# 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:** 18
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2022, 9:10pm 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/962273/341 "2022-05-20T21:10:23Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > Whenever I hear the phrase “people don’t want to work anymore” coming from a business owner, I automatically translate it to: “People don’t want to be treated like shit for poor wages anymore.” That’s the basis of 212 Degrees - The One Degree Difference. **YOU** are not working hard enough for the bosses and owners to make more money. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2022, 9:27pm 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/962273/342 "2022-05-20T21:27:57Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Even better, employees should recognize that [the Bible tells them to be subservient and STFU](http://realchristianity.com/faithfulness-to-our-employer/). > > "Apostle Paul gives clear instructions on how a servant should relate to their master. They must be faithful, trustworthy and loyal. The same applies to us today in our dealings with employers: > > > 9 Urge bondslaves to be subject to their own masters in everything, to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, 10 not pilfering, but showing all good faith so that they will adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in every respect. Lincoln freed the slaves, dude. ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2022, 11:04pm 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/962273/343 "2022-05-20T23:04:41Z")
We keep getting pestered to update our company profiles with our preferred pronouns. I put “Gozer the Gozerian, Gozer the Destructor, Gozer the Traveler, Volguus Zildrohar and Lord of the Sebouillia” I was mostly amazed they left enough room in the profile block for all that. Sooooo…the meeting with HR the next day went surprisingly well. HR “got it,” and even thought it was funny, but advised me to revise it, as someone _will_ complain. The Site Manager (our local “Big Boss”) loved it, wants me to keep it up. Mostly, our main corporate HQ in Chicago will probably make me change it. Eventually. ---
**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:** [May 20, 2022, 11:50pm 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/962273/344 "2022-05-20T23:50:11Z")
I’m wondering if you remembered that title or had to Google it. (Personally, I only remember Gozer the Gozerian.) ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2022, 11:56pm 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/962273/345 "2022-05-20T23:56:36Z")
I did something like that when my District unveiled their new website. Every teacher could upload their school picture or “turns out only the approved” other picture as their avatar. So I put up a Darth Vader headshot. 3 days later the Principal called me in to pass on a message from the Superintendent - “I got it, but the parents won’t. Sorry.” Fast forward 10 years and my avatar on the school site now is: [![](https://media.kohlsimg.com/is/image/kohls/4224504_Black?wid=600&hei=600&op_sharpen=1) ](https://media.kohlsimg.com/is/image/kohls/4224504_Black?wid=600&hei=600&op_sharpen=1) ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2022, 12:13am 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/962273/346 "2022-05-21T00:13:47Z")
> [@ExTank](#): > > We keep getting pestered to update our company profiles with our preferred pronouns. I hate this. What if someone is not ready to come out? They’re pressured either way. He, her, its. Depends on my mood. ---
**Author:** ![DoctorJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctorj/32/2904_2.png) [@DoctorJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DoctorJ)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2022, 12:14am 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/962273/347 "2022-05-21T00:14:52Z")
I have plenty of stories about my time in a large state university, but my favorite was the time I went to a conference in San Diego. I stayed in a modest hotel where the basic room I was in was called a Deluxe, with the higher tiers called a Superior or whatever. Not terribly uncommon. When I submitted it for reimbursement, the travel office balked at the word “Deluxe” and returned it. I had to get a letter from the hotel confirming that the Deluxe was, in fact, their shittiest room. I don’t miss that place. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2022, 12:20am 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/962273/348 "2022-05-21T00:20:18Z")
> [@ExTank](#): > > We keep getting pestered to update our company profiles with our preferred pronouns. I’d go with “Hey, you!” ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2022, 1:06am 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/962273/349 "2022-05-21T01:06:32Z")
I remembered everything up to “…Traveler.” I did have to do a search to get the rest. Wait until I update my profile pic. I want to go with [this](https://www.deviantart.com/malbat77/art/Gozer-433604817), but in reality, I’m much more like [this](https://jadensadventures.fandom.com/wiki/Stay_Puft_Marshmallow_Man?file=Mxtlic_staypuft1.jpg). ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2022, 3:24am 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/962273/350 "2022-05-21T03:24:19Z")
“Embassy Suites, you expect us to pay thousands of dollars for your room!?” ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2022, 4:51pm 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/962273/351 "2022-06-01T16:51:26Z")
I worked in a small factory that had maybe 30 people on the floor. The owners decided, for God knows what reason, to have us all learn “Statistical Process Analysis”. I don’t remember how many times they shut the place down so we could sit in the breakroom and watch video presentations and lessons by a couple of old guys from the local community college. Something about making a graph, plotting some aspect of your job, and if everything was in tune, the graph would be bell shaped. The strange thing was they never got together with us to explain how it could be applied to our jobs. When it was all over, it was forgotten as though it never happened. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2022, 8:43pm 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/962273/352 "2022-06-01T20:43:54Z")
> [@excavating\_for\_a\_mind](#): > > Policy was no vacation carryover (use it or lose it). Traditionally, the plant would be closed the week between Christmas and New Years. Hourly employees were encouraged to hold a week of vacation so they could still get paid for that week. Now, each department would tell their employees that, if production demands required it, they may be required to work. Traditionally, when this occurred, the affected employees would get paid standard time for their vacation time and all hours worked would get paid as overtime at 1.5 times their hourly wage (assuming they had 40 Hours of vacation time) They should have paid the employees DOUBLE time for that week, really. They were having their paid vacation time taken away. and being required to work. Asses. I worked retail one summer in college. I got paid for Memorial Day (which I did not work) - I had not realized that they paid for holidays. Then I heard that if I HAD worked, I’d have gotten time and a half. So I volunteered to work Independence Day. It was later on that I realized I had basically worked for half pay, since I’d have gotten holiday pay (at my normal hourly rate) if I hadn’t worked. My current employer does let you carry over a LITTLE vacation time, in unusual circumstances. You have to request it and get approval, and there has to be something unusual. The last time I did it, I’d started a new project midway through the year. I’d budgeted to take several weeks off in December - but we were going live and that was simply not an option. I requested to carry over a week, and was told OK but that I had to take it in the first quarter of the following year, which was no big deal. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2022, 8:48pm 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/962273/353 "2022-06-01T20:48:41Z")
A class was suggested to me by my boss. Some MS thing about how to collaborate with other team members to design a database or something. Or the MS strategy to data design or something. I don’t really remember the name of the class, other than to say it was totally misleading. The classroom would fit 50 people. I went, and a group of 6 came. So 7 of us. After about 4 hours, the boss of the other 6 said “This is bullshit, took his employees, and left”. And then there was one. The people training this class dragged some poor shlub into the classroom to take it too. So I wouldn’t be the only person in the classroom. The class was designed for training employees that collaborates with thousands of others. My database design team was… me. That was a long three days. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2022, 9:04pm 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/962273/354 "2022-06-01T21:04:14Z")
> [@Mama\_Zappa](#): > > They should have paid the employees DOUBLE time for that week, really. They were having their paid vacation time taken away. and being required to work. Asses. Under the original policy , they were getting more than double time. Paid for the 40 hours of vacation they saved plus time and a half for any hours they worked that week. So if they worked 40 hours that week they would have been paid for 40 hours vacation + 60 hour work (40x1.5) for a total of 100 hours pay. \* That’s why they were pissed when the policy changed and they only got 40 hours vacation pay plus 40 hours straight time for the hours they worked. \*I know people who have a similar sort of deal for holidays - they work the holiday, get a day of holiday leave to take whenever and get time and a half for hours worked on the holiday. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2022, 9:09pm 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/962273/355 "2022-06-01T21:09:00Z")
> [@doreen](#): > > Paid for the 40 hours of vacation they saved plus time and a half for any hours they worked that week. Ah - I didn’t realize they were also getting their vacation pay. Ignore me, then 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2022, 10:15pm 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/962273/356 "2022-06-01T22:15:30Z")
> [@Mama\_Zappa](#): > > They should have paid the employees DOUBLE time for that week, really. I think the math is that they got 2.5X their hourly, 1 for getting paid for their vacation time and 1.5 for the time and a half. ---
**Author:** ![Bootb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19b73/32.png) [@Bootb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bootb)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2022, 11:10pm 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/962273/357 "2022-06-01T23:10:43Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > I think the math is that they got 2.5X their hourly, 1 for getting paid for their vacation time and 1.5 for the time and a half. That’s how my company does it when you work on a holiday. ---
**Author:** ![mandala](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mandala/32/95_2.png) [@mandala](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mandala)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2022, 12:10am 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/962273/358 "2022-06-02T00:10:23Z")
I worked at an IT company that once tried to introduce this policy: if you took paid time off on Thursday and Friday, the company would consider Saturday and Sunday as a continuation of said paid time off, and deduct _four_ days off of your leave balance. Needless to say the employees erupted in such rage that the management backtracked virtually overnight. Another time, the same company introduced a policy requiring everyone to wear ties in office. This time most employees just ignored the new rules and everyone soon forgot about them. The company was a veritable acronym factory, inventing a long list of 4 and 5 letter acronyms to label various management “initiatives” and “programs” - which we would then be required to discuss during HR-mandated “engagement meetings.” Once a month, HR would organize “fun” Fridays and all employees would be required to play ridiculous games, win stupid prizes, and actually dance to HR-selected movie songs. They even invented a company anthem we would be required to sing on special occasions. I am not making any of this up. Fuck, I am deeply embarrassed I was ever associated with that company. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2022, 12:38am 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/962273/359 "2022-06-02T00:38:39Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > > [@Mama\_Zappa](#): > > > > They should have paid the employees DOUBLE time for that week, really. > > I think the math is that they got 2.5X their hourly, 1 for getting paid for their vacation time and 1.5 for the time and a half. When I was working on a project at GE, we got that when we had to work on Labor Day and time and a half for weekend hours. It was for a big conference that GE spared no expense for. On of the more ridiculous parts of that were the name tags. This was before desktop processing or laser printers. They wanted the name tags printed by a printer. So we’d send the information and they’d typeset it and eventually print the tags. Fair enough, given the technology of the time. But people were showing up at the conference and registering there. So we’d set up the name tags, send them to the printer to be typeset and printed, and then couriered to the venue that day. Given the rush charges and other expenses, these were the most expensive name tags in history. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2022, 12:40am 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/962273/360 "2022-06-02T00:40:01Z")
Well, now working from home (finally) due to COVID. I should have been doing this 10 years ago. Now working from home, I can put in the extra few hours on a Sunday or holiday. I’m just getting my job done. Helps me sleep better. But NO, NO, NO, you can’t do that! No worries says I, I adjust my hours for the upcoming week. TPTB say only if it’s an emergency. Which I am called on. The hours I can do work after hours. So my ‘timesheet’ is a little bit fictional. I’m just doing my job. Tomorrow morning I will be up a 5am to compress a database. I usually start then anyway. [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=17) [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=19)