REVEALED: Top 10 silliest workplace rules

Certain rules are essential for any workplace, to ensure proper policies are followed and everybody remains safe. Usually, it’s easy to see why each rule exists – good hygiene when dealing with food is a sensible order and keeping records in order makes accountability much easier in the future.

However, some rules are in place *just because*. They can be difficult to enforce because employees simply don’t see the point in them or may even make work harder.

“Usually silly rules have some point of origin where someone thought a rule was needed in response to a situation or specific issue, and created one,” says Gary Cookson, a former HRD and Director of EPIC HR. “I've done it myself in the past and at the time the rules seem logical and proportionate, but as soon as that specific issue has passed, they seem increasingly silly as time passes and eventually you wonder what the hell you were thinking.”

He recalls a time he wrote an entire policy on staff do's and don'ts during a football World Cup, which was taken seriously by the organisation and repeated four years later when the event came around again.