Blanket Rules are Illogical Rules – Thoughts from May 28 and 29, 2023

May 28, 2023

Following rules you hear is not the same thing as following rules that are written and documented. Enough said.

May 29, 2023

It was fun to end my Thoughts paper yesterday with “enough said” after one sentence, but I wasn’t actually done. Today, I will finish what I only introduced yesterday. The basic subject was following verbal or written rules. My main personal rule of following verbal rules is only following them if they make sense. If the rule contradicts common sense, I ignore it. I will only follow written rules that make little sense if the writer or enforcer of those rules is present. The problem with verbal rules comes from their lack of authority. Is the rule one made up by the presenter of it or is it a rule that is written? Either way, these rules are usually all-or-nothing statements that don’t address the realities of life. They remove individual decision making in favor of blanket rules.

I see people following blanket rules without a thought to why they are doing so all the time. Asking people why they do nonsensical things at work, they say it was just what they were told to do. I’ve done nothing without knowing why I was doing it. This is mainly due to not being about to carry out a task without fully understanding it. I change my daily routines all the time because I question whether what I’m doing is the best way to do it. Sometimes, I try new ways of doing things and find out the way I was doing it was better. Working for an accountant years ago, she told me she couldn’t distinguish my fives from other numbers and letters. I worked on a new way to make my fives distinct and changed how I wrote fives from then on.

The rule book of my life exists in my head. I created it over years of experience and constantly questioning what I do. Some of these rules include walking on the right side of a path when other people are coming in the opposite direction. We drive on the right side of the road in America, so it’s natural that we walk on the right side. I turn off my lights if I’m parked temporarily at night. This prevents me from blinding people as they walk by my vehicle. I’m always aware of the people around me. If I’m disturbing people around me, I want to know it. Sometimes I do it on purpose, but not usually. They are mainly courtesy rules preventing me from being rude to others. When I see other people who don’t have the same rules in their head, I consider them rude.

You may think my attitude toward illogical rules would make me a rebel. That’s not really true. I would be a rebel if I disagreed with all rules. Rebels look for rules to disagree with. They crave people challenging them on their behavior. When you tell them what to do, they question your authority no matter what the rule is. I agree with most rules because they establish the rules for a reason. If that reason is sound, I don’t question it. My problem is establishing arbitrary or unnecessary rules. They come about mainly because a manager is “doing something” about an existing problem. Instead of addressing the exact problem, they establish blanket rules to prevent anyone from doing anything that could be a problem. This makes a workplace a sterile and boring place to be. There is a difference between saying inappropriate things and not allowing any conversation that isn’t work related.