Illinois. She was sitting in her car in the corporate parking lot getting ready to leave work when another employee backed into her hard causing some rear end damage. There were witnesses.She filed a claim which was denied. Why ? The other employee's supervisor was over her supervisor. The other employee claimed she had been backed into by my friend. The witnesses were told internally to stay out of it. My friend was passively harassed and told it was her fault. She had to get a lawyer and threaten to sue and suddenly they paid. However, for years she was passed over for training and promotion. My friend always warned everyone to never get a job at The Farm.
#27
Christmas Day comes out of London Tube staff’s annual leave allowance despite the fact that the entire tube system is closed on Christmas Day.
Foxglove🇮🇪 1 year ago
Lots of places do this, including government departments, county councils and so on. People always have to keep some leave to cover the Christmas closure.
#28
Old workplace decided to have a weekly compulsory company meeting that started (and finished) outside business hours.
Glenn Cuneo 1 year ago
As a teacher, we had an after school meeting that was supposed to run about 90 minutes-- 60 minutes past our contract time. and we were not going to be compensated. I got up at 3:05pm and started to leave. "Mr Cuneo are you going somewhere?" "Yeah, home, I don't work for free"-- and I left.
#29
If a student literally shoots another student but isn't immediately charged and arrested they can still attend class (and in fact we're supposed to let them) until such a time they are arrested and charged. So students can basically be made to attend with their attempted murderer, not just with their rapist like we always knew about.
Michael Largey 1 year ago (edited)
The OP leaves out a lot by not explaining why the killer wasn't charged. Without that key information, all we have left is the concept of due process - no one should be punished for an offense they haven't been convicted of, or even charged with. Otherwise you have the trial from Alice in Wonderland: ‘Sentence first—verdict afterwards’. Solution. If the police had not acted in a timely manner, the school should have invoked its own internal disciplinary process and suspended or expelled the student. No need to wait for the police.
#30
Unlimited Paid Time Off policies are scams.
When employees have vacation balances in their accounts, companies have to carry the value of that time as a liability on their balance sheets. Some genius figured out that by offering "unlimited" time off, employees don't take any more time off than they would under the limited time off system - some studies suggest employees actually take less vacation with Unlimited PTO - but then the company carries zero liability on their balance sheet.
Edit - The replies below like "no, I love my Unlimited PTO!!" show that people truly don't understand the impact of these policies. Or understand what it even means.
Jan Hyde 1 year ago
It's probably true that people end up taking less time off but there is a lot of value in knowing you CAN take time off when you need to. With a fixed allowance I have to plan the entire year, how many do I save for hospital appointments, how many do I save for x or y. How many does that leave me with... it's unnecessary stress.
#31
One of the most surprising company policies I’ve encountered was at a retail store I worked at. They had a strict "no asking for time off during holidays" rule, which makes sense. But what people don’t know is that we actually had a secret list of employees who were allowed to take time off during these peak times, based on favoritism. It was kept very hush-hush to avoid any backlash.
#32
Comcast (now xfinity) likes to f**k you over, and then when you complain enough, they verbally promise credit whatnot only to f**k you over even more.
Pandaodboredem22 1 year ago
I learned to always visit the Comcast customer service store, they resolve issues quickly and usually discount your account
#33
When I worked at a major cable internet provider, it wasn't that we weren't giving you a credit because we didn't want to, we weren't giving you a credit because it went against our scorecard and we'd get in trouble. Call at the beginning of the month and you'll get more love.
#34
I worked for a state government, and they had a policy stating you could be required to sleep at the building (at times of bad weather) due to staffing requirements, and they weren't obligated to give you breaks or lunch breaks. We had people regularly forced to stay for 20 hours.
Tobias Reaper 1 year ago
for country that claim to be free the US sure does c**p all over its work force
#35
The president of our division thought khaki pants were ugly so she banned them.
#36
I work for a company that has a fairly relaxed dress code; exposed tattoos are fine as long as they don’t depict sex, d***s or gang symbols, t-shirts and sweatshirts are permitted as long as they have the company logo. Sandals are allowed if you wear socks.
But the one thing I find ridiculous is that we cannot wear anything with a hood on it. If it has a hood on it, don’t leave your office, you will get in trouble for it.
Luis Hernandez Dauajare 1 year ago
Nice! But, sandals *with* socks?? Good gracious, the tackiness! [faints dramatically]
#37
They advertise it, but I don't think that people really get that *anything* and *everything* that is Gold Emblem brand by CVS is 100% satisfaction guaranteed no matter the f**k what. I had a kid who would come in nearly every day, buy a bag of chips, eat like 95% of the bag, then say he wasn't satisfied and we would give him either his money back or another bag for free. I'd be mad, but seriously f**k that awful company I hope they go under soon. Only job I've ever quit.
#38
Lol, “work- life balance “ has become the new boogeyman for lots of companies. If you request any specific days or times off, you might as well tell the company that you don’t want to work and won’t show up any other times. They love to say “flexible schedules” and such, but that just means they want you to be on-call 24/7 and sent home as soon as you are not profitable.
#39
I’ve worked at a lot of hospitals and only two have had this policy but the fact that ANY do is absolutely mind blowing to me. If a patient leaves AMA (against medical advice) but then comes back within a certain time frame (6 hours at my current place), they do not need to be re-triaged in ER. They can be returned to their previous floor. Thankfully this is not a well known policy and in the 6 years I’ve worked there, I’ve only had it actually happen once.
Guess Undheit 1 year ago
An idiot pal of my brother's was told by a dentist, "don't smoke for a day" after getting a tooth removed. The idiot smoked as soon as he got out the door, then came back in begging for help as blood was coming out of his mouth. The dentists showed that butthead no mercy as they stitched him up.
#40
I was getting divorced and my wife at the time and I separated, she sold the house (I had agreed to this). This was during The Great Recession. However, I worked for Bank of America. I discovered after the fact that her selling the house as a short sale - because neither of us wanted it and it was underwater - automatically put me on a PIP. Even though our divorce judge had ordered the sale. Fun times.
Kelly Scott 1 year ago
Sounds like Bank of America. This is the company that once froze all wages and raises while their CEO was asked to step down and took his million dollar golden parachute with him. If you guessed that that didn't engender any loving feelings towards the bank, you'd be 100% right.
#41
I think it’s possible to understand why it’s a scam but also enjoy using it when it isn’t offered in a malicious way. At my company we are encouraged to take our unlimited PTO and many us of take off 4-6 weeks a year with no issues. Yes there are downsides such as not being able to cash out on unused PTO when leaving the company but in the rare case there isn’t stigma against PTO at your office I think it is a plus.
#42
Starbucks has an official policy that the caramel drizzle bottles can't be used for hand soap at the sink.
Also, according to the official policy, venti iced drinks come with the short straw by default unless theyre served with a dome lid. Enforcing that is a really fun way to p**s off a customer that's acting like an a*****e without doing anything wrong.
#43
Some ndas require you to return any viruses you have made. Fortunate 50 company, makes hardware and some software.
#44
When for-profit salespeople quit or get fired it's on-demand and they don't get comped for their current pipelines.
Vinny DaPooh 1 year ago
Well... the current pipelines are all theoretical sales and haven't become contracts. Why would you get comped for that? Sales gets paid for revenue not for potential
What do you think ?
AndThenICommented 1 year ago
It’s common practice in Melbourne for childcare centres to charge a regular day rate for public holidays. They claim that Centrelink requires it. I’ve been actively trying to get Centrelink to confirm so I can send it to the news outlets. For clarity: child care centres are closed for all public holidays, there’s no choice to bring your kid, so they’re just charging because they can.
Shane S 1 year ago
The risk management department of your US hospital’s whole reason for being is to prevent you from suing as a patient. They see all kinds of horrible situations and alleged malpractice and try, as quietly as they can, to fix it or off-board bad docs as quickly as possible. American patients are so litigious that they work hard to hide mistakes as long as they maintain plausible deniability.
AndThenICommented 1 year ago
It’s common practice in Melbourne for childcare centres to charge a regular day rate for public holidays. They claim that Centrelink requires it. I’ve been actively trying to get Centrelink to confirm so I can send it to the news outlets. For clarity: child care centres are closed for all public holidays, there’s no choice to bring your kid, so they’re just charging because they can.
Shane S 1 year ago
The risk management department of your US hospital’s whole reason for being is to prevent you from suing as a patient. They see all kinds of horrible situations and alleged malpractice and try, as quietly as they can, to fix it or off-board bad docs as quickly as possible. American patients are so litigious that they work hard to hide mistakes as long as they maintain plausible deniability.
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