Weird workplace rules

Hannah ThompsonYouGovLabs and UK Public Opinion Website Editor
February 05, 2011, 2:19 AM GMT+0


New revelations over unusual rules at work – Carlisle City Council staff, for example, must now clock out if they want to have a non-work conversation – have prompted some of our panellists to discuss the off-the-wall regulations enforced in their workplace.



Many panellists thought their dress code was worth a mention in the context of bizarre rules.

Many panellists thought their dress code was worth a mention

The working day is stringently regulated for some panellists by their employer’s rules.

For some, the working day is stringently regulated

Carlisle City Council is the latest organisation reported in the news to bring in perceived 'bizarre' rules for its workforce, after Fenland Council instructed its staff to declare all ‘close personal relationships’ at work, and the Swiss bank UBS gave out a 44-page dress code to employees, including advising female employees to wear skin-coloured underwear and men to have regular monthly haircuts. The code is now being revised following much derision.

In response to these stories, some have argued that such unusual work rules are draconian and insult employees’ common sense, but others have also pointed out that it isn’t unreasonable for a company to expect certain standards, and say rules help give employees a shared identity. The jury is out.