Rules are as old as civilization itself. The Ten Commandments. The Geneva Convention. The first rule of Fight Club. Humanity has been writing rules, carving them into stone, printing them in employee handbooks, and laminating them to classroom walls since the beginning of recorded history. Some of them are the reasons we have functioning societies.
And some of them are so spectacularly misguided that the chaos they created became more famous than the problem they were trying to solve. Netizens recently asked people to share the rules at their school or workplace that backfired beyond all reasonable expectations, and the thread delivers. Some rules, it turns out, fail loudly, memorably, and with consequences that echo for years.
More info: Reddit
#41
I worked at an organization that had a food service training program, along with other training programs. The CEO tried saying people couldn't leave the campus for lunch, thereby creating a captive audience for the food prepared by the food service training program. There was no other reason for forcing people to eat their lunch on campus.
People started talking about things like 'illegal imprisonment' and the idea quickly went away.
People started talking about things like 'illegal imprisonment' and the idea quickly went away.
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7points
#42
My office had a horrific 6 weeks where the entire certification and testing engineering department was unable to function due to everyone on that side of the office having COVID. Like zero testing was able to be done due to how physically demanding it was down in the stress lab moving thousands of lbs of test weights onto the fixtures so no reports went out. All because management said “no working from home while you’re sick, you must take PTO” because it “helps you focus on recovery”.
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6points
#43
At my workplace, they used to allow anyone to take what was called VGH, which stands for Volunteer Go Home. Basically when they have too many hours, people are allowed to leave work early, but they don’t get paid for the hours they miss.
Surprisingly too many people decided to take it. Nowadays therefore it’s only made available for people who manage to get a transfer to our sales team in my virtual call centre role and/or a successful sale.
Surprisingly too many people decided to take it. Nowadays therefore it’s only made available for people who manage to get a transfer to our sales team in my virtual call centre role and/or a successful sale.
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5points
#44
When the Ipod first came out my school specifically banned that, by name, no other mp3 player. I had a off brand mp3 player that I would listen to during passing time. Multiple teachers sent me to the office, I pitched a fit and pointed out the wording every time and got away with it. The next year it was changed to MP3 players with a For example added in. thankfully i had already graduated though.
ETA: Have a much more impactful one. "All decisions need to go through my self or CTO" 6 days later and after the server in question had rebooted for monthly updates and was lost for good, loosing 1.5b dollars in company IPO "why didnt you say something, or open it up" my boss and his boss both had to step in. A week of 16-20 hour days then get the blame pointed at me when i had been asking twice a day every day.
Then an hour or two after he finally did give the ok, i had to wait for our network engineer to assist so i didnt break anything. "Why cant you do it yourself" "See Job title -> Lead Infrastructure Engineer =/= Network engineer, i havent touched a firewall in almost 10 years, do you really want me trying to recreate a tunnel you deleted or do you want me to wait for the guy whose job it is to do that, Or you could have one of your guys help" They didnt, i had to wait another couple of hours before it was opened up, to discover EVERY SERVER IS GONE. but would have been recoverable if the ok was given when first asked. Unfortunately Twiddle Dee and Twiddle Dum are both still with that company.
ETA: Have a much more impactful one. "All decisions need to go through my self or CTO" 6 days later and after the server in question had rebooted for monthly updates and was lost for good, loosing 1.5b dollars in company IPO "why didnt you say something, or open it up" my boss and his boss both had to step in. A week of 16-20 hour days then get the blame pointed at me when i had been asking twice a day every day.
Then an hour or two after he finally did give the ok, i had to wait for our network engineer to assist so i didnt break anything. "Why cant you do it yourself" "See Job title -> Lead Infrastructure Engineer =/= Network engineer, i havent touched a firewall in almost 10 years, do you really want me trying to recreate a tunnel you deleted or do you want me to wait for the guy whose job it is to do that, Or you could have one of your guys help" They didnt, i had to wait another couple of hours before it was opened up, to discover EVERY SERVER IS GONE. but would have been recoverable if the ok was given when first asked. Unfortunately Twiddle Dee and Twiddle Dum are both still with that company.
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4points
#45
Work. If you are 3 minutes late to work or back from lunch break:
1/2 times - verbal warning
3/4 times - written warning
5/+ times - sent home , no pay (not even PTO/vacation.
Not a punishment for those that can sacrifice a few hours pay or if you need a day off and don’t have any PTO available.
1/2 times - verbal warning
3/4 times - written warning
5/+ times - sent home , no pay (not even PTO/vacation.
Not a punishment for those that can sacrifice a few hours pay or if you need a day off and don’t have any PTO available.
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4points
