Workplaces can have many different rules and policies. Some of them make sense, and others don't. For many young employees, dress codes at work are off the table, as a 2019 study revealed that 33% of workers would quit their jobs if they had to wear formal attire.
Other company policies can be dangerous and detrimental to workers' health. Like the pressure Amazon delivery drivers faced from service partners, who denied them bathroom breaks. The company faced a class action lawsuit in Colorado last year because the workers said they suffered "degrading experiences."
The least the people who work in such companies can do is tell their stories online. So, when someone asked, "What's the most surprising company policy you've encountered that the public doesn't know about?", the thread quickly went viral. It had almost everything: from stories that might make you chuckle to companies seriously endangering their employees.
#1
I work for a small family run bakery. They own 2 shops. If you have cancer, they keep you on the payroll. You get full pay for 2 years, then half pay for another 2 years.
I've heard a lot of people s**t on family owned workplaces. Yes, some of them deserve it, but not all of them. I've honestly never heard of any place else that has done anything like that for their people.
Image credits: lika-kiki-no
#2
Theres a company in the UK which will dry clean your suit if you are unemployed and have a job interview. And despite their business being key cutting, they still actively recruit former prisoners, and have developed training programmes for convicts.
Their boss has become the new prisons minister following the recent election. He genuinely believes in reform.
Thanks Timpsons .
#3
I work at a smallish company. We have ~50 branches. Each branch has an associate of the year winner. That winner gets airfare for two anywhere in continental US, hotel paid for, a week PTO, and spending cash for the trip.
Best company I've ever worked for.
Image credits: twsmith23
#4
If a Google employee dies, their surviving spouse or partner receives 50% of their base salary for 10 years, and any child receives an additional $1k/month. This is in addition to a life insurance base policy of 3x one's annual salary, and the immediate vesting of all unvested stock units.
Image credits: Sub_Umbra
#5
I work for a utility company and we have "storm duty".
The basic idea is that whenever there's a big storm and enough people lose power, everyone in the company drops what they're doing and has a role to play to keep the public safe and get people restored faster.
Some examples:
- Office workers may get sent out to put caution tape up around down wires or to help with triage efforts
- Call center workers may switch from taking customer calls to do dispatching for all the extra people who get sent out into the field (both employees and repair crews from other utilities who get called in to assist)
- Extra IT workers may get called on to monitor systems related to outage reporting or dispatching crews 24/7 while they're under load.
Image credits: timtucker_com
#6
At a hotel I worked at, somebody f****d up the employee handbook: during fires we were to huddle indoors away from windows and during tornadoes we were to wait outside in the parking lot.
Image credits: UnhappyJohnCandy
#7
I never worked there, but Discount Tire has a policy of never letting a customer drive off the lot with potentially dangerous tires (bald, poor condition, etc.). There are many stories of people who can't afford tires going in there and just begging for what they can get. They'll replace them for free.
Edit: this post got a lot of traction. I'm not editing the original post because that was my original comment, but using the word "begging" was inappropriate. Please replace it with the word "asking" as you read it.
Image credits: Wazzoo1
#8
I used to work for an internationally known bank (but I was low in terms of pay and rank). If a customer got charged for exceeding their overdraft limit we could not refund it. UNLESS... they had money.
If the customer had savings or a large mortgage then then the charge was refunded. But if they were poor... no refund.
I later got promoted where I was authorised to refund up to $250 without question. So if a poor person was charged $30 three times in a month and I felt it was unfair, I'd refund the $90 and then put words in their mouth like "I imagine you've spent a lot of time phoning us over this and your phone bill might be about $50? So I'll credit an extra $50 to your account for that. And you know what, you mentioned you have your daughter's wedding coming up? I would love it if you could buy people a round of drinks but as long as you say this is because Carblays Bank made it happen? And then I can justify crediting your account with another $110.".
Image credits: kitjen
#9
I recently broke my phone like a moron and had to go get a replacement at t- mobile. Upon talking to the guy, I was told that my drivers license had expired, and therefore I couldn't access my account. No amount of argument from me could change this, never mind having the credit card that has paid the bill for the last 10 years, etc.
Long story short luckily I had my gf as an authorized user on the account and we were able to get a new phone later that day, but afterwards I asked the manager, "what if I didn't have anyone, or say I just moved here and knew no one", to which he replied that I could call t mobile customer service, give them my user pin or whatever, and add someone as an authorized user. I then asked if I could add that guy over there, and he said yes, anyone with a valid ID. Because somehow that's more secure than using a secondary form of ID. Asinine.
Image credits: skike
#10
I worked for a very large corporation. We were not allowed to ride in hot air balloons. I have no idea why, but it was in the employee handbook.
Image credits: jvlpdillon
#11
During COVID times, if we tested positive for Covid we weren't allowed to send proof, and we weren't allowed to discuss it over the phone. You had to go in, show them the test then you were sent home.
Image credits: YaretFace
#12
I worked in IT for an insurance company. Whenever anyone filed a claim on their automobile policy, before the company did anything, they sent a letter that said they had investigated the claim and determined it was without merit. However if the claimant wished to have the decision reviewed, they could, but should be aware of the specific penalties for insurance fraud in their state.
Most people called screaming about how the accident was not their fault. Those claims were handled promptly and professionally. But they assumed some percentage of the claimants were too intimidated to complain.
Image credits: JustSomeGuy_56
#13
Many airlines intentionally overbook flights, betting that some passengers won't show up. When too many people do, they offer incentives for volunteers to give up their seats. It's a calculated gamble, prioritizing profits over customer convenience and satisfaction.
Image credits: luminous-beam
#14
American Airlines began offering $400 per ticket to take the next flight out, then $500, then $600. I saw the next string of flights could hit a connection and land my family of four only 90 minutes later. Offered $800 each, and we scored $3200 that covered the hotel, meals, and entertainment for the whole vacation.
#15
In the US, flood zone maps are modified by Congress and lobbying. It’s not a pure science & engineering map.
Image credits: ikonet
#16
My favorite one was that if a customer sexually harassed us we should deal with it because the customer is always right and it keeps them coming back.
Image credits: SunnxBunny
#17
I work in healthcare. During COVID, we were so shortstaffed that employees who tested positive but were asymptomatic were denied PTO/sick leave. They just made you wear a mask. And if you wanted to be off because you were sick with something that wasn't COVID, you had to call the agency nurse, describe your symptoms, and she would decide if you got to stay home or not. Even if you felt like death, if you were not deemed contageous, you were fully expected to come in. Because of that policy in several healthcare agencies, I think a lot of patients would be surprised and possibly disturbed to know that they were being taken care of by staff actively ill and even COVID positive.
Image credits: Square-Raspberry560
#18
I worked for a company where all men had to wear suits Monday through Thursday, shirts could only be white or light blue, ties couldn’t have any graphics on them aside from lines or dots One guy wore a tie with teeny golf clubs on it and the owner sent him home to get a different tie. He lived an hour away.
Image credits: Tony-Flags
#19
High end European car company offers leases to all employees. Said leased cars come with included fleet insurance. Company policy is that you can let literally any licensed driver, even some rando walking down the street, use your lease car for up to 7 days, fully covered by insurance, to promote the experience.
No down payment, discounted lease payment, no insurance or registration costs, you get a brand new car with ~8 miles on it every year (or less depending how many miles you put on it), and you can let almost anyone drive it.
#20
At PNC Bank, if you transfer money from one of your accounts with them, for example from money market into checking, they put a hold on the money for several days so if you are writing a check w using the transferred money you can incur an "insufficent funds fee". They tried that c**p on me but when I threatened to pull everything they waived the insufficient funds fee.
Image credits: PupperMartin74
#21
At a retail chain I worked for, they had a policy where employees had to clock out for bathroom breaks. This wasn't common knowledge outside the company, and it felt really unfair and demeaning. It made a lot of us upset and frustrated, as we had to carefully plan when we could use the restroom without losing pay.
Image credits: Sofie_Kitty
#22
At AutoZone, answering the phone was priority over the customer standing in front of you. The idea was the customer standing in line is already a guaranteed sale while a phone call is potential for more.
Image credits: shok_antoinette
#23
When I was a F&B department head for a large golf resort, I was tasked with "bringing new blood" into the department. Problem was that I could not increase my head count and if someone left I could not place a request in until after their last day. The process of hiring someone new took about 10 weeks. In which time I would be short handed.
I would get s**t from my boss that certain people were still there, then get s**t for paying overtime. When I would bring this up to my HR recruiter she would just give me a knowing look. Basically middle management hell.
Image credits: princesstiinaa
#24
There is a wedding venue company in San Diego that makes their clients and all vendors sign basically an NDA, disallowing them from speaking ill of the company, venues, or their experiences.
I will never understand how that isn't a red flag for people.
#25
If a student literally shoots another student but isn't immediately charged and arrested they can still attend class (and in fact we're supposed to let them) until such a time they are arrested and charged. So students can basically be made to attend with their attempted murderer, not just with their rapist like we always knew about.
#26
If you are an American Express Platinum member and you book a bargain vacation package, your Platinum benefits do not apply. It's there in the fine print on the website... somewhere.
Image credits: FreyaGin
#27
Old workplace decided to have a weekly compulsory company meeting that started (and finished) outside business hours.
Image credits: AngelicAriaa
#28
I worked for an insurance company. Insurance companies are the **worst**.
People would call and ask why their rates were raised. The closest thing I got to a real answer was, "Because they'll pay more, and if not, they'll threaten to cancel. If they do that, then we'll send them to retention, who will then lower their rate."
Rates were being raised simply because they could.
Also, when signing up for an auto policy, your mileage directly correlates to your risk rating and will either lower or raise your rate. The company I worked for would allow your mileage to be what you said for the first 6 months. At renewal, your mileage per month always jumped for 12k. Or higher if your initial mileage estimate was already over 12k. It'd be about a $50 increased a month, depending on your state.
F*****g criminals.
#29
Christmas Day comes out of London Tube staff’s annual leave allowance despite the fact that the entire tube system is closed on Christmas Day.
Image credits: CharSmar
#30
Comcast (now xfinity) likes to f**k you over, and then when you complain enough, they verbally promise credit whatnot only to f**k you over even more.
Image credits: Alfred-Adler
#31
When I worked at a major cable internet provider, it wasn't that we weren't giving you a credit because we didn't want to, we weren't giving you a credit because it went against our scorecard and we'd get in trouble. Call at the beginning of the month and you'll get more love.
Image credits: TheRealOcsiban
#32
Unlimited Paid Time Off policies are scams.
When employees have vacation balances in their accounts, companies have to carry the value of that time as a liability on their balance sheets. Some genius figured out that by offering "unlimited" time off, employees don't take any more time off than they would under the limited time off system - some studies suggest employees actually take less vacation with Unlimited PTO - but then the company carries zero liability on their balance sheet.
Edit - The replies below like "no, I love my Unlimited PTO!!" show that people truly don't understand the impact of these policies. Or understand what it even means.
Image credits: AdWonderful5920
#33
One of the most surprising company policies I’ve encountered was at a retail store I worked at. They had a strict "no asking for time off during holidays" rule, which makes sense. But what people don’t know is that we actually had a secret list of employees who were allowed to take time off during these peak times, based on favoritism. It was kept very hush-hush to avoid any backlash.
Image credits: BeautifulSofie
#34
The president of our division thought khaki pants were ugly so she banned them.
#35
I worked for a state government, and they had a policy stating you could be required to sleep at the building (at times of bad weather) due to staffing requirements, and they weren't obligated to give you breaks or lunch breaks. We had people regularly forced to stay for 20 hours.
Image credits: Commercial_Meal_5619
