Some policies are so bad that they don’t even last through one busy weekend.

Imagine you worked at a library that suddenly wanted you to print a paper receipt for every customer, even if they didn’t want one. What would you do? Would you continue using your own judgment? Or would you follow the policy as written?

In the following story, one librarian finds herself in this situation and starts following the new policy immediately. Here’s what happened.

The memo said we must give a printed receipt for EVERY library checkout, so I did, until we ran out of paper

I work at a public library and most days are calm, even when it’s busy.

Last month, someone higher up sent out a shiny new “accountability” memo that said every single checkout must include a printed receipt. No exceptions, no asking the patron, no email option unless they request it after you print.

The memo literally said it reduces disputes, and if a patron refuses the paper, you still print it and discard it yourself for “audit consistency.” We all kinda rolled our eyes, but I decided, fine, I will follow it exactly because I am not getting blamed later.

Before the day was over, they ran out of paper.

The next Saturday, we had a line out the door: strollers, seniors, kids, everyone, and I printed a receipt for every checkout, even when people said, “No thanks.” I didn’t speed print either, because the policy also said to highlight due dates and verbally confirm them, so I did that too, every time.

One guy checked out 47 items for a book club donation sort, so I printed two full pages of receipts, highlighted, confirmed, stapled, and then put the duplicate copy in the “audit tray” like the instructions told us.

Another patron asked why I was throwing paper straight into recycling, and I just said, “New rules, sorry,” because I wasn’t gonna editorialize.

By noon, we had burned through two rolls of thermal paper, and the printer started doing that faint stripe thing, which means it’s about to jam and need a reboot. So I logged a supply request and kept printing anyway, because the memo didn’t say to pause for “common sense.”

It didn’t take long for them to change the policy.

The line got slower, people got cranky, and we ran out of paper completely, which meant we couldn’t check anything out at all because the receipt screen blocks the checkout until it prints.

The fallout was immediate: the children’s librarian had to cancel a storytime giveaway, the holds shelf was overflowing, and the director got a call from the city office because someone complained they drove 30 minutes and couldn’t borrow books because “the printer was empty.”

Monday morning, we received a follow-up email stating that receipts are now optional again and that “please be mindful of waste.” I kept the original memo in my drawer, just in case they forget how we got here.

Yikes! What a ridiculous policy.

Let’s check out what the people over at Reddit think about the story.

This is interesting.

You sure do.

Wow! The nerve!

According to this person, the policy writer has never been public-facing.

That’s the best thing to do, because bad policies usually expose themselves pretty quickly.

If you liked that story, check out this post about a group of employees who got together and why working from home was a good financial decision.