This week:
Office Rules

Every office has them -- written or unwritten. What are the most unusual, useless, or odd rules you've encountered?

Work & Money survey questions change each Wednesday.

dpifke: For a while, I was working in a law office where we had to file each week's garbage in the closet. Since we would keep the bags of garbage in the closet for weeks, this led to "the list" of things we could/couldn't throw away in the office. Anything listed as a "don't" had to be taken home or thrown away in the dumpster down the block.

Courtly: "Casual Days"... No jeans, No sneakers, No t-shirts, No shorts. Enough said.

JuJu: The stupidest rule ever is at my school, in our lunch break we are not even allowed inside to use the washroom or get a drink, if its not lunch time, when are we supposed to go?

modmag: I work at a (print) magzine, and you would therefore expect something of a freewheeling environment, but none of us, even people with closed-door offices are allowed to play radios at even the lowest volume.

agallant: In our office food is not aloud at our desk. Unless we are having a cup of coffee, then it is ok to have a donut or muffin. The funny part is that we are aloud to eat fattening foods but healthy food such as fruit and vegetables are not permitted.

DevilMan: Do not enter bosses room without kneepads.

KMorrison: Model homes. Three of us. Two on per day. But, once the schedule is made out for the month, the boss has kittens if we try to switch a day with each other for an appointment. Come on, what's the big deal? The shift is still covered....

pritts11: The only thing not allowed in our office is having sex which I think is really unfair.

valkyrie: Failure to use the computers will result in you being banned from the use of the computer system for 10 days.

mcoc: When using the restrooms in our office, everyone is supposed to perform an "intermediary" flush. According to the policy, that rule is because some people have "larger bowels than others."

telarium: Well, in seventh grade, there is are rules that must be observed. There is this kid in my class, who continues to harrass me, and If I fight back he seems to be able to lie and get away with it, leaving me in trouble. Any advice? Do you think I should break the rules, and "fight him back"?

AnnG: I worked in an office where we were given 6 sick days per year: except that they could not be taken on any Monday, or on any day following a holiday, and only with a doctors order on Friday.

JEVA: As Director of Personel at a rather large corporation, I am in charge of policy--that is part of my job entails making and enforcing rules. I can assure you that 99% of the time rules have a purpose and a reason, and are perfectly valid despite all the whining and bitching from the ignorant lowly masses below me. For instance, when I proposed that employees be required to work at least one day a week without pay, the cretins raised HELL about it, needless to say, and I didn't even bother to propose my idea of having the workers all sterilized so that couldn't produce more of their useless inferior kind. Also, my plan to employ mindless, genetically produced workers was shot down despite its obvious brilliance. So all I have to say is there are two sides to this rule issue.

GoatSniff: Umm, One time I was driving past a vet's office and a sign said "NO pets allowed."

Shazam420: We can't play audio CD's on our computers, but we can listen to talk-show radio programming...(wouldn't _that_ be distracting?

joanna: I used to work at a music industry trade magazine, as a Galley Slave -- er, Report-Taker. Every Tuesday, my fellow sufferers and I were chained to our desks (figuratively, of course), with phone headsets on, typing radio playlist after radio playlist into this big computer system, which would later tabulate the data into a series of useless charts that people pay lots of money to read. Unfortunately, all of our reporting radio stations used to call in at the same time (between 11:00 am and 2:00 pm PST), so some of our callers would have to wait on-hold for 30 minutes or more. No one was happy with that situation, and management blamed us. We were not allowed to leave our desks all day long on Tuesdays, except maybe to go to the bathroom -- if we were lucky. We were also given a 1/2 hour lunch break, but since no more than two of were allowed to be off the phones at once, a person's lunch break could start any time between 11:00 am and 2:00 pm, depending on who signed up for which slot.

Ace_of_Spades: Our boss says that when we sweep the grocery store, we can't shake the broom out while on the sales floor because he believes that the dust will get on the products in the store.

alberg: No black velvet paintings in the reception area.

mortimer: This will probably make alot of sense to anyone who is active duty military. I am currently an instructor for the DoD in Pensacola and the dumbest (well one of them) rules I've been told is that I must be "politically correct and gentle" with my students now. However, when it comes to promotion or evaluation time it's perfectly okay and highly suggested to screw over your fellow instructors!!!

Mikado: I once worked at the Islander Hotel in Waikiki which had recently be purchased by the Asahi Corporation of Japan. As this was one of their initial investments in the islands, they hired an 'unusual' ex-admiralty lawyer, some years previously retired from the Navy for their general manager. After I had hired on as a night clerk, this rather crotchety old character informed me that we were not to rent rooms to Congonese, Tongonese, Samoans, Hawaiians, Micronesians, Philippinos, Mexicans, blacks, etc. As I stood there with my mouth wide open, I wondered if who in hell were we going to rent rooms to. In one fell swoop the general manager had just eliminated 95 percent of the population of the South Pacific. I lasted a summer and then left the islands. Two years later I returned to find that the Islander Hotel had been torn down and replaced with condos. I wonder why?!

Victorial6: At a firm at which I interned years ago, no one was allowed to drink coffee or "regular" cola drinks. The boss had had enough of people spilling and staining her precious wall-to-wall. Of course, diet sodas were permitted because, as she maintained, "They don't stain." Where I work now, strangely, we're not allowed to have fresh popcorn. (I'll live)

paultate: Don't spray "too much" air freshener in the bathroom. It caused droplets to form on the floor.

snapple: Our office uses a black board quite extensively. It has become company policy not to erase the black board with up and down strokes, Rather the accepted way to erase is to move the eraser from right to left. This rule was made because when erasing the black board in an up and down fashion, the person's buttocks is exposed when the sport coat is pulled up. The buttocks also as a tendency to wiggle as one makes up and down strokes.

TexLegion: Casual Days: You must wear green, white, or black.

hornfrog: One of our local lawfirms required all attorneys to wear hats. It was rumored that someone's brother-in-law owned the hat store across the street.