20+ of The Most Ridiculous Workplace Rules Employees Have Had to Follow

Author image for JR Atkinson
JR Atkinson • Writer and Editor
Oct 30, 2026 10:00 AM EDT

Have you ever worked somewhere with a ridiculous amount of rules? Do you have horror stories about weird jobs?

There are so many weird jobs you can have in this life. If you've been around the block long enough, you might start to pick up some stories about strange gigs. When I was in high school, I worked at a clothing boutique with a pretty idiosyncratic owner. She would make me light candles under the cash register to generate positive vibes, even though that was a pretty flammable place for them to be. She also made me write letters to billionaires in the hopes that they would… give us money? I don't know; it was pretty strange. But it made for some good stories for a while. It's also good to learn how to work for many different types of people. You never know who you're going to encounter in the wild, so it's good to have somewhat of a thick skin to help you through the world of work. The folks in this thread had a lot of stories like that, and much crazier ones. Every workplace has its particularities, and each boss is different. But some workplaces are weirder than others, and you don't always realize it until it's too late. 

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  • Two women stand around by the office coffee maker in the break room
    via Andrej Lišakov For Unsplash+

    Licensed media provided as editorial context.


    Two women stand around by the office coffee maker in the break room

  • What's the most ridiculous workplace rule you've ever had to follow?

  • ImprovementFar5054 I worked at a company where the HR director was a dictatorial psychopath. Each month, we had to meet in the breakroom. All the people with birthdays that month had to stand at the front of the room, and everyone else had to sing happy birthday to them. We are adults.
    via u/MelodicWolverine2045
  • | And when I say "had to", mean had to. She wrote it into policy. You were not allowed to miss it. She took a roll call to ensure everyone was there. A few clever people would schedule vendor meetings etc to avoid having to do it...then she forbid that too, putting a block in the outlook calendars so nobody could schedule over it.
    via u/MelodicWolverine2045

  • Every job has rules, whether they're explicitly stated or not. Sometimes your boss just has a weird preference that they'd like everyone to follow, and it's somewhat harmless. Or they have control issues and want to exert so much control over you and every last detail of your life. The latter is much less easy to deal with. A workplace with excessive rules may make you feel condescended to, or like the people you work for don't respect you. It's hard to last very long at a place like this. We're all adults, and we want to be treated as such. 

  • wangologist When I started working in an open office, each desk had a little trash can. On the first day I moved the trashcan out from under the desk to have more room for my legs. The next day the trash can was gone. I filed a ticket to find out why, and they said
    via u/MelodicWolverine2045
  • that it was the third infraction of that trash can being found in the walking space and now it was taken away. I said that the previous times hadn't been me because I just started, and I was told that the infractions stay with the trash can, not with the person.
    via u/MelodicWolverine2045
  • Agondonter My boss made a rule that we cannot use the word "absurd" because someone (okay it was me) used that word about something he said in the work setting and it hurt his feelings. So he had his sycophantic deputy put out a memo saying that word is banned from our workplace.
    via u/MelodicWolverine2045
  • casapantalones Well, there was a period of time where I, a physician, had to write an email to my boss every week listing out five things I did that week, justifying my employment, because of a tweet Elon Musk wrote.
    via u/MelodicWolverine2045
  • skizem I worked in a office where we were not allowed to say "but" and had to instead say "and also" "I'd love to help you with that project, and also I am very busy with my own work." Literally had meetings about it. Meetings. Plural.
    via u/MelodicWolverine2045
  • RaggamuffinTW8 My previous job mandated two days a week in the office even though I was the only person in my team at my site. I'd come in and sit by myself and have 100% of my meetings on zoom. Just pointless.
    via u/MelodicWolverine2045
  • mejok In college I had a job where out boss told us that "employees are not allowed to fraternize outside of the workplace." There were about 30 employees, all of whom were college students, so of course we hung out and partied together all the d in time.
    via u/MelodicWolverine2045
  • A few times he even had the assistant manager show up to parties to spy on us and see who was there...so we just offered him beers and he "didn't see anything." It was absurd. Someone once talked to him and his logic was that he was worried that us partying together outside of work
    via u/MelodicWolverine2045
  • would lead to hookups or arguments/drama that would then blod into the workplace, but like, you've got 30 people aged 18-24 working for you...that's gonna happen anyway. Anyway, the rule was very important to him but we just ignored it.
    via u/MelodicWolverine2045
  • errant_night So this is probably a little different in that the most recent rule at my job makes complete sense, however its the fact that the rule had to be added in the first place that's ridiculous. I work as a caregiver, and we recently got a memo we had to sign about new workplace regulations...
    via u/MelodicWolverine2045
  • The gist of it is 'hey guys, no, you can't bring a weapon to work with you, yeah even if its just in your purse. And also, don't pull it out to threaten your patients, yeahhhhh even if they're being annoying. Yeah that's a firing offense like.. no warning at all guys it's against the rules.'
    via u/MelodicWolverine2045
  • Three employees stand around a desk drinking coffee
    via Andrej Lišakov For Unsplash+

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.


    Three employees stand around a desk drinking coffee

  • Facee I recently posted about this in another sub, but I worked in an office where we were not allowed to drink the free coffee/k-cups after 2pm because the caffeine would still be in our system after we clocked out at 5pm and therefore it wasn't solely benefitting the business. So crazy!!!
    via u/MelodicWolverine2045

  • This one is particularly crazy. Who in their right mind would think like that? That's Mr. Krabs-level penny-pinching, and signaling that you're absolutely no fun at parties. The modern workplace runs on caffeine, and it's super weird to micromanage your employee's intake. It's one thing to limit the number of pods (which you still shouldn't do), but to put a time limit on it so they can't carry a caffeine buzz into their personal lives on the company dime… that's completely outrageous. I would like to have a conversation with whoever instituted that rule, because they have a lot to learn about humanity and how to treat people. But it's a good reminder that no matter how much you dislike your job, things can always be worse. Things can always, absolutely be worse. Just keep scrolling through these stories to know exactly what I mean.

  • ts38 Never talk to the chef. If you need something from the kitchen, talk to the expo, who will talk to the sous, who will talk to the chef. This even applied to non- work related topics. I once had a conversation about the chef's favorite football team that followed this rule.
    via u/MelodicWolverine2045
  • sherbertspinach When I was 14, I worked at a grocery store where you couldn't call out sick or get time off unless you arranged the coverage yourself. I called them from the hospital with a broken ankle and they STILL wanted me to arrange coverage or they'd expect me to show up. Lol
    via u/MelodicWolverine2045
  • AnybodySeeMyKeys Clocking in even though I was on salary. Oh, and being called on the carpet for showing up ten minutes late for work, even though I worked until two the previous morning. And had worked late several of the other previous nights. And over the weekend.
    via u/MelodicWolverine2045
  • We didn't have a meeting scheduled or anything. I just needed a little extra time to heave myself out of bed. Never, ever work for a family-owned business. After that episode, I started looking for the exits.
    via u/MelodicWolverine2045
  • LikelyAtWork I worked in an office with a row of cubicles that all had their entrances facing the same direction (so side by side) but the end cubicle had its entrance facing the end of the row, instead of being next to all the others. It made the person in that
    via u/MelodicWolverine2045
  • cube feel weird because the rest of us would poke our heads out the openings and talk to each other in the aisle, but that one person on the end had to come around the corner.
    via u/MelodicWolverine2045
  • We asked the office manager if we could just rotate the modular cubicle walls to make their entrance match the rest of ours to make it more social and better... they just said no with no reasoning. So one of the early morning guys just came in with a screw driver
    via u/MelodicWolverine2045
  • and rotated it before everyone got into the office. The person working in that office loved it and we all agreed it was better, but the office manager accused us of insubordination and wanted us to rat out the guilty person but nobody said anything.
    via u/MelodicWolverine2045
  • The office manager wasn't our direct supervisor so she complained to our manager... he just called a meeting and said he agreed it better, but he'll be in trouble if we off the office manager again so we had to be on our best behavior for a while.
    via u/MelodicWolverine2045
  • PaulaNancyMillstoneJ No water at your desk. Mandatory lunch deducted but no lunch coverage.
    via u/MelodicWolverine2045
  • Swagspear69 I was in the military, but Publix somehow has them beat. I got sent home at Publix once for wearing the wrong socks, they were just black ankle socks. They also make you throw away everything from the deli/bakery and will charge you with theft if you eat any.
    via u/MelodicWolverine2045
  • chaosperfect I wasn't allowed to wear a bandana or sweat band in an un-air-conditioned warehouse in hundred degree (37.7 C) weather because it could be gang affiliated.
    via u/MelodicWolverine2045

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boss antiwork workplace-stories work stories toxic-workplace job bosses work coworkers working toxic-boss workplace bad bosses toxic-work-environment
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