What’s your office’s weirdest rule?

Worked at a small promoter based company in my first job. They used to do Aarti in the morning. Each day different aarti. Then to not leave any faith out the aarti would be followed by Jain prayer, Muslim prayer, Christian prayer and parsi prayer. Finally we would sit for 10 minutes of guided meditation (my favourite part, really helped people draw a line between the morning travel, breakfast etc and the work day. Helped me focus too) Not a rule but just weird behavior that I've used as a funny story to tell people, it has never failed to get a laugh.

1. My friend who used to work at Nomura had to use office badge to access washroom. 2. My cousin who works at a finance startup needs to put mobile in a locker room before starting work. They’re allowed to access it only in case of emergency.

We should not do loo in office washroom. HR sent email to all employees that don't do loo in office washroom.

IIT Bombay founders made the head of business/ revenue sit in a corner of the office with low ventilation because it was the Kubera moola (a space that brings luck according to vaastu) Startup shut down in 2 years though. That’s another story. 😅

Boys can't wear round neck tshirts god knows why

Sandwich leave

No rule, but in previous startup they introduced fingerprint attendence during peak covid lmao

Looks like you are referring to that shitty company "Intellect Design Arena"

Going to office

When does a rule or a custom become weird? Women wearing trousers was weird a few decades ago, not possessing a gun is still considered weird in a few states in the US, and it is definitely weird to picture couples of different faiths marrying in many parts of India at this day and age! I still remember a vivid scene during my childhood. It was in the early 90s. I was at the bus stop with my dad. While we were waiting, we saw a lady in a saree riding a chetak scooter. I still remember that so vividly as most of our heads turned. But I still vaguely remember the weirdness of it - even as a child, I wasn't conditioned to accept a woman riding a two-wheeler. Such a scene is so ubiquitous now, that there is nothing weird about it anymore. I am not sure if many of us here might know that the term "non-veg" itself is weird in most parts of the world. It is an elitist word just for India, and we are so conditioned that we don't feel anything wrong with the term. The owner of this company probably sees this company as an extension of his home, and this person definitely cannot see anything weird in the rule - it is something normal to him/her. A thought experiment we can have is - is it his fault or is it the society's fault in which he grew up?

Beat this… 1. No non-veg in office 2. You can’t order non-veg in a team lunch/dinner(your bill won’t be reimbursed) 3. No non-veg even during our team offsite which happened 100 km away from office 🤷🏻‍♂️🤷🏻‍♂️ And these folks want to become a ‘Globally Renowned Financial Services Company’

Different washrooms for managers and ICs, there ones for managers was access controlled, privileged aholes literally.

The manager at my previous job made this rule at the starting of WFH (during the pandemic), that all employees must keep their camera on AT ALL TIMES during the working hours. The rule didn't even last for one day.

Unacademy, when they were based in Indira Nagar, required anyone entering their office to open their shoes and leave them at the door. Went for an interview long time ago and got really uncomfortable walking around bare feet between discussions. Couldn’t think of following through. This practice would have changed later or when they moved to Domlur.

What no non veg? That is just disrespectful for your personal choices

In one of my previous organization (BPO industry), i was part of risk consulting department - There was a rule to obtain VP level approval to get access to Printer, start and stop meal coupon.

We had to message in WhatsApp group tht we reached the office..as our boss use to sit in different locations..and then he randomly called to cross-check the same..hahaha

Also during branch banking they have a uniform code but no one was allowed to get their uniforms lower stitched as chudidaar ..as it wud show the shape of our legs... everyone had to go fr regular salwars..but later wid time no staff was following the same hence the rule went off frm the systems..but we did had been brushed up by seniors during the rule was upp..

Women employees are not allowed to go out of the office campus between 8PM to 6AM. They can only use company transport to get into office and to reach back home. Also they cannot get drop in between. Any violation observed will lead to termination of employment.

No meeting rooms for dev team bcz apparently, all meeting rooms are reserved for product and marketing team 🤔 Just can't make a sense out of this rule though.