1 day ago
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At some point in life, every person works a job where, to put it delicately, they find themself astounded by the plain idiocy displayed by either one or several coworkers. So, when Reddit user Advanced_Being_6415 took to the popular Ask Reddit forum to ask, "What’s a rule at your job that exists purely because one idiot ruined it for everyone?" I thought the stories people told would be supremely entertaining. From annoyances to scandals, here are some of the best:
1. "I worked at a daycare where someone was drinking on the job, so they told us we had to have clear water bottles. Because THAT solves the problem! If you think the opacity of the container is the only thing keeping your employees from drinking on the job, maybe hire better people."
2. "We had an account at the grocery store across the street for buying coffee and snacks for the break room. Then the new guy decided to put all his groceries for the month on the account. That ended that real quick."
3. "Worked at a non-profit for years, fighting for the greater good. We used to only have to clock in, didn’t have to clock out. Fuck you and your three-hour lunches, Tiffany…"
4. "I used to work at one of those huge destination liquor stores way back in the day. After the yearly inventory audit, they would take all the bottom-shelf wine and mixers that weren't selling, put them in a cart at the front end, and let the employees take whatever they wanted. I never drank any of it, but I'd give stuff away to my more boozy friends."
"Then one day, Linda decided it wasn't fair, because she wasn't on the first day when it was all set out. Mind you, there was never anything good in there; we're talking about stuff that didn't even sell at cost. It was all ridiculous wine brands nobody had ever heard of and pre-mixes that tasted like 100% sugar. And it would sit there for days. But Linda made such a stink that management decided it would be better to huck everything into the trash compactor instead."
5. "Told my two reports that if I was out of the office, I didn’t mind if they went home a little early, meaning like an hour or so. Had to go to a conference an hour away for a few days, and they both stayed home the whole time. My boss walked by my department the first day and was like, 'WTF?' Lol. We had a really good thing going, and now there are eyes on us!"
6. "No more working from home because a coworker decided not to even bother to log in and pretend to work, and apparently, someone thought no one would notice. I actually worked at home and loved it. We all got punished for her being lazy."
7. "Retail job went from 'just don’t have holes in your jeans and make sure your shirt doesn’t have swears printed on it' to business casual (e.g., slacks and button-down shirt at minimum) because too many people showed up in pajamas."
8. "No headphones or earbuds in the building, at all. One person kept wearing them in an unsafe area even after multiple warnings, so the company said no one is allowed to use them. Even sitting at our desks, in the office."
9. "About 15 years ago, I worked on an old-growth survey project for the Forest Service. They made it very clear that if we ate in the vehicle while we were driving and were caught, we would be fired. This is because a former employee had been driving a windy road next to a river, choked on his chips, and plummeted into the river."
10. "My favorite ever. An actual company rule on paper: No drinking before lunch, and only two drinks while on the clock. It was a property management company. The entire job was a complete fever dream, but the office had a stocked beer fridge, and one guy would literally drink 6 to 10 beers a day starting right when he got there."
11. "Management would get a person a birthday card, a $20 gift card, and cupcakes for the department, all paid for by the company. Of course, everyone in the department would sign the card, and that is an important part of it. You see, the employees were never asked to chip in for the party stuff — it was a company morale booster paid for completely by them, with no desire to be paid for by employees. But one person felt that since they circulated the card, that the management could have asked for a donation, and that he felt he shouldn't have to donate to the celebration, so he complained to upper management. New rule: birthday celebrations are banned."
12. "About 20 years ago, my entire 13-story building was evacuated three times over a five or six-week period because of burnt microwave popcorn setting off the fire alarm. Microwave popcorn was permanently banned after that. (So, technically, it might have been the result of three idiots, not one.)"
13. "No open-toed shoes. A coworker with ugly feet scarred a manager so badly they banned it."
14. "A stupid person complained at a meeting that we don't have enough oversight on nights or weekends. Now, we have a damn manager on site on the weekends."
15. "Beer taps weren’t turned on until 4 p.m. Used to be all day, but apparently, too many people couldn’t understand that you’re not supposed to drink all day at work. Yes, this was in tech. And yes, it’s probably stupid to have any alcohol at an office."
16. "Constantly. The saying in our company is that every time someone shits their pants, everyone gets to wear a diaper. Somebody brings their kid in, and he falls off a chair? All chairs need to be labeled 'staff only.' Somebody burns themselves on the coffee pot? Coffee everywhere has gone immediately. Etc."
17. "In the late '80s/early '90s, two of my cousins worked at the same grocery store. One of them dared the other to lick the inside of the freezer section. His tongue got stuck. 10 years later, when my brother and sister were getting jobs, siblings were not allowed to work at the same store."
18. "As a security measure, everyone was supposed to lock their laptop before leaving their desk (say, to go to the bathroom). As a fun way to make it stick, if anyone found an unlocked laptop, they’d quickly change the background to a picture of David Hasselhoff and/or send an email from that laptop to the whole team promising to bring donuts for everyone the next day. We called it 'getting Hoff'd.' It was awesome until one guy without a sense of humor got Hoff'd, and instead of learning a lesson, went complaining to their boss' boss' boss that it’s unfair to have to buy donuts just because they forgot to lock their laptop. Yep, end of an era."
19. "We can’t use the break room stove because someone lit their food on fire on the stovetop after walking away from it."
20. "We used to just have to move a card over to show that we were there, but people started coming late and having other people move their cards for them, so now, we have to actually sign a sheet of paper."
21. "I run monthly hiring events for my work. We now require RSVPs for all attendees, which has decreased turnout by approximately 50%. Why? Because one man has some sort of weird obsession with us, and keeps coming in under different names and using disguises. He has changed his haircut and hair color and has worn glasses, hats, and masks. He has made employees feel extremely uncomfortable and is not stable, and has made my job so much harder."
22. And finally: "I once worked somewhere with a dress code that limited the number of sequins on any piece of clothing to 26. I would have loved to have been around and witnessed why this policy was written (cause you know HR wrote a whole dumbass policy for one person leaving sequins everywhere)."
Have you ever had a rule change at work that only exists because of one idiotic coworker? Tell me about it in the comments — or, if you prefer to stay anonymous, feel free to use the anonymous form below!
Note: some comments have been edited for length and/or clarity.
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