This article is based on the AskReddit question "What is the dumbest rule you've ever had to follow?"
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1/20. During the D.C. sniper scare, my middle school would have "Sniper drills". Our drill was to run outside and lineup by grade in an OPEN FIELD.
-lovelymeha
2/20. Only allowed to use the bathroom 3 times each school semester. Seriously.
-77remix
3/20. In junior high, late 60s-early 70s, girls wore dresses so short that barely moving would show your butt. But we were not allowed to wear pants because that would be too "distracting."
Mid 80's, worked in back office at a bank. Never saw customers, but had to wear dresses and stockings all the time, no pants ever.
-TyrdFergison
4/20. I worked at Dicks Sporting Goods in high school. After the store closed for the evening, we straightened everything up. We were unable to leave until all of the employees lined up at the front door and was frisked by the manager to make sure we didn't steal anything during our shift. So if I busted my ass and cleaned my section quickly I had to wait for the slowest person to be done so we ALL could line up at the same time. I quit that job after a month. I was treated better when working at a sweat shop in NYC, but that's another story in it self.
-Steezy0626
5/20. In high school, someone snuck in alcohol, so after that we weren't allowed to bring beverages that were flavored or colored. Water was ok, but nothing else. The alcohol that had been snuck in was vodka. In a water bottle. So yeah, figure that out.
-EmiliusReturns
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6/20. At an office for my company they lost all electricity / internet / phone. Someone suggested that they go home and work from home - note that everyone has work laptops. Human Resources said "No because we don't have a work at home policy". So everyone sat in the dark all day twiddling their thumbs until they were done for the day.
-ooo-ooo-oooyea
7/20. My school had it the worst with carrying books around. We had to carry everything in our hands from class to class. We could have binders to store papers, as long as they had no straps.
1.Lockers lined every hallway, but we weren't allowed to use them. Something about how people using the upper lockers might drop stuff on the heads of people using the lower lockers.
2.We couldn't have backpacks. Supposedly, there were bomb threats and it took too long to check everyone's backpack.
3.When girls started carrying bigger purses, the school banned any purse bigger than a half sheet of paper. According to the principal, guys felt left out by girls being able to carry stuff.
-SomeFantastic1
8/20. I once worked on the grounds crew at a summer camp. The rule was that every path had to be swept clear of pine needles at all times.
Yes, the paths outside.
The camp was named "Pinewoods", by the way.
Aptly named.
-42words
9/20. My school wouldn't let us eat when standing up. A lot of teachers would use it when going on a power trip. I got told off for holding a banana at one point.
-DoctorLoveMuffin
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10/20. There were 3 key rules at my old job:
1.To take a break you must leave the building so you dont interrupt anyone around you.
2.No leaving the building during work hours.
3.1 hour unpaid lunch, you must use the lunch room, only 1 person may be in the lunch room at a time.
So you couldn't take a break and the vast majority of people couldn't eat lunch
-sleepingsysadmin
11/20.Not allowed to take notes while in class because "studies show that students who listen rather than taking notes are more likely to learn.
-awesomecutepandas
12/20. Not being allowed to open our school report until we get home. Seriously, like we're not going to check the god damn reports as soon as we get them (if we care that is). I'm in high school for god sake, is it a threat to my education if I look at my results!??!
-DrTexxOfficial
13/20. I did ballet growing up so there are a few:
1.We weren't allowed to yawn in class at my ballet school. Which was hard when you're dancing three-five hours a day on weekdays and 5-8 on weekends.
2.We had to only drink water, no Gatorade or Powerade. They said it was because ballerinas don't sweat enough to need the electrolytes but I think it was because they didn't want us taking in the extra calories.
3.In one of my teacher's classes we had to wear hairspray and makeup everyday and she didn't turn on the air conditioning. SO HOT.
-GoSmoke
14/20. You're American, you're 18 - you can join the military, get a loan, start a family, buy a house, start a career, but you can't f***ing buy a beer at a god damn bar.
-flaredo
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15/20. My job only allows me to take two vacation days straight, then must be followed by a personal day before any other vacation days. So if I want a week off I must do 2 vacation days, 1 personal, 2 vacation days. Makes absolutely no sense!
-plax1780
16/20. In my elementary school, you couldn't go to the bathroom 30 minutes before the busses arrived. My mom was chronically late for everything.
4th grade lunch was perfectly positioned to make me bursting by bus pickup. A bumpy bus ride, and walking dramtically increased the pressure on my bladder just to discover my house locked and no one home. I had no key, cell phone, or friend close enough to walk to.
This happened every day for three months. Some days I held it until someone got home. Three times I peed my pants and one time I defecated in a box.
-Fat_Kitty_Eats
17/20. I was never allowed to go on websites to get cheat codes for video games because my dad was convinced thats how we got viruses. So i went to the library and paid to print them out instead.
-gulpy
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18/20. My dad used to make me wear rubber gloves when reading books I borrowed from the library because they have too many germs.
-greenpineapple
19/20. "Don't let a customer see you take a sip from your water bottle."
Really? So dumb.
-variouswhatnots
20/20. At a former place of work, we had to punch in on the exact hour and punch out on the exact hour. You could not be one minute early or late. If your shift started at 7am, you could not punch in at 659am. Or 701am. No exceptions. And most people started at 7am. So we would line up at the time clock and wait. When 7:00 arrived, 12 people would punch in as quick as they could and sometimes the lucky few in the back would miss the cut off and be considered tardy. They could fill out a slip stating they were here and the reason they punched in at 7:01 but really? And at the end of the shift, on the hour. 3:00pm on the dot.
The supervisor had her office by the time clock and yelled at us for lining up to punch out. She said we should be out on the floor working until the end of our shift. We tried to explain to her that we would get in trouble by her if we punched out at 3:01 or 3:02. She rolled her eyes and told us we could work and watch the clock at the same time. We actually couldn't since it was a health care facility and our job was taking care of patients who lived in their apartments, not next to the time clock. So we would have to pretend to be busy and then when someone would notice that it was 2:59, we would all run to the time clock to punch out. And the lucky few at the back would be late punching out and be accused of trying to get overtime.
Clearly this company had never heard of the 7 minute rule that most places have. You have a 7 minute window to punch in/out before and after your shift. Their excuse was that it was too hard for the payroll lady to adjust everyone's time so we needed to be punching in and out to the exact minute.
I've honestly never wanted to bash my head in to a wall more times during the 7 months I lasted there.
Oh and we had to punch in and out for breaks too, on the exact minute. So you would spend the latter part of your break watching the time clock.
-elle_3
(Source)
Encyclopedia Britannica
