20+ Unpopular policies employees had to deal with at work: 'They banned staff from drinking coffee in front of students'

Author image for Ben Weiss
Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Feb 5, 2025 8:00 AM EST

Every employee has had to endure an unfortunate policy change at work. That could be a change from remote work to in-person work. It could be a new policy about cell phone usage or eating at your desk. It could even be new measures to report your minute-by-minute progress on the job. 

Some workers are unable to critique these changes, while others have found ways to prove indirectly that their bosses are making a complete mistake. Keep scrolling below for these employees' stories about the unpopular policies they were forced to endure!

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  • 01
    BOSS
    via Paul Hanaoka
  • 02
    laterdude Banned smart phones in the break room to force us to talk to one another and build camaraderie. Ends up we didn't like each other that much.
    via kraam1217

    Forced camaraderie in this workplace is no different than forcing middle school students who dislike each other to collaborate on a group project!

  • 03
    NotASucker. "No raises or bonuses this year due to company performance, but I will make it up to you by taking the whole company to the lake for a trip on my new 30ft boat"
    via kraam1217

    Do bosses really think that their employees believe them when they say they will "make it up" to them? Those kinds of false promises are only bound to have the opposite effect, instilling a lack of trust among employees. 

  • 04
    forman98 In a very short span of time, they changed everyone's 401K plan (for worse) and then implemented an office wide cleanliness policy. No eating at your desk. Only 3 personal items on your desk. Everything labeled. No items other than your keyboard, mouse, and monitors on your desk at the end of the day.
    via kraam1217

    This one was shocking. At least ensure that human resources spaces out these policy changes! What kind of HR department is running this company?

  • 05
    VictorBlimpmuscle To cut costs, they started a policy that only certain departments had internet access it basically started - a class system that bred resentment across departments, and caused an exodus from the non- internet teams.
    via kraam1217

    Nope! WiFi is a human right, at this point. How is work supposed to get done properly?

  • 06
    jmarsh642. My boss is looking to retire in the next 3-4 years. He told everyone that he wanted us to come up our visions for the company and it's future over the next 5, 10, 20 years.
    via kraam1217

    While we appreciate the boss taking the opinions of his employees into consideration, the purpose of these meetings is far too vague to be a good use of anyone's time. And that's just the beginning…

  • 07
    We're a small office of about a half dozen people but we've been growing and so everyone brought up growth projections and succession planning once he retires, etc.
    via kraam1217
  • 08
    His son is the heir apparent and has a precocious 8 year old so in my 20 year version I even included the grandson joining the business and grooming it to become a legacy company.
    via kraam1217
  • 09
    My boss went last and we were expecting something acknowledging some of our thoughts or at least an expression of appreciation that the company he founded would live on well past his retirement, be in good hands, etc.
    via kraam1217
  • 10
    Instead it was brutal and short. It was something along the lines of "I do everything around here anyway so I should just sell the company to fund my retirement and you can all find other companies to work for in a few years."
    via kraam1217
  • 11
    mrbasilthebrush We were once in the middle of a very stressful period of work, and everyone was feeling it. However, one afternoon, an off-hand comment turned into a conversation that we all got involved with and led to a few laughs. My manager,
    via kraam1217
  • 12
    returning from a meeting, piped up "Oh we've finished tomorrow's work, have we? What's all this about (insert subject matter)". Entire team instantly deflated.
    via kraam1217
  • 13
    Unnecessary. Every employee needs time to blow off a little steam.
    via kraam1217

    We second this sentiment! Give employees the ability to have a laugh, especially after a difficult project!

  • 14
    Son_of_Leeds Former teacher. The administrators at my school were usually pretty chill, but had a habit of randomly coming up with minor rules that they would enforce for us (male teachers had to wear ties even on jeans day,
    via kraam1217
  • 15
    etc.). Overall it wasn't bad, except for the time an administrator made a crucial mistake... they banned staff from drinking coffee in front of students.
    via kraam1217
  • 16
    Now if you've never worked in a school, you'd think this isn't a big deal. When you spend nearly 100% of your day in front of students, it definitely is a big deal.
    via kraam1217
  • 17
    First we tried to find any loophole we could. Energy drinks? Banned the next week. Tea? Banned two days later. It was chaos.
    via kraam1217
  • 18
    Eventually, we realized they couldn't fire an entire school's worth of teachers and aides, so we ended up doing the one thing that private schools fear most: we formed a union.
    via kraam1217
  • 19
    Realistically, it was more of a weird pseudo-union focused specifically on civil disobedience regarding the coffee issue, but it ruffled feathers nonetheless. The
    via kraam1217
  • 20
    administrators caved to our "demands", allowed us to drink coffee again, and even bought each of us a reusable coffee mug as a gesture of goodwill.
    via kraam1217
  • 21
    And that's the story of how a handful of school administrators almost accidentally created a teachers union over a complete non-issue.
    via kraam1217

    Shout out to this former teacher for that triumphant arc!

  • 22
    somethingsome567 • Removed COLA raises each year for all employees and implemented a "raise when promoted or take on more responsibility" model.
    via kraam1217
  • 23
    However promotions are very rare and raises are never approved. So everyone is losing money to inflation each year and they tried to sell it As a big 'win' for the employees. We aren't stupid people.
    via kraam1217
  • 24
    [de... It was a one two punch. The company wide meeting announced the promotion of several high level management and executives (mostly title and responsibility changes). Lots of smiles and handshakes, not unlike a college graduation ceremony.
    via kraam1217
  • 25
    After these promotion announcements, they declared that due to the stagnant economy and poor sales, the entire company would be experiencing a pay freeze as a result. So, no raises for anyone.
    via kraam1217
  • 26
    They then concluded the meeting by discontinuing "Casual Fridays." So, no more jeans on Friday. It almost felt like it was designed to make people want to quit and leave. It worked though, I and many others moved on to greener pastures within the year.
    via kraam1217
  • 27
    Emersonson Told a bunch of people they were going to be promoted to get us to do extra work, no one got promoted. I basically did her job for a month. Me and three of my co-workers quit and she got fired a few months later.
    via kraam1217
  • 28
    יינווי
    via Unsplash+ (Getty Images)

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

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workplace-stories employee work stories toxic-workplace job work teacher human resources Horrible Bosses reddit thread Reddit company toxic-work-environment
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