Gaming the system is as easy as one, two, three. First, you learn about the things it allows and prohibits, then convince yourself that no universal moral values exist, and finally, figure out how far you can stretch those boundaries without getting caught. Just don’t underestimate the importance of the last point. Once you find a loophole to exploit, it can be pretty hard to step on the brakes if needed. When Reddit user FOB_cures_my_sadness posted a question asking people what rules were made because of them, it received over 5,200 replies, proving that if you’re not careful, they will catch up.

#1

The place I work used to have unlimited coffee for their employees. Three weeks after I started working, there was a sign above the coffee maker that stated that employees were limited to 3 cups a day.

Image credits: yourbrainonvape

#2

My senior year in HS, I had an English teacher who allowed all work to be turned in up to the last week of class. I turned in pretty much every assignment right about then, apart from the end-of-unit projects.

Next semester, all the work for all units was due at the end of the unit.

Image credits: maveric_gamer

#3

“Students are prohibited from organizing, advertising, playing, observing, or otherwise engaging in any form of rummy, blackjack, Texas Hold ‘Em, 5/7 card stud/draw, Pai Gow, or poker during lunch period. Poker chips and cards are prohibited from school grounds except when required for specific, pre-approved activities or projects. Violation of this policy is subject to expulsion and referral to law enforcement for illegal gambling.”

This was middle school, decades ago. Our first (and last) Annual [school district] Texas Hold ‘Em Tournament, presented by Jr’s Bait Shop, was a resounding success.

Image credits: eyeintheskyonastick

#4

No aluminum bats on campus.

Spanish class Piñata party gone very wrong. Still have the scar.

Image credits: toptrot

#5

If you can solve a rubik’s cube, you’re not allowed to have one in class.

Image credits: KenIsUnoriginal

#6

The winery we had our wedding at, no longer has weddings.

Nothing particularly unexpected, but essentially my groomsmen could/can really drink. Most everyone else – not so much.

There wasn’t supposed to be any hard alcohol at the venue, so of course my gifts to the groomsmen were engraved flasks. Which of course we all promptly filled with who knows what devil juice they pilfered, distilled, or otherwise acquired. I should note that our wedding planner was pretty uptight in general and especially about this “no hard liquor” thing, which my dudes essentially took as a challenge. They (ok, ok…we) proceeded to get pretty smashed, and get my old man pretty smashed, and several members of the bridal party, and I’m pretty sure some of the catering staff too lol. Thank Odin this mostly went down after the ceremony.

Naturally, drunken shenanigans ensue. Best man had to have the mic taken from him after revealing my arrest record to my new in-laws, one groomsman fell into and somehow damaged the fountain out front, another groomsman passed out in the parking lot (big fella, too), and I can’t really remember what else. All in all it was really just a hell of a party, but the venue was definitely not prepared for our level of…energy.

Just celebrated our seven year anniversary one month ago today.

Image credits: fox_212

#7

The library started putting up signs about “Authorized computer activities” because I remotely rebooted the computers of noisy kids over and over. To be fair, it was a *library*.

Image credits: anon

#8

Students are forbidden to jump out through the windows.

Image credits: Shosh99

#9

No singing *Les Miserables* at work. That first song with the prisoners working. Me with a mop.

Edit: Earlier in that shift, I brought about a rule against “Bohemian Rhapsody” too.

Image credits: RingGiver

#10

Birds are not considered a “pattern” on polos for school dress code, I had a shirt with toucans on it and the Dean called me out in front of the whole school.

Image credits: OGCloudRiPs

#11

Tarantulas are not permitted on school property.

Image credits: anon

#12

In elementary school, 2nd grade I think, I had to pee really really bad, but I was in music class and my teacher was singing us a song ans playing guitar, so I went up to her anyways and asked to pee and she got upset. And since then she would remind us all that we can’t go up to her while she’s singing to ask to pee. I just didn’t want to pee my pants, woman.

Image credits: CandelaBelen

#13

The lacrosse team I played for in college isn’t allowed to drink on team trips anymore.

Image credits: teamfupa

#14

No selling Coca Cola in the hallway.

Image credits: PM_me_your__guitars

#15

No lightsabers at the swimming pool.

Image credits: Inopmin

#16

Coworkers must respect the costume choices of others.

Image credits: undeniablybuddha

#17

Coffee was banned in the training room at EarthLink after I spilled a whole cup into a CRT monitor.

Image credits: jtolb65

#18

My high school used to have a d**g project where we’d have to give a presentation on a certain d**g. There was a little thing on how it’s made, like in a lab or it’s a plant or whatever.

I misunderstood how in depth that part was supposed to be.

Long story short, I spent fifteen minutes teaching the entire freshman boys health class how to make black tar h**oin.

They don’t have that part of the project anymore.

#19

My high school made us leave our backpacks in our lockers because my Spanish teacher tripped over mine and sprained her ankle. She was on crutches and everything. She was a raging b***h, but I still felt really bad.

Image credits: foureyesoffury

#20

There is a required pin to change profile pictures on the classroom iPads now. This is because I decided to change every staff member’s profile picture in the school iPads to a smiling, old Mexican man on April 1st.

Image credits: anon

#21

I was going to my first guitar lesson at school so I asked someone where the band room was and he pointed in its general direction. I tried to open the door that led to the room he pointed at, but it was kind of hard to open. So I pushed harder, and a giant bookcase came crashing down onto the floor. I don’t have any idea why they put a huge bookcase in front of a push door. But now there’s a permanent sign on the door that says: “DO NOT OPEN THIS DOOR—EVER!!!”

TL;DR: I accidentally pushed down a huge bookshelf and now there’s a super angry sign on the door.

Image credits: racooncoup

#22

So in 4th grade we had this thing called wax museum where you dressed up as a historical figure and gave presentation. So my friend was Harry Houdini and so he had handcuffs. So as 10 year olds we were messing with them and my friend put them on me. These were not the cheap plastic ones at the dollar store they were prop ones made from real metal. So they get stuck and long story short i was in the office with 3 people around me trying to get the handcuffs open with pens and a pumpkin knife. My sister said when she had to do it there was no handcuffs allowed. Thanks Nathan for trapping me.

#23

I recently just beat cancer at 13. When I would stay at the hospital they would have to test my urine. Capri suns made me pee better, and the floor had Capri suns on the floor. Long story short, I depleted the Capri sun supply on the whole floor twice. The cafeteria ended up making a rule that you have to order Capri suns through them.

#24

A friend and I were skipping state mandated senior-year testing because we didn’t have homeroom classes, and were having breakfast at a restaurant (with our parents permission) when the School District Superintendent and our High School Principal got seated at the booth right behind us.

Some snarky comments and a couple of parental get-out-of-jail free cards later, we both got off with no consequences, but from the next year on the school worked with city & county law enforcement to ensure no-one else got away with the same thing.

As far as I know they’re still doing county-wide restaurant sweeps 20-some odd year later.

#25

Some dude was caught jerking off into a milkshake in a kitchen where I was the dishwasher. He was fired, but the cook jokingly proposed a rule, “From now on, before we serve a milkshake, we squirt some of it into Jenn’s(a waitress) vagina. If she gets pregnant, we know it’s contaminated. If she’s not pregnant, she can just squirt it back into the cup.”

One of the other waiters was like, “Wait. Doesn’t it take 9 months to find out of a girl is pregnant?”

I dropped a whole stack of dishes, I was laughing so hard.

#26

At a previous place of work: you cannot lock the wheels on the rolling carts.

I had a micromanager that did not know how to do f*****g anything my job entailed, but wouldn’t let that stop him from telling me b******t like we need to 83 of a specific unit through to stress testing by the end of today or else there will be repurcussions (except we can’t because a certain micromanager failed to order the f*****g parts we needed to do that..)

Anyway, one day I was feeling like s**t and did not want to deal with him, so I got every unit I’d need for that day, made some walls around me and locked the wheels on them so no one could get to me. Then for good measure I put on some music and cranked it up loud. It was hard to keep the smirk off my face when micromanager started poking his head into the open slots of units I’d already worked on trying to get my attention.

My floor manager just sent me emails that day for whatever she needed, and all of that got done of course

Edit: forgot to mention, I have no idea why the music was apparently fine but locking wheels was the issue.

#27

There was supposed to be a cap on vacation time at one of my previous employers.

I don’t know why no one ever picked this up (it was a startup, still people had left before I did) but the vacation kept accruing. When I left instead of 2 weeks in the “bank” there were 5 weeks in there and they had to pay me. I’m sure they could have jumped through hoops but there wasn’t anything in the handbook that had a cap in writing (although we were told it was 2 weeks) so they just paid me. The fact I didn’t leave on bad terms helped a lot I’m sure.

When I got the check, it was for 9 weeks, not 5. Why 9 you ask? We also had a policy that after 5 years you could take a month long sabbatical. This was considered earned time and if you didn’t take it and left the company, it was payable as unused PTO.

After I left they made damn sure no one had more than 2 weeks of PTO banked, put out a new handbook, and they ended the sabbatical for new employees going forward (people grandfathered in got to keep it).

#28

No throwing graded homework assignments in the garbage after they’re returned.

I got into an argument with a high school teacher that had been gone for 3 weeks about how a paper was graded as the sub we had did not relay instructions correctly. We talked and talked and talked about how instructions where relayed vs what he had told the sub to tell us. Several other students backed me up. He wouldn’t consider a redo on the assignment that half the class failed. Argument ended with me tearing the paper in half and tossing it in the garbage right at his desk. He tried saying that was extremely disrespectful to do as he spent a long time grading it. I said “its extremely disrespectful that you claim your instructions were relayed a certain way when you werent even here and you have no student agreeing with you.”

(Quick note: the teacher i had argued with was a LONG time family friend of the principal. They went to the same church, had children in the same grade, grew up in the same small town)

I was sent to the office and was kicked out of that class. The principal tried to suspend me for being insubordinate with throwing away my paper that was handed back. I said “I dare you to suspend me for something that every single one of your students does, including your daughter in my class. *Insert smug look*”

3 days later grades K-12 gathered for an all school assembly and the rule was unveiled. All the guys in my class laughed because they knew the story. The principals daughter and her friends glared. Good times. Good times.

#29

My old job, my numbers were suffering, and I was told I needed to shape up or I would be done. The way I saw it, there was no possible way to meet the numbers by following the process. It turned out I was right. Everyone else came to the conclusion, but no one challenged leadership. So everyone was doing their own thing, then doctoring up the system notes after the fact to make it look like the established business rules were effective. So I’m like f**k it, I’m getting fired anyway. I documented everything I was doing different, in great detail, showing how my way was faster. Eventually I was found out, and I presented my findings, as well as my evidence of the doctoring everyone else was doing. As a result they asked me to evaluate the processes for the entire department, and I ended up finding numerous areas of waste and inefficiencies, which we implemented to streamline things 2-3 times faster than before. On top of that I was placed in charge of a special “expedite” team, to whom the rules did not apply, and we were given free reign to accomplish our assigned high-priority tasks by any means necessary.

I’ve moved on to another division, but the policies are still in effect today, and the expedite team is still a thing.

Edit: Skimmed the comments and I figure I’ll address some of the recurring themes.

I would say it wasn’t “courageous” per se, I just literally had nothing to lose. If you wanted to pin a virtue to it I would say “integrity”, because I wasn’t going to lie.

I’m not going to reveal any identifying information but this was for a CVO. Basically if you say you’re a board certified cardiologist, it’s our job to verify that your credentials are all accurate, current, and there are no sanctions against your ability to practice. We don’t want people to go sending patients to Dr. Hannibal Lecter or anything.

I’m no longer in that department–I’ve moved on to IT doing site administration, web development, etc.

And yes, I’m aware of how lucky I am my leadership LISTENED to me instead of just stonewalling! I was kind of dumbstruck, as I was fully expecting an obstinate “We don’t care about your facts, we care about the process,” line. I’d even taken home most of my personal effects by then, and everything else I could fit in my duffel bag. To find out I didn’t need it was not only a relief, but also a bit panic inducing, because I was totally NOT prepared to audit every other function’s process. But anyway, that mentality sort of spread throughout the organization, and now we have dedicated individuals whose sole purpose is to sit down with people and watch them do their jobs, and ask the stupid questions. “That looks like it takes a long time, why do you have to do it that way?” or etc. And you’d be surprised how many times (at least at first…it’s been a good 10 years now so we’ve cut away a lot of fat) people just stopped and went “You know….I have no idea. That really doesn’t make sense does it?” In project management circles that’s known as a gemba walk. You go to where the work is done, and try to find ways it can be done more efficiently, without sacrificing quality. A lot of the time it’s because people simply don’t know there’s a better way. Like manually drawing a chart because they were completely unaware Excel could draw a chart for them based on a data table.

And thanks for the Gold! I just recently started using Reddit and that’s actually my first one!

#30

In highschool my group of friends and me started bringing a grill to school to make toasted ham cheese sandwiches in the lunchbreaks. Soon after, more and more kids brought their grills to school. After about a week, the school banned grills on schoolproperty completely as they claimed it was a fire hazard.

#31

No “obscene or disturbing” costumes. For halloween last year in school, I applied makeup following some YT tutorial I saw to make myself look like 2face from that Batman movie. Looked like my face was ripped off.

#32

I played against john carmack in quake 3. (he kicked my a*s bad)

I text spammed using the high ascii characters.

the update right after that , those characters no longer worked.

#33

My high schools marching band is no longer allowed to

Stack bunk beds at the dorms we stayed at for band camp

Bring video game consoles to band camp

Visit the girls dorm at band camp period

Sit next to the opposite gender on the band bus trips

All the bags need to be thoroughly searched for all band trips

*Note : This was not my sole doing, but the combined efforts of basically my entire senior class in the band.

#34

My elementary school banned plastic knives from the cafeteria because my friends and I would steal a bunch and pretend to be in the hunger games and fake-stab each other at lunch.

#35

My cabin at a summer camp got glowsticks banned because we cut them open and sprayed the glowy s**t all over the place.

#36

Board operators at the radio station have to show up 30 minutes early because I slept through a fill-in shift to run the morning news show.

#37

My cousins and I were banned from playing near glass surfaces when we were younger

When I was six my cousin told me I wasn’t as strong as him because I was a girl, and proceeded to hold the handle of the glass back door shut from the outside. I was pushing on the door to open it and somehow ended up with my left arm through the glass. My mom walked in and was horrified. Ended up getting 13 stitches on my arm, but at least my cousin will never forgot the sheer strength of determined women :).

#38

They banned handball (the school one with the rubber ball)l at my primary because I kept on hitting the ball too hard and injured some people.

#39

Only two servings of fried okra allowed at my college cafeteria. I went to college in the south. I had never tasted fried okra before. I went crazy and ate plateful after plateful.

#40

No throwing grass when you’re on school grounds.

This was in junior high. School grass was just cut, and drying up, so in just a few seconds you easily could get a big handful of grass. Friend and I were throwing it at each other (I started it), and a couple other people did after seeing us. They had an announcement each morning for the next couple days to not throw grass.

#41

The christmas tree will be anchored to the wall.

#42

No climbing trees. I climbed to the top of a tree (it was pretty big), and then I made a branch fall that almost landed on top of a teacher’s head. Needless to say, climbing trees are now banned at my school.

#43

No playing darts by throwing scissors at the cork wall in the classroom.

#44

Pokémon was banned in our Catholic elementary school because the principal thought my friend and I were praising it instead of Jesus.

It was quite a ride.

#45

No more phones in classes, breaks or otherwise. You want to use your phone, dash to the cafeteria and hope that the 10-minute break is worth it and enough.

No more going on ‘cultural exchanges’ with other schools. And if we are, then they’re going to have to check us for alcohol content. And you have to make a promise that you will *never* get into any sort of altercations with students from other schools.

No more wearing whatever you like. Students now have to wear proper school uniforms.

My boys and I acted so wild we literally changed how our high school works. To this day, our juniors f*****g hate us. This is in Japan btw. KEK.

#46

When I was a kid we had a contest where we got divided into teams and had to design and build solar-powered model boats which we were then supposed to race on the pond behind the school. We had an odd number of people so I was put on the one team that had 3 people instead of 2, and I got stuck with a pair of idiots that just wanted to f**k off the whole time, so I asked if I could just be on a team by myself. I made my boat a catamaran design, made in one piece out of insulating foam, and made it an airboat instead of trying to fiddlefuck a water propeller (I used one of the little red plastic props off the old balsa fliers we all loved as kids)

My s**t TROUNCED the field, so they ran the race three more times with the same result, then made a rule that you had to be on a team defined as “more than one person” to compete. Right, it’s totally unfair that I had no one to help while you other a******s did. Unfair to THEM, somehow. 😀

Edit: minor typo, plus: Just to make it worse there were several teams where a parent had clearly done the entire project for the kids involved or bought a model and just fixed the project kit to it. Most other designs were made out of wood, or lacked any way of trimming out the steering or thrust to account for a crosswind or tendency to track crooked while mine drew basically no water and the pylon with the prop on it could be rotated.

I hadn’t thought about this in years but now I’m a a little butt-mad all over again. :P.

#47

My mum is the reason they chain down the nativity scene at our local casino. Last year she tried to make off with the baby Jesus.

#48

At the old office we had a sign that says when doing technical repairs above the ground, DO NOT throw components at people below.

#49

No more Pictionary at Grandma’s house.

My sister and I were on the same team. I pulled “9/11” (my aunt made some really odd topics). I drew 2 tall lines for the buildings and the. Started to draw a plane/bird as two arches. I got halfway through the first arch and she got it. A giant fight erupted with my big Italian family they we were cheating.

This was, of course, not the first or last game banned by my Grandma. Our highly competitive and argumentative family isn’t allowed to play spoons (bloody nose), apples to apples (old people don’t get younger people choosing the funniest answer, not the correct one), or musical chairs (broken arms).

#50

“Only clients of the hotel can use the pool”.
We were only 21 kids and 6 adults.

#51

College changed its policy of allowing free printing and now charges 10 cents per page.

#52

No towel whipping new employees.

#53

No Pokemon cards. My cards got stolen and I never recovered them back.

#54

No black lipstick in my high school dress code. Then further amended to no unnatural lip colors.

#55

Can’t wear dresses without leggings to work.

#56

It isn’t a rule but I once ran away to home while I was in kindergarten. They put up a button that only can be reached by grown ups so it won’t happen again.

#57

You can no longer write “whatever you want” for the creative component in the English exam.

So, in high school we had to read the most boring book ever, “The Secret River.” I didn’t read it.

So, for our SACs (state wide “School assessed coursework,” in Australia it basically defines your life) there is a creative exam where we have a visual prompt, and we were told you can “write whatever you want”. What they meant was you could write a news article, or a new perspective of one of the characters or a book review.

So, I thought, screw it, **I’m writing Secret River, the Musical**.

2 pages, 10 verses. None of the teachers knew what to do with it. Some thought I deserved an A because I was a mad genius, some thought I was clearly trying to hide the fact I didn’t read the book. It has to be examined and cross-examined twice. But because they have to give everyone back their results AT THE SAME TIME, no one got their results back for a month. Everyone was pissed.

When we got it back I was told I was never to do that again.

#58

Let’s just say that you aren’t really supposed to lean towards the middle of the fountains in Florida Mall anymore…

#59

My roommate in college documented everything I did in a blog, which included pictures of my stuff. I tried immature ways of getting her to stop (I followed her blog) bc I didn’t know how to do proper conflict resolution (I had already asked if something was up and she said no, which turned out to be a lie, as I then found the blog). She made a new blog about me and when I found that, I asked her to stop. She wouldn’t. A friend told an RA. Nothing happened to her, but the next year, there were new cyberbullying rules in place.

For those curious, her main complaints were how quickly I got out of bed, how I would nap before my work shifts, and how I wouldn’t take out her recycling.

#60

No throwing plaster blocks off the 4th floor.

#61

When I first started working as a vet tech we would put syringes with sedatives for the animals in our scrub pockets for easy access. Then one day I forgot I had sedatives in my pocket cuz both the doctor and I had drawn the meds up and chose to use his. Then I bent down to get something and felt something stab me…it was the syringe with sedatives that I injected into myself. Luckily it was a small dose so they drove me to a hospital and gave me a tetanus shot and then I went home and slept it off. Now there’s the rule “no sedatives in pockets “.

#62

All forklift drivers must wear seatbelts. I’m the safety coordinator.

#63

No loading your sales numbers in the contest period to ensure victory. Not my fault they left the loophole and had to pay me the 10 grand for doing no extra work or selling.

from Bored Panda https://ift.tt/gx91oui
via IFTTT source site : boredpanda