A few years ago, I got a job at a theme park serving food in a hot, tiny booth while standing for 10 hours at a time. Sure, we had breaks, but we had to walk to where no theme park guests could see us, which was actually kind of far, and up three flights of stairs. And by the time we got there, our breaks were mere minutes.
We were basically told no one could see us sitting because it made the company look bad. But, even if there were no customers around ordering food, we couldn't even lean. That's right. We had these big ol' counters, practically taking up the whole booth, right in front of us, four walls surrounding us, and we couldn't even simply put an elbow down for a second just to shift our weight.
There were other rules, too, of course. Like, my boss was super anti-jewelry to the point where my coworker told me, "You better take off that necklace before [boss] rips it off your neck."
And I know I'm not alone. I wanna hear the weird, intense, or just ridiculous rules that your job tried to enforce on you.
Maybe you work in food service, and even though you wear a hairnet anyway, they made you get a very specific haircut to better fit the "company's culture." And you couldn't even fight back because there was literally a company-wide book of guidelines for acceptable haircuts and facial hair.
Or, maybe your boss has been on a 20-year power trip, and even though you're not at all in a customer-facing role, he still has a strict dress code — like, you can't even wear nail polish. And not because it's company policy, but because he doesn't like it.
Perhaps the rule is more related to productivity than physical appearance, and you're not only not allowed to have your cell phone on, but you can't even have it on your person — even if you have kids. Like, you have to keep it in a locker or a back office somewhere. And there's A LOT of downtime, so you spend your time literally twiddling your thumbs.
Or, maybe the "rule" is actually a mandatory outing with the rest of the team — like, a company retreat full of bonding activities or a weekly happy hour that is the bane of your existence.
