People Share The Most Surprising Company Policies They've Ever Encountered

If you work for someone else, you'll invariably be subject to rules, policies and guidance. Some of it will be government mandated for worker safety while some will be specific to an individual industry or employer.

Most of it should be logical and create a safe, efficient workplace.

Notice the word "should" in that sentence.

Reddit user youngGod928 asked:

"What’s the most surprising company policy you’ve encountered that the public doesn’t know about?"

Phone First

"At AutoZone, answering the phone was priority over the customer standing in front of you."

"The idea was the customer standing in line is already a guaranteed sale while a phone call is potential for more."

~ shok_antoinette

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Death Wish?

"At a hotel I worked at, somebody messed up the employee handbook and no one ever fixed it."

"During fires we were to huddle indoors away from windows and during tornadoes we were to wait outside in the parking lot."

~ UnhappyJohnCandy

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Up, Up, And Away... No!

"I worked for a very large corporation."

"We were not allowed to ride in hot air balloons. I have no idea why, but it was in the employee handbook."

~ jvlpdillon

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Dress Code

"I worked for a company where all men had to wear suits Monday through Thursday, shirts could only be white or light blue, ties couldn’t have any graphics on them aside from lines or dots."

"One guy wore a tie with teeny golf clubs on it and the owner sent him home to get a different tie. He lived an hour away."

~ Tony-Flags

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Cable Credit Checked

"When I worked at a major cable/internet provider, it wasn't that we weren't giving you a credit because we didn't want to, we weren't giving you a credit because it went against our scorecard and we'd get in trouble."

"Call at the beginning of the month and you'll get more love."

~ TheRealOcsiban

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Super Spreaders

"During COVID times, if we tested positive for Covid, we weren't allowed to digitally send proof, and we weren't allowed to discuss it over the phone."

"You had to go in to the office, show them the test, then you were sent home."

~ YaretFace

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The Real Insurance Fraud

"I worked in IT for an insurance company. Whenever anyone filed a claim on their automobile policy, before the company did anything, they sent a letter that said they had investigated the claim and determined it was without merit."

"However if the claimant wished to have the decision reviewed, they could, but should be aware of the specific penalties for insurance fraud in their state."

"Most people called screaming about how the accident was not their fault. Those claims were handled promptly and professionally."

"But the company assumed some percentage of the claimants were too intimidated to complain so they could get out of paying on those claims."

~ JustSomeGuy_56

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Safety First

"Discount Tire has a policy of never letting a customer drive off the lot with potentially dangerous tires (bald, poor condition, etc...)."

"There are many stories of people who can't afford tires going in there and just asking for whatever they can get. They'll replace them for free."

~ Wazzoo1

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Off The Clock

"Old workplace decided to have a weekly compulsory company meeting that started (and finished) outside business hours."

~ AngelicAriaa

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The Tan Suit Scandal

"The president of our division thought khaki pants were ugly, so she banned them."

~ MissingYeti

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Bathroom Blues

"At a retail chain I worked for, they had a policy where employees had to clock out for bathroom breaks. This wasn't common knowledge outside the company, and it felt really unfair and demeaning."

"It made a lot of us upset and frustrated, as we had to carefully plan when we could use the restroom without losing pay."

~ Sofie_Kitty

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A Hand Up

"There's a company in the UK which will dry clean your suit if you are unemployed and have a job interview. And despite their business being key cutting, they still actively recruit former prisoners and have developed training programmes for convicts."

"Their boss has become the new prison minister following the recent election. He genuinely believes in reform."

"Thanks, Timpsons."

~ Lochearnhead

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But They're Comfy

"I work for a company that has a fairly relaxed dress code; exposed tattoos are fine as long as they don’t depict sex, drugs or gang symbols, t-shirts and sweatshirts are permitted as long as they have the company logo. Sandals are allowed if you wear socks."

"But the one thing I find ridiculous is that we cannot wear anything with a hood on it. If it has a hood on it, don’t leave your office, you will get in trouble for it."

~ imacmadman22

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Healthcare?

"I work in healthcare. During COVID, we were so short staffed that employees who tested positive but were asymptomatic were denied PTO/sick leave. They just made you wear a mask."

"And if you wanted to be off because you were sick with something that wasn't COVID, you had to call the agency nurse, describe your symptoms, and she would decide if you got to stay home or not."

"Even if you felt like death, if you were not deemed contageous, you were fully expected to come in."

"Because of that policy in several healthcare agencies, I think a lot of patients would be surprised and possibly disturbed to know that they were being taken care of by staff actively ill and even COVID-positive."

~ Square-Raspberry560

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Does Texas Know About This?

"I work for a utility company and we have 'storm duty'."

"The basic idea is that whenever there's a big storm and enough people lose power, everyone in the company drops what they're doing and has a role to play to keep the public safe and get people restored faster."

"Some examples:"

"Office workers may get sent out to put caution tape up around down wires or to help with triage efforts."

"Call center workers may switch from taking customer calls to do dispatching for all the extra people who get sent out into the field (both employees and repair crews from other utilities who get called in to assist)."

"Extra IT workers may get called on to monitor systems related to outage reporting or dispatching crews 24/7 while they're under load."

~ timtucker_com

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What strange, unusual, or little-known workplace policies have you experienced?