A decade ago I don't recall hearing a specific warning that now appears in all prescription medication commercials.
The warning?
"Don't take this medication if you're allergic to this medication."
Product safety warnings almost always are the result of someone doing the thing we're being warned about.
Like don't use a blow dryer in the shower or take medicine you're allergic to. Because those both sound like perfectly reasonable, logical things to do unless we're specifically told not to.
Reddit user seequelbeepwell asked:
"What are some rules that exist because one person was an idiot?"
Take Care Of Your Equipment
"I had a job loading beer trucks. Most were bay trucks, but there were 2 semis we also loaded. We'd just drive the pallets into the semi trailers with the forklifts.
"Then the rule came that we weren't allowed to drive the forklifts into the trailers, so we'd have to drop the pallets and put them in the trailer using hand trucks. We had a couple that were motorized, so it wasn't horrible, but definitely more time-consuming."
"This rule was put in place because one of the special events guys loaded beer onto a smaller box truck and left the forklift on the dock plate. The dock plate was also still in the truck so when he pulled away, the plate dropped, and the forklift rolled off the dock."
"It ended up sitting at about a 45 degree angle with the tips of the forks a couple inches into the concrete and the rear wheels against the loading dock wall. They had to bring in a crane to pull it out."
"That forklift was a champ though. They righted it and it worked fine, the forks were just a little bit uneven."
~ sdgus68
Thanks, Lady
"We have to keep the loading bay doors closed at work because somebody decided it was a shortcut."
"We have a long loading bay—instead of just a dock on the back of the building—where the trucks back all the way inside by a couple truck lengths and some lady tried to drive all the way through at street speed like it was a warehouse or hanger."
"She hit the dock and destroyed her car and the dock plate, which was impressive because it's a huge steel plate."
"So now we have to keep the doors closed—unless a truck is backing in or pulling out—no matter how hot it gets."
~ One-Permission-1811
Shorthanded
"I used to work for a school district in the cafeteria. We got 10 days of PTO per year."
"One year, a coworker decided that she was going to use it all at once to take an 8 day cruise the second to last week of the school year. We considered it dumb because she could have easily picked the week after school was out for her cruise."
"End of year there's a lot of inventory that needs to be done. Everything from the equipment to the walls, floors, walk-in cooler, and freezer needs to be cleaned thoroughly; food needs to be organized for the last two weeks since they didn't get food delivery other than milk and fresh fruit the last two weeks, stuff like that."
"Everything needed to be wrapped in plastic with giant rolls of plastic wrap that wasn't going to be able to be put away/thrown out (so lots of equipment, bowls, serving vessels, etc...). Sack lunches needed to be made for the last two days of school since we didn't actually serve hot meals those days."
"Look at your home kitchen and think about what you'd need to do to let it sit unused for three months with no one home."
"The beginning and end of the school year were the biggest pains in the @ss. One time I spent THREE DAYS washing walls."
"Working in a school cafeteria is a lot more difficult and more physically challenging than you'd think."
"The following year? No taking time off except in medical emergencies the last month of school."
~ KnockMeYourLobes
Wrong Store
"Decades ago, I was shopping at a toy store, looking for a Lego table."
"I found a Lego table in the flat box, and it came in with a picture of two kids sitting at the table, which was fully constructed."
"The label read, I sh*t you not, 'children not included'."
~ sweet_neighbor9
Not King Of The World
"Climbing on the rail on a cruise ship can get you banned from that cruise line for life."
"It’s about the only way to fall off a cruise ship. The other way is being pushed."
~ LeoMarius
Viral Moment
"Gorilla Glue is not for your hair."
~ Torchbunny023
"A lot of people use Elmer's glue for mohawks, lay their edges, as wig glue, and such."
"So I actually can kind of see the need for this warning. Kind of."
~ wittyrandomusername
You Can't Stay Here
"I worked with someone that flatly told our boss she doesn't take breaks or lunches. She got told that as of now, she did, so she would clock out for her breaks and lunches but would continue to work."
"That went on for weeks before our supervisor figured it out, and so came a new mandate that if you were off the clock, you were required to exit the work suite."
"Go sit in your car, go sit in the break room, go hang with the smokers outside, but being away was strictly enforced."
~ wetwater
Labeled
"Oh man, I worked in construction. We had a guy claim to have drank half a bottle of diesel because it was in an unlabeled water bottle."
"He was asking to go home with pay for a few days because obviously it was a mistake anyone would make with a clear bottle, with a not colorless fluid that you can smell and can visibly see wasn't water."
"Our safety guy went on a tirade about unlabeled bottles, so everything needed to be labeled."
"Well, my hydro flask (water bottle) was then labeled 'diesel fuel only' and stayed that way for upwards of 7 or 8 years until I finally quit that company. I lost the hydro somewhere in the Fort Lauderdale airport eventually, but my next one will have the same label."
~ Napalm-mlapaN
One Shoe Bomb And...
"Taking off shoes in American airports."
~ nextact
"This is the one. One stupid mf tries to light his shoe, now millions of people a year have to be inconvenienced."
~ ameis314
Mea Culpa
"My Alma mater now has a line in the student handbook that charcoal grills are prohibited in dorm rooms."
"After being yelled at by the city Fire Marshall, I didn’t need more reminding."
"It was me. I am the original miscreant."
"In my defense, it seemed like a good idea at the time."
~ xeryon3772
Not How This Works
"I worked in an office where one numb nut decided to take his lunch break at 4pm everyday so he could leave early. Manager said to stop doing that."
"So he quit taking a lunch break Monday-Thursday. On Friday, he took all 5 lunch breaks at once and went home at noon."
"After that the manager assigned everyone a lunch break time. If you didn’t take it during your assigned hour, you did not get a lunch break. It felt like the most Mickey Mouse middle school rule ever."
"Magically, that rule went away after numb nut was fired a couple of months later."
~ RhondaTheHonda
Vroom, Vroom
"Label on engine oil: 'not safe for human consumption'. Thanks, Fast and the Furious."
~ Wal-Mart_Toilet
Hot Topic
"On almost every clothes iron in the United States there is a warning label to 'not iron your clothes while wearing them'."
"I assume there’s a few stories behind that warning."
~ zeebious
Sticky Situation
"I worked in a place where Post-it notes were banned."
"Because a person once wrote something really important on one and stuck it on another person's desk, but it fell off."
~ ribbediguana
Gym Turned Into Pool
"There was a rule against hanging off pipes at an old job because someone tried doing chin-ups on them."
"Pulled the pipes out of their bracketing and flooded the entire building."
~ No-Bad5781
What's a rule that you know was the result of individual idiocy?
