Salary website Payscale compiled a list of some of the most bizarre rules in workplace environments, taken from Business Insider and Reddit.
1. No illegal beards
A “legal” beard is one that is of a certain length. If you happen to decide to grow a beard, you need to leave work for a couple of weeks until it becomes legal.
2. Only moustaches allowed
At this job, you either decide to have no facial hair at all, or a full-grown moustache. No in-betweens allowed.
3. Do not eat leftover food
In this example, the employee was reprimanded for letting co-workers take home leftover food at the end of the night. Instead, it has to be thrown away in the trash.
4. Under 25% fluorescent shoes only
An employee was sent home because he had shown up to work in his new green sneakers. The reason was that the shoes were more than 25% fluorescent.
5. Carrying boxes will not be tolerated
An employee was eventually fired for carrying around too many boxes of paper. The rule was that all boxes must be pushed around, even if it is to carry one box to fill the photocopier.
6. No hats, even in winter
While that seems like it makes sense, this particular employee was working at a warehouse during winter. Seems like hypothermia is preferred to looking unprofessional.
7. No popcorn, or else…
The reason given by the boss had something to do with the difficulty in talking on the phone while eating popcorn.
8. Evaluate the models, but not on attractiveness
A booking agent whose job was to evaluate potential models said that the employee manual explicitly barred evaluating the models based on attractiveness.
9. The Un-referee
A replacement referee for children’s soccer was restricted from making calls of any kind. This included goal kicks, corner kicks, out of bounds calls and even if one kid hit another. It was explained that children need to “learn the game themselves” and “negative reinforcement” would ruin the game for them.
10. Underwear must be worn at all times
One rule at a company was that undergarments must be worn at all times but not visible. Apparently going to work commando was not permitted.
