# What's the most unreasonable, pointless, inane, illegal, or just plain insane policies you've been subjected to in the workplace? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 4, 2022, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-unreasonable-pointless-inane-illegal-or-just-plain-insane-policies-youve-been-subjected-to-in-the-workplace/962273 "2022-04-04T20:13:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2022, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-unreasonable-pointless-inane-illegal-or-just-plain-insane-policies-youve-been-subjected-to-in-the-workplace/962273/181 "2022-04-20T16:11:19Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Speaking of travel policies, we use [SAP Concur](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_Concur) for travel and expense management. I’ve only read through your post, which reminded me of when I used Concur to book a flight from DC to somewhere in New England and it told me I should have a layover in Atlanta. When I booked a direct flight, I had to write a short explanation for why the cheaper, indirect route was unreasonable. I recall it later getting better about what it considered reasonable. ---
**Author:** ![pudytat72](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@pudytat72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pudytat72)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2022, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-unreasonable-pointless-inane-illegal-or-just-plain-insane-policies-youve-been-subjected-to-in-the-workplace/962273/182 "2022-04-20T17:23:31Z")
I was working in an urgent care clinic as a Family Practice Doctor. I was fired for spending too much time with the patients. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2022, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-unreasonable-pointless-inane-illegal-or-just-plain-insane-policies-youve-been-subjected-to-in-the-workplace/962273/183 "2022-04-20T18:38:17Z")
Whatever works for you! 🙂 I’m sure it operates differently in different places. Here, if I’m sick and can’t teach that day, it has no bearing on anything outside the classroom. I’m paid a certain amount each year to fulfill my obligations of teaching, scholarship, and service during that year. Specific timing doesn’t enter into the picture. (As you know, we work a lot of weekends…but only I know about those “hours”). ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2022, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-unreasonable-pointless-inane-illegal-or-just-plain-insane-policies-youve-been-subjected-to-in-the-workplace/962273/184 "2022-04-20T18:43:18Z")
Today work had a fire drill and it was the worst managed thing ever. They started the fire drill at 9am EXACTLY which is when half the workforce clocks in leading to general confusion. Then we all had to walk outside in the parking lot despite it raining today, everybody clustered around the one tree in the parking lot to escape the rain. Then the supervisor had a checklist of names to call out based on the people who clocked in, but because the fire drill happened exactly when clock-in time was a lot of people hadn’t clocked in yet and just matched straight outside so the list was incomplete. And then because it’s a fire drill some of the people with us weren’t part of the main clock-in because they clocked in with other departments so now supervisor had to manually write down everybody there who wasn’t on the checklist which was dozens of people. You might think, “That’s actually the point they’re going to figure out the fire drill problems and fix them for next time” but hope this is literally how every fire drill is for every year I’ve worked at this place, they think doing fire drills when people are about to clock in works best because it gurantees that “everybody is on time and nobody is in the restroom when it happens”. ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2022, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-unreasonable-pointless-inane-illegal-or-just-plain-insane-policies-youve-been-subjected-to-in-the-workplace/962273/185 "2022-04-20T18:48:15Z")
I heard on a podcast recently some guys job had him go to New York City from Miami Florida but the layover was somewhere in Texas which sounds like the worst flight ever. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2022, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-unreasonable-pointless-inane-illegal-or-just-plain-insane-policies-youve-been-subjected-to-in-the-workplace/962273/186 "2022-04-20T18:51:02Z")
> [@Asuka](#): > > they think doing fire drills when people are about to clock in works best because it gurantees that “everybody is on time and nobody is in the restroom when it happens”. Well, the obvious solution is to make people go back into the fire to clock in properly! ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2022, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-unreasonable-pointless-inane-illegal-or-just-plain-insane-policies-youve-been-subjected-to-in-the-workplace/962273/187 "2022-04-20T19:04:06Z")
> [@Typo\_Knig](#): > > What I came here to complain about was the Colonel’s admin, who would look at the printed and signed signature page, and mark in red pen the end every Oedipal sentence if it looked like there was only one space at the end. He’s gotten it in his head that there was a DoD policy requiring two spaces at the end of every sentence, like these were typewritten documents. The amount of head in ass time wastage about one or two spaces is incredible. Who the fuck cares? And yes, I know a lot of uptight grammar narzis do care, but for no real good reason. Just to be a dickhead. We had one of those at one of my jobs. > [@Maserschmidt](#): > > I recently wrapped up a consulting gig that was 100% remote. Near the end of last year, we got a note that all workers, even contractors, needed to submit proof of vaccination within the next week (it came with no notice at all, and unsurprisingly caused a lot of consternation on the team I was managing, most of whom were permanent employees, but some of whom were also 100% remote). Same here. The Company had the very reasonable “proof of the jab” policy, but a few of us were 100% remote. Still, we had to send it in, and the process wasn’t easy. ---
**Author:** ![echoreply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/echoreply/32/3641_2.png) [@echoreply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/echoreply)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2022, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-unreasonable-pointless-inane-illegal-or-just-plain-insane-policies-youve-been-subjected-to-in-the-workplace/962273/188 "2022-04-20T19:11:36Z")
> [@Ruken](#): > > flight from DC to somewhere in New England and it told me I should have a layover in Atlanta > [@Asuka](#): > > New York City from Miami Florida but the layover was somewhere in Texas One of the students here was going for a job interview and they scheduled her flight from Denver, through Phoenix, to the east coast. What should have been a 3-4 hour flight was a 9 hour day of travel. She asked if they could find a direct flight, but they wouldn’t do it, because the Phoenix route was a bit cheaper. I don’t remember if she went on the interview or not, but she did decide to definitely not take that job ahead of time, because if that’s how badly the treat people they’re trying to attract, how badly do the treat the people that already work there? ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2022, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-unreasonable-pointless-inane-illegal-or-just-plain-insane-policies-youve-been-subjected-to-in-the-workplace/962273/189 "2022-04-20T19:33:20Z")
> [@echoreply](#): > > One of the students here was going for a job interview and they scheduled her flight from Denver, through Phoenix, to the east coast. I wanted to fly from Phoenix to San Jose and I looked into one of those websites where the airlines “bid” to sell you a ticket. I could use one airline to get to SJ non-stop in about 2 hours for $120 or I could have used another with a change of planes in Minneapolis and a stop on each leg with a total time of sixteen hours at a cost of $650. I went with the former. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2022, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-unreasonable-pointless-inane-illegal-or-just-plain-insane-policies-youve-been-subjected-to-in-the-workplace/962273/190 "2022-04-20T21:06:12Z")
> [@Maserschmidt](#): > > I recently wrapped up a consulting gig that was 100% remote. Near the end of last year, we got a note that all workers, even contractors, needed to submit proof of vaccination within the next week (it came with no notice at all, and unsurprisingly caused a lot of consternation on the team I was managing, most of whom were permanent employees, but some of whom were also 100% remote). If you’re in the USA, that was probably the new OSHA requirement for Covid - all employers with more than 100 employees had to make sure everyone was either vaccinated or testing weekly. I don’t believe there was any exception for employees who work 100% remotely. ---
**Author:** ![Folacin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folacin/32/3195_2.png) [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2022, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-unreasonable-pointless-inane-illegal-or-just-plain-insane-policies-youve-been-subjected-to-in-the-workplace/962273/191 "2022-04-20T21:23:47Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > I don’t believe there was any exception for employees who work 100% remotely. And assuming a national goal of getting most everyone vaccinated, that is a good thing. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2022, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-unreasonable-pointless-inane-illegal-or-just-plain-insane-policies-youve-been-subjected-to-in-the-workplace/962273/192 "2022-04-20T21:29:48Z")
But the bigger point was “Did they really have to give everyone less than a week to comply?” It can easily take longer than that to get an appointment. Our school handled the onset of Covid by announcing that “Starting next Monday, _every single class_ will be conducted via Zoom”. Yes, even the classes that we’d been telling the administration could never be taught online. Well, they did get taught, but a large number of students dropped out after a week… and a couple of teachers, too (well, they took early retirement). ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2022, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-unreasonable-pointless-inane-illegal-or-just-plain-insane-policies-youve-been-subjected-to-in-the-workplace/962273/193 "2022-04-20T21:47:46Z")
“We’re doing gym via zoom starting next week! Go run 100 laps around your room while I watch!” ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2022, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-unreasonable-pointless-inane-illegal-or-just-plain-insane-policies-youve-been-subjected-to-in-the-workplace/962273/194 "2022-04-20T22:33:46Z")
My friend has a son in middle school. For gym the were required to use their smart phone or fitbit or whatever and record a minimum number of step per day. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2022, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-unreasonable-pointless-inane-illegal-or-just-plain-insane-policies-youve-been-subjected-to-in-the-workplace/962273/195 "2022-04-20T22:48:08Z")
So you put the Fitbit on the dog. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2022, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-unreasonable-pointless-inane-illegal-or-just-plain-insane-policies-youve-been-subjected-to-in-the-workplace/962273/196 "2022-04-20T22:48:17Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > My friend has a son in middle school. For gym the were required to use their smart phone or fitbit or whatever and record a minimum number of step per day. That honestly sounds kind of clever. They figured out a way to give homework for gym class. Given rising childhood obesity rates, that’s maybe not a terrible thing. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2022, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-unreasonable-pointless-inane-illegal-or-just-plain-insane-policies-youve-been-subjected-to-in-the-workplace/962273/197 "2022-04-20T22:49:08Z")
So if I was scheduled to start at 9am, but the fire drill started before I could clock in, do they adjust my time to 9am, or am I cheated out of some time? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2022, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-unreasonable-pointless-inane-illegal-or-just-plain-insane-policies-youve-been-subjected-to-in-the-workplace/962273/198 "2022-04-20T22:50:20Z")
Absolutely. However, for those in office, they show their cards. For us remotely, there were hoops to jump through. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2022, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-unreasonable-pointless-inane-illegal-or-just-plain-insane-policies-youve-been-subjected-to-in-the-workplace/962273/199 "2022-04-20T22:51:44Z")
> [@Asuka](#): > > they think doing fire drills when people are about to clock in works best because it gurantees that “everybody is on time and nobody is in the restroom when it happens”. That’s smart, because fires only happen when the restrooms are unoccupied. ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2022, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-unreasonable-pointless-inane-illegal-or-just-plain-insane-policies-youve-been-subjected-to-in-the-workplace/962273/200 "2022-04-21T00:01:18Z")
What if the kid doesn’t _have_ a SmartPhone or a Fitbit or similar wearable? Are they failed? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-unreasonable-pointless-inane-illegal-or-just-plain-insane-policies-youve-been-subjected-to-in-the-workplace/962273.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-unreasonable-pointless-inane-illegal-or-just-plain-insane-policies-youve-been-subjected-to-in-the-workplace/962273.md?page=11)