Most of us have no problem following the rules, but there are few out there that test every restriction, bend each policy, or outright break a rule without thinking of the consequences. Usually it's someone just acting the fool or doing something profoundly idiotic. When it's so bad that a new rule not only has to be applied to them, but to everyone else after them, we can't help but be bitter. Just remember, behind every ridiculous rule is a village idiot who made it necessary.
Redditor u/rochelleskincareasli asks:
What rule was changed because of ONE stupid person?
Can't Handle Being An Adult
We just lost remote working privileges cuz someone in a different office can't handle being an adult.
Same here. Used to be that I could pack up my laptop, tell my supervisor I'd be online remote tomorrow, and just work from home.
Then some f*ckwit confused his work laptop with his personal and watched a sh*t ton of porn on his work laptopon the clock. A week later and all of our laptops and docking stations are gone and replaced with towers.
What A Pain In The Class
My university dorm orientation meeting was full of weirdly specific rules. The ones I can remember are:
- No pickaxes (some student attacked another student with a pickaxe)
- No piranhas (other fish were allowed but it turns out dangling sensitive ... parts into piranha tanks is irresistible to certain college students)
- No pooping in the showers
- No lowering/raising things into your room via the window (my best friend's dad turned out to possibly be the reason for this one, he used to sneak beer in via rope and bucket)
- Please for the love of god don't poop in the showers
Please for the love of god don't poop in the showers
WTF!! Why won't they allow you to waffle stomp?
The Wrong Girl
Valentine's Day is newly not allowed at my school because last year kids kept cutting girls' balloons. One kid did that to the wrong girl, and the next day she came to school with a knife and stabbed him.
holy sh*t, that went from 0 to 100 real f*ckin' fast.
The Long And Shorts Of It
I work in a warehouse I'm not allowed to wear shorts in because one day the bosses came around and decided it didn't look professional for the shippers to be wearing shorts. Keep in mind there are only 4 of us here and the boss only comes to visit once a year or so, we also only sell to stores and very rarely have to deal with the end user. Makes +30C days kinda suck.
Edit: ok guys I'm taking you up on your suggestions and buying a kilt.
Does Their Case For Safety Hold Water?
I can't bring my water bottle on the plane because someone decided that it'll be a good idea to hijack some planes back in 2001.
Nooo no no that was from a different guy who tried to assemble a bomb in the airplane bathroom. They looked at his ingredients and were like "WE ARE BANNING ALL OF THIS! WHAT IS THAT? IS THAT A LIQUID?? WE ARE BANNING THAT PHASE OF MATTER"
I gotta mention Hannibal Buress' bit about TSA, a classic. I wrote the all-caps quote with his inflection in mind.
It's even worse: there was never even any concrete evidence that the plot ever even existed, and it can't actually work in real life.
Oh, and even if it did, the existing security regulations at the time were enough to stop it.
It Only Takes One Guy
I work for a government office through a dispatch company. Half of the people who work in my same position are through the same dispatch company, and the other half are private hires. Due to a rule with the dispatch company, we're not allowed to own or operate vehicles to go to/from work, but private hires can. Until recently this was fine, since the government office reimbursed the people who HAVE to use public transport, as well as any private hires who opt to use public transport. The people with cars were also compensated, but often to a lesser degree since it tends to cost them less to go to work.
Last winter, one private hire was in a car crash (on personal time/weekend, not en route to work) and DEMANDED that the government office pay for the repairs his vehicle needed, citing how it wasn't fair that the dispatch employees/public transport users were reimbursed more for travel when he had to "pay for his car's upkeep out of pocket." He was so aggressive about it that they changed the rule, and now they will only reimburse up to $3 a DAY, with a monthly cap of $70.
It costs me $240 to get to work every month, and this was a big hit for me financially. So, f*ck that guy.
If You Drop Too Much, They Drop The Policy
Someone told me this story. At one factory where they make Coke, they let you keep any of the bottles that dropped. So, meaning it was free. When they let this happen people would intentionally drop the bottles to take home. Then they took away the generous policy.
[username deleted]
they let you keep any of the bottles that dropped.
Yeah, I don't know how they didn't see that one coming though.
Even Google had to stop their "free dinner delivery when working late" policy because people were staying just late enough for the policy, ordering enough for their whole families, and promptly leaving when the food arrived. A small minority of people just f*ck everything up for everyone.
Benny Hill Chicken
No backpacks in the gym, ever. Because of one guy.
It was the homecoming pep rally and the principal had come up to the mic for his speech. Suddenly there was a sound of wings flapping and squawking. As if out of nowhere, a live chicken was released onto the gym floor. The principal, vice principal, and several staff members began attempting to catch the chicken. Then it got better.
The kid in charge of the music was in cahoots with the chicken kid. He immediately switched the music to the Benny Hill theme. So the administration is literally chasing a chicken around the gym to the Benny Hill music. It was chaos.
No more backpacks in the gym.
In fairness, those kids won, so there's really no need for any more backpacks in the gym.
absolute legend. totally with it.
If The Pants Fit...
In the Teletech company handbook it clearly states that vintage golf pants from a thrift store are NOT considered dress casual because of one *sshole. I am that *sshole.
👏👏👏 I worked for an office that tie and jacket were required and this old hippie guy I worked with would go to goodwill and thrift stores and buy the worst looking they had just to prove a point 😁
It's All Fun And Games Until Someone Gets Hurt
Everyone played Runescape in the computer lab when I was in middle school. One kid would try to look over your shoulder at your hands as you typed your password. This caused a couple fist fights. Runescape was promptly banned.
Unappreciative Much?
My husband's work used to give each worker a $50 grocery gift card to use toward their Christmas dinner. People complained about having to pay tax on that gift card so they took it away, now we get nothing. What an improvement, thanks guys!
Yup. Some people will complain about anything. Somehow people procreate with these people and I will never understand why.
You Can't Make This Stuffed Up
You ever looked at the US tax code? Probably not. But if you looked closely, you'd see it's the ultimate example of rules being changed due to one stupid/clever/greedy person.
My favorite example is the age old practice of Taxidermy (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJP1DphOWPs). Did you know you can write off the cost of having an animal preserved, provided you then donated the animal to a museum or university? Still to this day!
I told you that so I could tell you that specific portion of the tax code used to be a lot less specific. So much so, that a number of people opted to book 12+ person, 2 week long safari excursions, complete with lodging, airfare, meals, booze and more, then would shoot a lion on the final day, send it to a taxidermist, donate the now preserved corpse to a museum or university, and write off the entire 14 day trip, and all expenses, under that specific provision of the tax code. So a $500 write off became a $50,000 write off.
It Was Cold That Day, We Could Tell
My company no longer has a Halloween costume contest among the locations in the area because of me. We all dressed up as X-Men. I was Mystique. We got complaints.
You just body painted your d*ck and thought that was enough, didn't you?
Fake It Until You Break It
Local bar had wooden nickels that got you free drinks or could be used later if you didn't finish a bucket. Someone made counterfeits. They were good counterfeits, but just the same.
Ruined it for the entire bar! All for a $2.50 beer.
A bar I used to frequent (sadly long gone) had a weekday happy hour special: buy a drink at regular price, get a ticket for a second drink free. They were just your typical carnival tickets that came off a massive roll.
Lots of us regulars would not even use the ticket the same day, but hoard them for later (which was allowed, they could be used at any time before midnight on any day). We were broke college kids and the hoarded tickets were used on days when our money was thin. Had probably a couple dozen or so in my apartment at any given time.
Some *sswipe bought a roll of tickets at the Dollar Tree, didn't even bother to try and get the same colour/design, didn't bother to try forging the owner's signature on the back of each ticket, didn't bother to try roughing them up (the real tickets were re-used and in bad shape).
A Cold-Hearted Lesson
So I was around 11/12 years old. It was winter here in Sweden, and often around -10C or colder. When arriving to school, most of us would rush inside to escape the cold. Well, some mannerless b*tches kept misbehaving, so the teachers decided to lock the doors until the first class started. All of us had to wait outside in the cold.
I distinctively remember one day when it was so cold that even my friend's dark brown hair and nearly black eyelashes turned white. Yet the damn teachers Still. Would. Not. Let. Us. Inside.
These were explored when Redditor Fronzie7 quoted a famous music icon to ask:
"Frank Sinatra said, 'The best revenge is massive success' What's a real-life example of this?"
Everyone loves a good Hollywood ending.
You Know You've Made It When You're On A Lunchbox
"Michael J.Fox has a great story about when he started out. Some big wheel at the network didn't like him for the role of Alex P. Keaton on Family Ties. He was too short, not cute, not heart throb enough, you're never going to see his face on a lunch box. But the producer cast him anyway and the show shot to number one and stayed there."
"Fox sent him a Family Ties lunch box with his face on it and then Back to the Future 1,2,3 lunch boxes."
– Hazelsmom64
A Rocky Start To An Amazing Career
"Sylvester Stallone as well. Casting agents told him he was too stupid looking and he'd only get small roles as the thug who got beaten up. He said he literally went to every casting agent in NYC and got rejected by all of them."
"Even after he wrote Rocky and found producers, they didn't want him to star in it."
– YounomsayinMawfk
The Dreamgirl Who Never Stopped Dreaming
"Jennifer Hudson lost American Idol and became more successful than the winner."
– Stashdragon
"She is a recent EGOT winner and the youngest woman to do it. 7th Place looks fantastic on her."
– jdmccoy
Against all odds, the end result was a victory for these accomplished individuals.
Home Surveillance Home Run
"The guy who invented Ring cameras went on Shark Tank and was rejected by everyone. They all thought it would fail….we’ll you know the rest."
– Ruzzthabus
"He went back on Shark Tank after that, but this time as one of the sharks."
– 1Land_1Keep
The Skies The Limit
"Ron McNair had the police called on him when he was little because he was black and reading in a library. He grew up to be an astronaut and the library he was kicked out of was later named after him."
– sperdush
"For those who may not be familiar with his name; he was one of the Challenger crew members on January 28, 1986."
– This-Marsupial-6187
Emerged From The Shallow
"When Lady GaGa was in college, some of her classmates had a Facebook group called 'Stefani Germanotta, you'll never be famous.'"
"Pretty sure she proved them wrong."
– NotHisRealName
Now these are smart business moves.
Recipe For Success
"Erin French, chef-owner of restaurant The Lost Kitchen in rural Maine."
"Co-owned a restaurant in the town of Belfast with her husband; a very tumultuous relationship ended with him changing the locks on the building with all of her equipment inside."
"She licked her wounds, leased space in an old mill building in her tiny hometown of Freedom, and built from the ground one of the best restaurants in the country, with a coveted reservation that is fabled for its difficulty to get a table. Has her own multi-season documentary on TV and is absolutely killing it in the culinary world now."
– Girhinomofe
A Toy Story
"George Lucas got the ownership of the toy rights to star wars because they don’t think it would be successful. He made an absolute killing on those."
– Birds-aint-real-
"Not just the toy rights, he got the entire IP in exchange for waiving is salary."
– xdert
Lamborghini Origin Story
"Italian industrialist, builder of tractors, made a mint out of it and rewarded himself with a new Ferrari."
"Ferrari broke down. Needed a new clutch. Wealthy industrialist waited patiently for his new clutch to arrive, and after many weeks it finally showed up - same clutch he was putting in his tractors, more than twice the price."
"A little bit annoyed at this, he rang Ferrari to complain. They told him 'go back to building tractors, leave supercars to us.'"
"And Lamborghini was born..."
– RaffiaWorkBase
Gaming Victory
"Sony and Nintendo were working on a console together before the N64 came out, intending to utilize Nintendo's gaming hardware combined with Sony's sound tech to create games with more immersive sound capabilities than have been seen before. Partway through development and immediately following Sony's announcement of their partnership, Nintendo backed out of the deal, which if you're not aware of Japanese business etiquette, is kind of a d*ck move."
"Nintendo backed out to work with Philips to put Nintendo games on the CDi, which resulted in the worst-received Nintendo games of all time."
"Sony, out of spite, went on to make the PlayStation, one of the best-selling consoles in gaming history, and cement themselves as a massive player in the console wars to this day."
– Critical-String8774
Be Kind And Rewind
"Blockbuster laughed baby Netflix out of the room with their idea. Then later, grown-up Netflix killed blockbuster."
– ChurroForSure-o
"Best thing for Netflix, really. Blockbuster would have driven themselves and the Netflix rent model out of business through mismanagement."
"I don't know about you, but I can't live in a world without Voltron: Legendary Defender."
– Tobias_Atwood
So what's the moral of the story?
Basically, always be kind and never make anyone feel less than they deserve. You never know what the future brings, and you putting down someone for your own fleeting gain will come back to haunt you.
Also, remember that karma works in mysterious ways.
Redditor Cyber_Optics05 wanted to discuss all the reasons friends tend to go their separate ways, so they asked:
"What kicked off the end of a friend group?"
Just life.
That's how my groups have disbanded.
It happens.
Vanished
GIF by VPROGiphy"Two of us got in relationships and just... vanished. I get it, the honeymoon period is a hell of a drug, but it hurts to know that some people are one good date away from forgetting they have friends."
Schroedingersrabbit
Goodbyes
"They all died, within a month. To be clear, they were all older guys, 68, 74, and 89 (I was about 50). Group of friends I had in my building, we'd have coffee every day and watch a few sitcoms, and chat."
"Fred died first, which was sad, but the dude was nearly 90. Then Terry died, he had a couple of chronic conditions, and a chemo treatment messed everything up. And then a couple weeks Dave died, from complications caused by Complex Regional Pain Disorder. For him, death was a mercy."
Squigglepig52
Pasted
"The friend who was the 'glue' of the group moved to the other coast and one of the couples broke up the same weekend. I tried to invite the old gang to a birthday party and the only one who showed up was the one who moved."
Evening-Ambition-406
"That’s similar to what’s happening with my friend group. I was the glue, but now I’ve gotten too busy to be able to hang out, so it all kind of just fell apart. The few times I show up to lunch no one says anything."
Dry_Cell560
Being Fair
"In the middle of that right now. Used to play video games several nights a week, DND every other week, and meet up to hang out on a regular basis. Then he met someone, and he just started bailing on everything and has now moved in with them after 4 months. Never even made an effort to introduce us to the new person. I've just got to accept that he's happy, and I'm glad for that, but I'm also not willing to put in the effort for no return, and that's also fair."
karnim
New Chapters
Jump Yes GIF by Valparaiso UniversityGiphy"Grad school finished and we all scattered."
whywasthatagoodidea
"Grad school was the last time it was easy to make friends. Now in the adulting world and it all sucks. Especially if you don't have kids and that's the main way adults seem to pair up is having kids involved in things where you meet other parents."
growling_owl
The school days are over.
Then so is the love.
Drama
joan collins march GIFGiphy"One of us broke up my sister's marriage and started immediately dating her after she kicked her husband out. And they tried to act like nothing happened."
darthurface
Money Changes Everything
"They all got rich. I did not."
Dudian613
"I remember as a kid version I very specifically drifted away from my high school friend group because all my friends at the time were super smart and successful and I was on a straight shot to community college (loved community college no hate just as a teenager at the time it's hard to see the value over the flashier universities)."
Sad_Quote1522
Blown Apart
"One friend started dating one of the other friend's ex. Blew apart a 35+ year friendship we had between four of us since grade school. We all live within 2 miles of each other, but none of us have talked to any of the others in over 25 years."
wyoflyboy68
"I need to point out that the only person to ruin anything is the friend whose ex started dating one of the group. they were not together and you can't fault love. because they got all up in their feelings doesn't mean the other person did something wrong."
glucoseintolerant
The Great Upheaval
"COVID wrecked a lot of my social life. We had a weekly game night and weekly trivia night and a few other semi-regular events and none of them have come back."
"A lot of my friends have gotten married or started families over the pandemic so it's possible that maybe this was going to happen anyway, but it sucks to go from a pretty thriving social routine to nothing. I still have friends and we still do things together but I miss the regularity we used to have."
Badloss
The Next Generation
Playing Happy Children GIF by MOODMANGiphy"Kids. One of the couples got pregnant and within a couple of months, it basically went from 12-15 of us down to 4. Can’t complain though. The 4 of us are living much better lives now."
BigOgre2010
Kids ruin everything.
Get a dog.
They adapt to friends better.
Kidding, of course!
Have you ever experienced a friend group falling apart? Let us know in the comments.
