Work-to-rule: a guide

A short guide to working to rule - taking industrial action without losing pay by following your work's rules so strictly that nothing gets done. Instead of striking, workers with demands that the bosses are unwilling to meet can collectively decide to start a work-to-rule.

Almost every job is covered by a maze of rules, regulations, standing orders, and so on, many of them completely unworkable and generally ignored. Workers often violate orders, resort to their own techniques of doing things, and disregard lines of authority simply to meet the goals of the company. 

There is often a tacit understanding, even by the managers whose job it is to enforce the rules that these shortcuts must be taken in order to meet targets on time. Of course, every bridge was so inspected, every crew was so consulted, and none of the trains ran on time.

In order to gain certain demands without losing their jobs, the workers strictly observed the rule that all mail must be weighed to see if the proper postage was affixed. Formerly they had passed without weighing all those letters and parcels which were thus living up to the spirit of the regulation but not to its exact wording.