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People Who Work for You Rules for Your Workers Selecting Your Work Rules Overly Restrictive Work Rules
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PrintOverly Restrictive Work Rules
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.
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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.
