Stupidest rules your job has

[Rapscallion]

They could say it's "Target brand" to wear your underwear outside your pants, and people would do it.

I thought Superman worked at the Daily Planet?

This explains so much!

Rapscallion

[KayEm]

Sorry, Irving, I needed to be more specific. I was talking about the food, good non-spoiled food that the bakery and deli throw away every night, and even during the day if it's deemed not looking "pretty" enough to sit in the salad and hot cases.

When you've got employees, who aren't paid enough to eat, who have to sit there and watch good food go in the garbage, it's a slap in the face and should be criminal.

[Reyneth]

At the portrait studio I worked for last year (new chain, not the one in malls), they treat employees like scum.

At the holidays, they would have extra appointment slots and double book others. To the point that with 6 employees, we'd have 10 or more appointments in an hour (you would typically be with the customer from the time they walked in the door, take their photos, then sell them - usually took an hour) - essentially impossible.

But no, Corporate wanted money. So they'd call up stores randomly to book appointments as "customers" and because they had our schedules right in front of them, if you were trying to make sure the store didn't implode and leave one slot open after a crazy run of appointments (like the legendary 5 in 20 minutes we had once) you could get fired. So they're wasting our time with these calls, and while we're working our butts off, not even time to pee - they have time to make these calls?

We were also "required" to take our hour lunch breaks so they wouldn't have to pay us too much overtime (overtime that was promised us when we were hired) - when in reality you were lucky to get 15 minutes to get a drink.

The worst is thier "2-week notice" policy. The minute you even indicate you are thinking of quitting and giving notice, you are off the schedule because you "won't do a good job anymore." So nice to value and trust your employees and their work so highly! Because of this rule, I actually got 6 months unemployment after essentially being fired for asking if I could have a more flexible schedule so I could take a night class or two.

Oh yeah, you had to use your PTO by the end of the Fiscal year, and only one person could use theirs at a time. From October - mid Jan was blackout, you couldn't request ANY time off. Yet 6-8 employees had to use 3-8 personal days before mid Feb. Way to piss off your workers.

[jnd4rusty]

...I was talking about the food, good non-spoiled food that the bakery and deli throw away every night, and even during the day if it's deemed not looking "pretty" enough to sit in the salad and hot cases.

I just took and passed a ServSafe class which is mandated for management by the health department...so I will put some big words in here..deli meats have the potential of harboring the bacteria called Listeria monocytogenes, it is common in ready to eat products. Also another bacteria commonly associated with deli foods is Staphylococcus aureus which is primarily found in humans particularly in the hair, nose, throat and sores (hence the use of hairnets). Even if a food item still looks good does not make it safe for consumption, it may seem like a waste but your deli is keeping itself from closing its doors from a foodborne illness outbreak..it is way better to be safe than sorry. I would rather throw the food out and wear hairnets if it meant I could keep my business and/or my job.

I know that some rules may seem odd but food safety rules must always be followed. They are also going to make it a nationwide law that food handlers must wear gloves when handling food items. Okay that is my lesson and lecture for the day!

[Crosshair]

*Gross story time.*

I was in Zombie mode on morning and had some cerial. I opened a new carton of milk and poured it on my breakfast. I had eaten everything and rinsed out my bowl when my brother comes to have some. He pours the milk on and eats a bit and realizes that the milk is spoiled. Well he dumps out the cerial and my mom takes the milk back and gets another carton. Later, my brother is sick as a dog and I'm just fine, but had the worst farts ever. Everyone left me alone in my room. I think I'm gona be the Omega man.

/True story


*EDIT....and, the relevance here is???~Ree

[COMINATCHA]

When I worked at Target, I often hugged my co-worker/best friend hello when she came in. I'm a huggy person, it's just an automatic thing to do when I see her. I sometimes briefly hugged other huggy people too, as I said hello, including any of my friends who came in as customers.

Well management soon noticed, and decided they was to be a 'no touching co-workers or customers' rule, as it was unprofessional.
A rule was made because of me, I'm not sure how to feel about that...

[AFpheonix]

Heh...Comi, I'm glad I'm not at that store, since one day one of the male technicians said something smartassed to me, and without thinking I whipped my hand out to smack him, unfortunately, it was ass-level....

[Spiffy McMoron]

Heh...Comi, I'm glad I'm not at that store, since one day one of the male technicians said something smartassed to me, and without thinking I whipped my hand out to smack him, unfortunately, it was ass-level....

"Without thinking"

...

Suuurrre it was without thinking...

Anyway, one more really stupid rule I had forgotten:

When you clocked out for lunch breaks and/or the end of your shift, you had to clock out at the computer that was in your departement. This would make sense if all of the computers ran off of a seperate computer system, but this was not the case-all floor computers were the same. This was a dumb rule because most of the computers were far away from the exit door and/or the break room, except for the housewares computer. So if you clocked out on the sports computer-which I had to do-you had to go across the store. This wasn't so bad at the end of the night when we were closed (except for the fact that you were probably dead tired and didn't want to walk... ) but when you were open, it meant that you had to run quickly off of the floor, so you wouldn't get caught by co-workers/customers asking you for help, and cutting into your lunch time/home time.

As far as I know, this rule is still on the books, but faded into obscurity.

[powerboy]

At my old job, I was working a wood factory. One day this one coworker came in drunk ass hell, and pissed me, I mean he really pissed me off. So what did I do, I took my hammer, and hit some wooden steps that we had. I busted the wooden steps in half, as a result. After that, the bosses made a rule, to not piss me off .

[Ree]

It's always been "law" at work that we MUST turn the till off before we walk away from the counter.

When you clocked out for lunch breaks and/or the end of your shift, you had to clock out at the computer that was in your departement.

As someone who had a former co-worker commit a fraudulent act under my computer ID...that is something I agree with.

It's not always the customers that we have to worry about.

Irving, first as to the cruel issue. Yes, I consider it cruel to throw away tons of food that the employees or the homeless could be eating.

It is a waste, and it always ticked me off to see it, when I knew that employees could be taking the stuff home and putting it to use.
Irving brought up a good point, though, it sets a precedent, and then you have employees deliberately tampering with packages to scam free product. (I've seen it happen.)
Also, jnd4rusty makes a good point. If the food is close to expiry or past expiry, or if it has sat too long, and someone eats it and gets sick, the store could be liable.

As to the hairnet issue...why are we the only business in town to have to use them if the potential for getting hair in the food is an issue.

It's odd that other food related businesses aren't using the hairnets, but perhaps they haven't been singled out by the board of health and your company has.
I do know that all those news shows are always doing stories about "Just how clean is your local supermarket???" and it seems to me that Fred Meyer, and its parent company, Kroger, always seem to be targeted.

Maybe they subscribe to a better safe than sorry attitude.

I do remember, when I worked in the deli, we were all decked out and suited up in our white butcher coats with hairnets and plastic gloves, as if we were handling radioactive waste. (One customer made me laugh so hard, I thought I would pee. She took one look at us after all these new health measures went into effect, and she said, "Oh, that reminds me, I'm due for my PAP test at the doctor's." )
We were covered from head to toe, just to slice cold meat and dispense salads, while the girls at the front service counter prepared sandwiches and served soup, hot dogs, coffee and baked goods, without benefit of either hair nets or gloves. They would be in the middle of making a sandwich, go to the counter to ring in a sale, handling the money, then return to their sandwich making without even washing their hands.
I raised hell until they were forced to comply with the same standards as we were.

[childofsolitude]

So this means you can't bring in a lunch from home to eat on your break?

Oh, we can. We just have to eat it in the breakroom. We can't go on the floor with it (and the reason for this can't be because eating isn't allowed on the floor.. afterall, we have Food Avenue and Starbucks in my Target and guests can eat their food anywhere in the store). We can't even eat it outside on the benches in front of the store.


COMINATCHA-That's pathetic. You know, at my Target, we're supposed to be friendly with guests and everything but if we get caught laughing with a guest, they automatically think we're goofing off. Just the other day, a coworker got pulled into my manager's office because she was talking to a guest "too long". This guest also happened to buy close to $400 worth of stuff and applied for one of our Target cards. Chances are, if my coworker wasn't so friendly to her, she wouldn't have applied for the card.

Target-Where being friendly can get you fired.

[Misanthropical]

At my last job, you had to give 24 hours notice if you needed a day off or you would get a write up. If you had to leave early for any reason, you got a write up. If you had three write ups in one year you where fired.

I asked them about emergencies and they told me it would still be a write up.

[Plaidman]

I can only think of two that piss me off.

Out of state ID cards are not valid ids for buying beer or cigs. Coming to vist from Flordia, and only have teh ID card? No beer or cigs for you! We can however take Driver's license from other states.

2: Less then 75 dollars in the till during the day, less then 30 dollars at night. Now i like that, as it prevents robbery right? However, new rule that was made, I think 5 months ago? Takes all bills. No matter what. Someone buys a .25 candy and pays with a hundred doller bill at 2 in the morning, were required to take it, and make teh customer wait the twenty-thirty minute wait to get his change. (At the most the safe gives you 20 bucks in two minute interviews, but there are other customers buying and eats up chnage so fast!!!)

[Discourtesy Clerk]

...Out of state ID cards are not valid ids for buying beer or cigs. Coming to vist from Flordia, and only have teh ID card? No beer or cigs for you! We can however take Driver's license from other states.

I don't see the reason in that at all. The state ID is supposed to make it so that non-drivers can have a photo ID that's just as valid, am I right? That's just unfair to people who don't drive. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought they were supposed to be equal in all situations not involving actually driving.

[HYHYBT]

Here's one of the biggest ones that just HAS to be the dumbest. Even management doesn't have an answer for it. We're not allowed to keep purses or personal items in our departments because of so-called cross-contamination. In other words, what we bring in from the outside may kill the towns population off. Uh. Huh. But the question IS, if that's the case aren't we potentially contaminated when we wear our uniforms in to work off the street ???? Hellllooooo !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I asked management about this once and all I got is a blank look.

Probably, as someone else already said, it's really to prevent theft... but the other makes more sense than it sounds like. Think of all the places you've set your purse, and how often you wash it.

Irving brought up a good point, though, it sets a precedent, and then you have employees deliberately tampering with packages to scam free product. (I've seen it happen.)

Right. Officially, we've always had the same policy, but it's not always been enforced. For example, food left in the bin at closing time (when we both had a bin and closed) was fair game.... until someone sent up 30 cheeseburgers and 10 chicken sandwiches at 5 till.

The state ID is supposed to make it so that non-drivers can have a photo ID that's just as valid, am I right? That's just unfair to people who don't drive. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought they were supposed to be equal in all situations not involving actually driving

They are, that's why stores that do this are so stupid. I suppose it's still better than the one someone posted about on some previous CS; their store took only in-state ID's.