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Rules are implemented across workplaces to ensure a safe, comfortable and organised working environment for employees. 

But in some cases, the rules are questioned for being either too strict or having no purpose.

Hundreds have taken to Reddit to share the most 'idiotic' workplace rules they've had to follow - both currently and in previous jobs.

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Helpful or pointless? Rules are implemented across workplaces to ensure a safe, comfortable and organised working environment for employees... but sometimes they serve no purpose

'We cannot drink coffee after 2PM,' one Redditor wrote on the thread. 

'The company has more than enough money to provide s**tty coffee at all hours of the day. But they insist that drinking coffee in the afternoon is wasteful.

'They instructed the secretaries to take away and lock up the decanters and bag of coffee at 2PM.'

One man was bemused at an apparent safety rule he was required to follow. 

'I once worked at a place where they would make you wear a fall protection harness to go up in a scissor lift, but explicitly did not require you to attach it to anything,' he said. 

A teacher shared her experience with the copy machine, revealing all the teachers at her school weren't allowed to use it.  

'There is no central copier for any teacher to just go and make copies at. Instead, we have to bring our originals to our secretaries and fill out a paper and they will make the copies,' she said. 

 

 

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Keep it dull: Another company allowed women to wear shorts but not men, while another demanded that their staff never wear glitter (both make up and clothing)

'Mind you, they want it all done 2 days ahead of time.'

Call centre staff also shared their concerns. 

'Worked in a call center, no standing or getting up had to sit... so 5.5 hours of sitting down between last break and getting off work,' one Redditor wrote. 

'The ONLY reason you stood up was to leave the call center floor or it was the signal we needed a supervisor,' another agreed. 

 

 

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No copy machine allowed: A teacher shared her experience with the copy machine, revealing all the teachers at her school weren't allowed to use it

'Anytime I stood up that was non-break related I would wait until a supervisor walked up to my desk (which took on average 10 minutes).'

Another company allowed women to wear shorts but not men, while another demanded that their staff never wear glitter (both make up and clothing). 

Other rules included no relationships with coworkers and no putting hands in pockets at any time. 

'Can't grow any facial hair other then a mustache [sic],' one wrote, before another revealed he had to follow a 'colour of the month' rule. 

'The uniform was black but we had to have a specific colored accessory that matched the rest of the front of house staff,' he wrote. 

'It changed monthly and colours never repeated. The colours were very specific as well. It was never just "a shade of blue". It was like, January was Cerulean and February was Emerald Green... God forbid you were a necklace with a mossy green pendant in February [sic].'

Over the top safety rules were also shared.

'No open-back sandals because we might fall,' one said. 

'Work in a restaurant. One day they pulled the mints off of our host stand because someone "choked" on one and tried to sue... ,' another added.