Ask HN: What's the weirdest rule your workplace ever had?

3 pointsposted 9 hours ago
by jamessmithe

Item id: 45220694

3 Comments

mtmail

8 hours ago

* Company grew fast and didn't provide enough parking spots. To avoid fines by the city they hired a valet parking service to double- and triple park. It felt weird giving somebody else your car keys in the morning. There was no receipts. In the evening you just told them your license plate number.

* After 9/11 in the European office we were not allowed to open windows facing the street for a couple of weeks. A terrorist could throw a grenade. That was the stated reason. Requests for bulletproof glass or any other window protection were denied though.

* One of the smaller datacenters was so secret the security guy at the front wouldn't disclose I was at the correct address, even after showing my company badge. No signs or hints. I was a "need to know basis and obviously you don't know" situation.

iefbr14

8 hours ago

In 1976 when I started, I was threatened that if I caused an 0C7 abend I would have to sit on a chair in a corner of the office for 15 minutes with a pointy hat on that had '0c7 fool' written on it. BTW, I had lots of them and never sat on that chair :)

Bender

6 hours ago

Had to walk to a hydration corner like it was a video game quest.

To me that sounds more like a form of Submission, Domination and Humiliation being enforced on employees. a.k.a. sexual harassment as a policy unless your desk is something like a circuit board fab and there is a legit reason not to have water at that location.