Ridiculous Workplace Rules, Policies, Requests, PC, Initiatives, etc.

Lollipops23

Worked in a bookies- used to get 2 half hour breaks in 12 hours, although it was more like 15/20mins each time as it was so busy.

Roster used to be incomplete until the last hour, even when you put in for a day off weeks in advance there was only a 50% chance you'd get it. No reason, manager just couldn't be arsed looking at the diary to see who'd asked.

They never managed to keep staff for long, despite the jobs market. Says plenty about a company I think.

God I loathed that place.

dazberry

I had worked in an organisation for 4 years when I changed contract and they did a complete security check on me in case I wasn't who I said I was ... for the previous 4 years.

Those first 4 years I was on 112% of my pay scale level, you needed to get a "4" to get a payrise. My first review I was told "everyone gets a 3 no one gets a 4". In the 4th year I got a 4, and was told I would have been in for a big payrise but I was on an unusual contract and they couldn't do anything... yeah right.

I was the most senior on my team and would have been part of the interview panel - until I changed contract - where suddenly a lot of things became none of my business. Que some interesting hiring decisions...

It is incredibly difficult to get a reference from them, nigh on impossible, and if you get one it is rumoured that it is just a worked from date x to date y. On the other hand, if you are looking to work for them, they will look for a crazy number of references. In one case we were trying to get a guy on to our team and they insisted on 8 references for a 3 month contract - he told us to F.off.

We were all forced to do financial training and exams - in case we ever moved into customer facing roles as per central bank rules, and refused us training in the areas we actually worked in, i.e. IT. There were people in non-financial roles that were still failing those exams 2 years later...

We moved building and the new building had movement sensors that turned on and off the lights to save electricity. On the other had all computers had to be left on every night (including weekends) in case of any pending software updates.

The parent company is strict on reputation, and in the leaving document that you have to sign there are clauses relating to the forbidding of discussing of negative experiences within the group. They managed to hammer their own reputation recently after a huge IT meltdown...

D.

Cienciano

I worked in Mosney and had 2 x 3 hour shifts a day. I clocked in and clocked out at the start of them, every shift would take at least half an hour longer. Went to HR and was told to fuck off (I know that's normal for lots of workers, cleaning up a kitchen/pub is part of your job you don't get paid for).

Noticed that my contract had my wage printed on it and it was about £5 extra a week than I was actually getting. Went to HR and was told to fuck off, I must have changed it. It was one of those old fashoned printers that typed it, the really loud ones. Impossible to change.

After breakfast all the left over food would go to some animal feed place (yes, including the bacon, sausage and pudding - we were told it was being used for pig feed anyway). It would be thrown into big bins of "slops". We used to make a sausage sandwich if their was any sausages left (always were) before it was binned. Our manager wouldn't let us and would make us bin it. Pig feed bin was more important :rolleyes:

My mate handed in his notice the day he had to climb onto a roof to get a childs dirty nappy . He said that was the last straw

NoQuarter

Lollipops23 wrote: »

Worked in a bookies- used to get 2 half hour breaks in 12 hours, although it was more like 15/20mins each time as it was so busy.

Roster used to be incomplete until the last hour, even when you put in for a day off weeks in advance there was only a 50% chance you'd get it. No reason, manager just couldn't be arsed looking at the diary to see who'd asked.

They never managed to keep staff for long, despite the jobs market. Says plenty about a company I think.

God I loathed that place.

I worked in a bookies for year too, every day chipped awy at my soul a little bit.

I would have to work in a shop on my own for 12 hours too and got a 30 min relief from another shop twice a day.

They then got rid of the cleaners and made us start cleaning up after the day for no extra pay.

Then they banned phones, so they expected you to sit there for 12 hours with no contact to the outside world! ha!

It was such a horrible place to be! I was actually fired for a pretty small mistake but i havent looked back since!

Rabidlamb

I worked in a pub where we were told a normal working week was 60 hours, often ended up being in the 80's with nothing extra.
For holidays they only paid a 39 hour week as that was the standard ????.
Only reason I stayed is that I robbed the till blind & robbed free smokes, as did everyone else I worked with.

ButtersSuki

I worked in a US pharma company (in Dublin). We had a no jeans policy (no real issue with that, it was work after all) so one day I rock up in my khaki coloured cords....which I assumed would be ok. How wrong was I? This was my first time dressing in smart casual in the workplace (I was always in suits prior to there) so I was a little confused as to the grave offence I had caused by wearing cords. These weren't ripped or "fancy" or anything, just plain as day khaki coloured cords from smart casual mecca Banana Republic in the US. I was brought up to HR and had a very serious discussion about attire in the workplace, was given a manual (I had previously been given this - no mention of cords in it) and told very sternly never to wear them again. I was also sent home to change!!!!!!

Now I would have no problem with this were this applied equally and to all. However, we had one lady in the office who used to dress like a hooker - I'm sorry, but there's no other way to describe it. FMBs, fishnets, v-necks to her bellybutton, minis barely concealing her crotch etc. Was a word ever said to her? No. Complete double standard.

And seeing as this is AH, before someone asks, no, she wasn't hot.

blaze1

Mocha Joe wrote: »

Toilet in our place has this sign up.

If you clean the toilet seat after yourself, that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you.

To be fair our job could do with that, some absolute knackers in this place.

Mr. CooL ICE

matrim wrote: »

My GF used to work for a company that had a lot of ridiculous safety rules. They brought in a rule that if you got anything from the canteen (even a cup of coffee) you had to use a tray to bring it to your desk. You could also get in trouble for walking down the stairs if you didn't hold the hand rail.

Sound like Intel? A mate of mine worked for them and they brought in a system, forcing you to rat out your co-workers for tiny things. If you didn't rat out enough people, you got into trouble


I used to do IT support for a company and whenever an update was released, all customers were forced to update. However, they always did the update on a Friday afternoon so they would go home for the weekend, let customer services deal with the sh1tstorm and come in on Monday expecting a summation of any bugs that were in the latest release. If there was no summary, customer services would be blamed for everything.

Pyr0

ButtersSuki wrote: »

Now I would have no problem with this were this applied equally and to all. However, we had one lady in the office who used to dress like a hooker - I'm sorry, but there's no other way to describe it. FMBs, fishnets, v-necks to her bellybutton, minis barely concealing her crotch etc. Was a word ever said to her? No. Complete double standard.

And seeing as this is AH, before someone asks, no, she wasn't hot.

Did you bring this double standard up with them?

mauzo

I worked in a beauty salon years ago. I was just answering phones and organising appointments etc, making tea/coffee for the customers!

I was there about a week but I came in really hungover. One of the beauty therapists asked me to put the wax thing on the heater to heat it up. We opened up and the first customer came in looking to get waxed, turns out theres a special heater for the wax thing, I just left it on a cold radiator !!!

Then I kept hearing the phone ringing, Id go answer it and nobody would be there. This went on for about 10 minutes, every time I answered the phone there was nobody there. Turns out it wasnt the phone ringing, it was someone downstairs ringing the buzzer!

Completely OT but it just popped into my head

ShooterSF

Worked in a hotel where a new contract issued listed what areas of the hotel were to be searched by which departments in the event of a bomb scare! The duty managers were to orchestrate from reception conveniently at the front door

Also in event of fire we obliged to not bring any personal belongings (fair enough) and only to bring the roster (again fair enough, it told you who should be there) and also the till and float (hmm...)

A personal story then; On my most mischievous day, a stuck up new duty manager told me to remove a ring I was wearing whilst he had one on himself. I questioned it and he explained it was his wedding band, I then removed the ring, placed it back on my wedding finger and politely informed him that discrimination based on marital status is illegal in Ireland. Shut him up

matrim

LordChessington wrote: »

matrim wrote: »

My GF used to work for a company that had a lot of ridiculous safety rules. They brought in a rule that if you got anything from the canteen (even a cup of coffee) you had to use a tray to bring it to your desk. You could also get in trouble for walking down the stairs if you didn't hold the hand rail.

Sound like Intel?

Not Intel. One of the semi-states

mathepac

babymanval wrote: »

... Workplace policies/procedures/rules/directives from management etc. can often be ridiculous, counter-productively nonsensical at times. However I heard the most ridiculous one today. A friend of mine texted me at lunch to tell me about a farcical 30 minute meeting that she had to sit through:

She got an email requesting her to attend a meeting with her line manager this morning. It transpired that the purpose of this was to discuss any support that she may need for "any addictions that [she] might be suffering with"... The catalyst for this? Her manager had observed her taking three, rather than the recommended two tablets (for her Katie Taylor homecoming-inspired hangover). Furthermore, the manager observed that she had 2 packets of Solpadeine on her desk, "in full view". She came away from the meeting with some literature on addiction agencies, and a heartfelt reassurance that the management have a staunch policy of standing behind employees where they need support....

That sounds like an appropriate response from your friend's manager based on her observations and there are obvious unsubtle sub-texts:

• Don't report for duty half-pissed or hungover, it means you are incapable of working properly
• Do not consume addictive medicines on the premises
• Don't broadcast your hung-over state and the medicines you take to other staff by having it on display
• I'm keeping you here for 30 mins to keep you under observation for :
• sweating
• shaking
• twitching
• anger
• or other symptoms
• We are now watching your behaviour and your card is marked.

All in all handled exceptionally well by the manager, but it seems you and your friend might have missed some key "between-the-line" messages.

Cienciano

My mate worked in a japanese run office in England. They had weird rules and practices. One was only the managers could have a chair with arm rests

ButtersSuki wrote: »

Now I would have no problem with this were this applied equally and to all. However, we had one lady in the office who used to dress like a hooker - I'm sorry, but there's no other way to describe it. FMBs, fishnets, v-necks to her bellybutton, minis barely concealing her crotch etc. Was a word ever said to her? No. Complete double standard.

And seeing as this is AH, before someone asks, no, she wasn't hot.

Pics so we can judge for ourselves

Stepping Stone

I worked for a large insurance company. I basically entered the policy details that people filled out on paper and answered calls from brokers regarding basic policy details.

My manager had recently been promoted and was an absolute ass. He had a huge ego and was always shouting at us over nothing. Someone would call and verbally abuse us cos they were too thick to make sure that every box was filled in (not very hard) and we had to take it.

Anyway, one day I got a call about some company policy that had been ambiguously worded, way above my league and nothing to do with me. So, the manager stood over me while some wagon ranted at me for half an hour, when I got off the phone, he roared at me cos the policy was not well worded (nothing at all to do with me). Anyway, he told me to fix the problem, so I did.

I wrote a letter to every single broker in my area (Leinster) and threw in all of the others that I could find. I told them that we were willing to accept complete responsibility and to shoulder the financial fallout. I wrote that I had been given authority by my manager to do this. I then handed in my notice.

Luckily for me, the legal sh1t only hit the fan after I left, but he had, very loudly ordered me to deal with it, so it was entirely his problem. I heard that he was very nice after that, and he had months of training to deal with staff properly after that. I hope that he is rotting somewhere. Sad little man.

Ri_Nollaig

dazberry wrote: »

The parent company is strict on reputation, and in the leaving document that you have to sign there are clauses relating to the forbidding of discussing of negative experiences within the group. They managed to hammer their own reputation recently after a huge IT meltdown...

D.

ha! wonder which Bank this is so

ButtersSuki

Pyr0 wrote: »

Did you bring this double standard up with them?

Yes. I was told to basically STFU. I even mentioned the line from Animal Farm that "all animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others". I was firmly told not to mention it again. Despite this, I pushed it again by asking why was I being discriminated against for wearing cords (:rolleyes:); partly to make the point, partly for my own amusement; but it got to the point where I was just getting myself into more trouble than it was worth.

How can I put this politely, my family weren't as prominent politically as the otehr person's.

Martyn1989

ButtersSuki wrote: »

And seeing as this is AH, before someone asks, no, she wasn't hot.

A standard question IMO, nothing to do with after hours

Logical_Bear

mathepac wrote: »

All in all handled exceptionally well by the manager

manager comes across as being a complete twat to be honest!

mathepac

Ri_Nollaig wrote: »

ha! wonder which Bank this is so

They used to sponsor a boxer, one of the lads Steve Collins did a job on, Chris, sorry, Chistopher Ewbank, I think. He was a good match name-wise,but of a much higher class than the Ewbank Ewturners.

mathepac

Logical_Bear wrote: »

manager comes across as being a complete twat to be honest!

In your opinion of course, and no doubt based on your years of studying industrial psychology and managing diverse groups.

I appreciate that your modes of expression, your techno-language and management speak are way above our heads comprehension-wise but maybe you could give us some insight into what lead you to such a seemingly inescapable conclusion?

blaze1

I used to work in a stock office for a clothing retailer in Dublin. Data entry entry and the like.

When ever a mistake was made my short assed napoleon syndrome gaffer would hop around all over the place 9 times out of 10 screaming "its not rocket science".

We reguarly got pulled in sat down and questions asked. The guy really was a dick.

He knew I had internet access (which was about the only thing that kept me there) and he asked me to price flights for him. The next week he was snapping because IT made him apply for access hahahah

uberwolf

mikemac1 wrote: »

Checked the office temperature, 27 degrees, ridiculous!

didn't read thread but -> http://www.lkshields.ie/htmdocs/publications/articles/pub344.htm

There is no maximum temperature specified in the 2007 Regulations. The HSA Guide notes that although no maximum temperature is specified, this does not mean that any temperature is acceptable. At high or uncomfortable temperatures, particularly when not caused by temporary weather conditions, a means of cooling should be provided. The Guide also suggests that for most people an acceptable temperature for office work lies within the range of 18 to 23 °C.

InReality

Mocha Joe wrote: »

Toilet in our place has this sign up.

If you clean the toilet seat after yourself, that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you.

that is f*ing class !

I was told off for chewing gum , and for having a messy beard .
Also told off for wearing shorts to work.

The shorts thing was fair enough , the beard kinda , the chewing gum was not.

fasttalkerchat

Duggy747 wrote: »

Working in Lidl years ago before they cleaned up their act:

Half hour break on a 12 hour shift which you never got the full break for because you'd be called out on the floor mid-way through eating. If you worked 6 hours you weren't allowed a break.

This has got worse. Its now 20 mins in some stores or 6 hour shifts because there is no one to cover a break. Stores now run with 1 keyholder and one store assistant for most of the day.

Duggy747 wrote: »

If you were ever under on your till, even by €5, it was coming out of your pay. One person was fired for being €30 under.

This was always against company policy. It was just your district manager trying to hide a problem.

Duggy747 wrote: »

You had to scan as close to 35 items per minute everyday, if you didn't you got called up in front of the district manager about why you were so slow. It was impossible to keep up as you could only go as fast as the customer would pack their bag. If you ever go into Aldi or Lidl and wonder why the cashier is throwing your stuff at you at a fast pace after they've scanned it and not giving you the chance to put it in your bag, that's the reason.

In fairness 35 IPM was fairly easy, you just need to pass the pressure onto your customers! That was dropped, there now is a 30 IPM target but no issue if you're slightly off.

Duggy747 wrote: »

You also had to unload a full palette in under 15 minutes, a palette that would have various items leaving you to haul the thing across opposite sides of the store.

You weren't allowed more than 1 toilet break a day. If you wanted a 2nd you had better explain yourself ("Um..........I need a shìt!?!" )

Working productively is why LIDL staff were/are paid so much (new start pay has dropped). You do the work of 3 people but are paid 50% more than Tesco etc.
You can go to the toilet as often as you want. Your manager was a bollox by the sounds of it.

Duggy747 wrote: »

The store had to be immaculately clean at the end of everyday, which is fine. Only that on the days you'd have to bring the specials out on a Sunday or Wednesday night you frequently would be in there until midnight due to a manager scratching their heads on where everything should go, no extra pay as you stopped being paid at 9pm. Again, if you complained then somebody else on the floor staff would get fired.

This thankfully was stopped when staff walked out in one store. Now you get paid for every minute.

Duggy747 wrote: »

Manager's didn't last in there by getting fired on a whim and making staff stab each other in the back at the promise of promotions. One manager was fired for not showing up to a surprise meeting on her day off while another was fired for kicking a football in the warehouse after another manager ratted him out by calling the district manager down to watch the CCTV.

That still is true to an extent. Everyone wants 70k+ and a company car so will screw over everyone to get there. It is a ridiculously competitive environment so you have to take the good with the bad.

mattjack

I worked for years as an electrician on construction sites.

On one particular development the project manager decided that people were wasting to much time going to and from the toilets and decided he was going to control access to the toilets by locking them ... if you wanted to use the toilets you had to ask him for the keys.

On the day he brought in this rule, all went well ..... for about thirty minutes.
The owner of the development arrived and he decided to give him a tour of the site only to be greeted by a large fresh shite lying on a newly tiled floor in a reception area.

fasttalkerchat

I worked in a village shop for a while. Really liked having total freedom to do what I wanted with the shop... one issue was that the owners wanted me to converse more with customers and try to learn their names. Ehh not my sort of thing!

Anyway, there was one aul fella, Jeff whose name I did remember because he looked like an old teacher with the same name. I always made a point of speaking to when the boss was in.
On my last day I found out that his name wasn't even Jeff!

mhigh86

[QUOTE
I used to work for a company that if it was your birthday (or any celebration) you would bring in a bottle of booze (whiskey, vodka, etc), then sometime during the day the department would all sit around and drink it.[/QUOTE]

Yey Happy tueday, who wants some vodka....

wmpdd3

Approach every customer .

fasttalkerchat

wmpdd3 wrote: »

Approach every customer .

In a clothes shop the other day the same girl asked me do I need help twice. If she didn't remember me she obviously didn't want to help me at all!