No beards allowed? The top 10 craziest workplace rules

Emma Finamore
18 Apr 2018

Rules about facial hair and time limits on bathroom breaks...but rules were made to be broken, right?

Placeholder — 55.7% of professionals are not happy about having to abide by these rules.

Almost two-thirds of UK workers think they have to follow some stupid rules at work.

According to CV-Library research, 60.2% of workers say they have been employed by a company that made them follow strange or ridiculous rules.

It comes as no surprise that over half – 55.7% – of professionals are not happy about having to abide by these rules.

Top 10 ridiculous workplace rules

The survey looked into the most ridiculous rules that UK bosses were enforcing on their staff and how employees felt about these. Workers were asked to share the craziest rules that their boss had in place, these included:

No food or drink at your desk – 41.1%
Pay docked for being a few minutes late – 33.2%
Getting a doctor’s note for any kind of illness – 30.9%
Time limits when using the bathroom – 27.9%
No talking to colleagues unless in the break room – 20.2%
Not allowed to have a beard – 19.3%
No pictures, plants or anything personal on your desk – 19.1%
No wearing perfume to work – 13.2%
No drinking tea while working – 11%
No smoking in your own car on your way to work – 8.5%

According to CV-Library research, 60.2% of workers say they have been employed by a company that made them follow strange or ridiculous rules.

Finding the balance

Restricting staff with ridiculous rules can cause problems for employers, especially if these rules make them feel like their boss doesn’t trust them.

Lee Biggins, founder and managing director of rules and regulations. That said, you don’t want to make employees feel uncomfortable or untrusted by enforcing outrageous and unnecessary rules upon them. This could result in them leaving to find a more welcoming work culture elsewhere. So it’s important that you get the balance right.”

Do bosses have the right to enforce these rules?

The survey also asked employees how they felt about these rules. It revealed that over two-thirds (67.6%) of workers believe that bosses don’t have the right to enforce ridiculous and strange rules on their staff.

It’s understandable that employees don’t want their freedom and choices taken away from them, especially in the workplace where they spend a lot of their time.

Discrimination is a hot topic at the moment with equal pay concerns – employers over a certain size in the UK now have to publish their gender pay gap information. It is hoped that this will result in more equal pay, which might at least help with some of the dissatisfaction in the workplace.

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