Crazy requests managers can legally ask staff to do

Spurred on by a recent legal query, two HR bloggers have put together an amusing list of legalities for the workplaces.

BY HRM 01 Nov 2013

Two popular HR bloggers have joined forces to create a list of the amusing things employers are legally allowed to do.

Ask a Manager blogger, Alison Green, and Evil HR Lady, Suzanne Lucas, were spurred to action after Green was asked whether it’s legal for an employer to make an employee clean up rat poo. While initially tempted to put together a book on fake employment laws people think exist, they conceded they were “too lazy” and put together a blog post on the amusing things employers can legally do.

The legalities listed come from issues the two American’s have answer in the last combined 13 years of blogging (seven for Lucas and six for Green).

Here is a selection:

It’s legal for your manager to try to make you feel guilty about not coming in on the weekend
It’s legal for your manager to make you clean up rat poo
It’s legal for your company to prohibit you from talking at work with your co-worker who happens to be your husband
It’s legal for your company to ask you to distribute personal mail to employees who have it sent to your office
It’s legal for your company to ban fish from being cooked in the office microwave
It’s legal for your co-worker to refuse to speak to you
It’s legal for your boss to ask you to pick up his lunch, even though it’s not in your job description
It’s legal for your manager to yell
It’s legal for your boss to require you to read a self-help book and test you on it
It’s legal to be sent home because you’re in a bad mood because the windshield of your car was smashed
It’s legal to ban sugary foods from the office
It’s legal to ban gambling at the office
It’s legal to Google your co-workers’
It’s legal to ask someone if they speak English.
It’s legal to be a jerk.
It’s legal to fire someone for being a jerk.