‘What’s a weird rule at work that doesn’t make sense to you?’ – 23 regulations that just seemed designed to annoy

When things like television, books and sleep have been invented, it’s criminal that we have to spend the majority of our week at work. But it’s even worse when our employers have made up some incredibly annoying rules that we have to adhere to while we there.

Over on the CasualUK subreddit, user BleachNirvana has been pondering this unfairness and posted this:

‘What’s a weird rule at work that doesn’t make sense to you?’

And they kicked things off with their very own example.

‘I used to work in a supermarket with a staff cafeteria, they provided free tea, coffee, and milk you could help yourself to. However they had a sign stating that if you brought your own tea or coffee from home, then you had to pay 20p for milk.

Never made any sense to me. No one I asked could offer an explanation, it has just always been that way apparently. I just assume someone in a position of power got jealous of people having better tasting coffee than them.’

Which prompted lots of other annoyed folk to chip in with their own struggles against ridiculousness…

1.

‘My old job was on the 4th floor of an office building. I much preferred the stairs to the lift.

‘One day the facilities manager took me to one side and explained there was a rule in place: we weren’t allowed to use the stairs except in an emergency. When I asked why, he replied ‘health and safety’.

‘Really?’ I asked. ‘Do they know what health means?”
–tiptoe_only

2.

‘You can’t have stubble, unless you’re growing a beard… in a non-customer facing office.’
–sozsozsoz

3.

‘We’re allowed to be clean-shaven or have a beard at least 2.5cm long, nothing in-between. So you can have a beard, but not grow a beard.’
–Martin_Aurelius

4.

‘I worked as a waiter at a hotel restaurant in Edinburgh. We had to fold hundreds of fancy napkins between sittings. We had to do so standing up, backs bent over the tables. We weren’t allowed to sit down, ever, even when closed.’
–Coraxxx

5.

‘When they put a coffee machine in, they took away our kettle. Apparently the contract with the vending machine supplier states that we can’t have a kettle.’
–retailface

6.

‘I was once threatened with a disciplinary for refusing to wear an orange nylon hi-vis vest over my orange proban hi-vis overalls whilst using an oxy–acetylene torch. I was eventually forced to attend the meeting but I elected not to sign the form so the disciplinary didn’t stand. Thou shalt melt nylon onto thyself.’
–Ti4goM

7.

‘Used to work in a call centre that had a really strict dress code of business attire including white shirts, no cardigans, dark colours only. You could be sent home if your shirt was too creased.’
–Erheniel

8.

‘In one of my old jobs we had a formal trousers rule, which was fair enough. However, one particular pair I wore faded somewhat after several washes, and one day it was decided by a senior manager that my trousers were now jeans, which went against the company dress code. That pair was no longer worn for work.’
–KevinPhillips-Bong

9.

‘Putting our litter into separate bins and then have the cleaner put everything into one big refuse bag.’
–AndrewHinds67

10.

‘We weren’t allowed a chair/bench outside as it would ‘encourage people to spend more time outside smoking’. Never mind that we worked in an office (warehouse) that had no windows on an industrial estate, so if you wanted to spend your meagre 30 minute lunch seeing the sky, you had to sit on the ground.’
–climbontotheshore

11.

‘We’re not allowed to have a toaster in the break room because approximately 10 years ago someone set the smoke alarms off and the fire brigade turned up.’
–lythy2016

12.

‘When you’re in the works yard and on site you must wear safety boots and hi-viz as a minimum, plus carry your hard hat, gloves, goggles etc.

‘Management are exempt. Of course.’
–Haunting_Cell_8876