Overly Restrictive Work Rules

April 13, 2006

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Overly restrictive work rules mean nothing but trouble. Not only do they create unnecessary hardship for employees, but they make you seem unreasonable and unconcerned about the feelings and needs of your employees. If you have a rule, you should be able to give any employee who asks a good, business-related reason for having it. The reasons should be clearly related to the employee's job, and you should not impose personal opinions or beliefs on your employees in the form of work rules.

When an employee interviewed for a job and was subsequently hired, he was clean-shaven. When he reported for his first day at work, he was wearing a beard. The employer had a policy against employees having facial hair.

The employer asked him to shave off the beard, but the employee refused because he felt it was an infringement on his personal freedom, and, more importantly, no one ever gave him a good reason why this rule existed. As a result, the employer fired him.

There are no winners here. The employer lost a good employee and the employee lost a good job. The employer will now have to spend more time and money to replace the employee.

How could this have been avoided? The employer, upon noticing the employee's reluctance to shave the beard, should have explained why it had the policy against beards. It might have been enough to make the employee change his mind. If the employer could not come up with a good reason, it shouldn't have had the policy in the first place.

There are a number of things that can be done to help make sure that work rules aren't perceived to be unduly restrictive, including:

Getting input from your employees in creating work rules: if they are involved in the process, employees are more likely to accept and abide by the work rules.
Making sure that all of your rules have a sound business justification: not only will this make rules seem more appropriate, but it may help you avoid creating rules that have a disparate impact on certain protected groups of employees.