I heard of a “policy” today at a credit union (not mine) and it got me thinking about how these crazy rules come to fruition.
Is it a cost savings driving the insanity? Or a lack of trust? Just plain mean? Here are the top five that come to mind as kinda dumb. Feel free to add yours.
1. Not buying a new employee the corporate logo shirt until after they have completed their 90 day (we’re not allowed to call it probationary anymore) waiting period.
2. Not allowing tellers to receive emails except internally. Everyone else in the CU can get external emails.
3. Making new employees wait a year until they can take any paid vacation.
4. Giving more vacation the longer you stay. Here’s why I hate this one. You are usually upper management by the time you earn your 5 weeks and two things happen: 1. you don’t feel like you can take that much time off – nor should you in those positions and 2. you end up forfeiting (losing) many weeks and it makes you bitter.
5. My personal favorite. If a teller is out of balance more than three times in a 30 day period they are fired. That was the policy at my first job.
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December 21, 2011 at 4:37 am
Julie Ferguson
An IT policy that blocks LinkedIn and other important social networking sites from business development staff. They sit there using their phones to look things up because there is a big red X on their monitor. It’s their job to network!
December 21, 2011 at 9:36 am
Denise Wymore
Julie – so true. I had to beg for full access when I first got here. We’re slowly coming around.
December 21, 2011 at 6:33 am
Ondine
Here’s mine- how do you expect employees to “sell” the credit union credit card, when he/she may not “qualify” for one? Why can tellers handle thousands of dollars in a cash drawer, but we fail to give credit challenged staff a $500 credit line- especially with direct deposit?
December 21, 2011 at 9:37 am
Denise Wymore
Good point Ondine!
We have become so conservative in our lending policies it’s almost like “if you want credit, you must first prove you don’t need it.”
December 21, 2011 at 6:51 am
Glenn Coble
It’s a bit petty but my CU won’t pay my mileage to a business golf outing (I’m not fond of golf anyway and only attend 4-5 a year)… I guess I’m having too much fun at the outing so it’s a penalty for enjoying myself.
The one that really grabs my butt is a rule my compliance officer (the need to have one pisses me off) told me recently that I had to adhere to. Apparently now if we have a radio spot longer than 15 seconds we have to tag it crediting NCUA some how for their support. We might as well write only 15 second spots because the tag will take up th rest of the time.
It is this type of needless CYAing that has led to speed talking announcers that one can’t understand or endless, useless dripple at the bottom of our TV screens that even on a HD 50″ screen one can’t read.