What workplace rules have you been subjected to that were overzealous or ultimately ridiculous?

I worked part-time in an IT department of a small bussiness company, and our working place was three levels deep in the basement. Apart from me, there were only few people, three 18-24 years olds, and an elder married couple. Of course we quickly became best buds, and I loved the job.

Well, that was before the new department manager came. He imposed a strict dress code, which required both men and women to wear suits, which was utterly ridiculous, the only unfamiliar souls we ever saw there were few hired workers and sometimes people from upper floors. We were prohibited from talking to each other, only form of communication allowed was by email and he also installed security cameras all over the basement. Also, we were required every second day to attend some kind of stupid "team-building" meeting, only for the six of us, where we were forced to play a lot of dumb games, as if we still were in kindergarten. To top it all off, he somehow found out that I had a relationship with one of my female co-workers and tried to transfer her to another department.

Needless to say, a certain small bussiness company soon found itself in a dire need of programmers and computer technicians.

/r/AskReddit Thread