Among the worst rules listed:
Dumb rules for performance reviews – There’s no bigger waste of time, and no easier way to insult a great employee than making them fill out these “rate yourself from 1 to 5” reviews. If managers and companies actually cared, they would know the answers and act accordingly. I’ve never met a manager that enjoyed these types of reviews, and I’ve never met a fellow employee that didn’t cringe when it came time to fill them out. This is particularly annoying if you work for a company that is having financial difficulties and you know damn well you aren’t going to get a raise anyway, or they’ve already pre-determined that you’re getting the standard 3% raise no matter how great you are.

Dumb rules for approval – What is the point of trying to hire the best and brightest employees, and then not letting them do their job without you hand-holding and looking over their shoulder at every little thing they do? Why would they tell someone they needed a real go-getter who doesn’t need a lot of supervision, and someone they could trust to get the job done… then not trust them to get the job done? It’s insane.

How stupid would I be to hire the brightest minds in our business and then tell them what to do?
—Steve Jobs, Founder/CEO of Apple

I worked for a company that would not allow a single piece of work go through to completion without reviews by committees of managers and the CEO himself. Yes, the CEO actually had to approve EVERY LITTLE project. I had a 2-inch by half-inch white sticker with 8 words in black Helvetica type (a legal disclaimer) that had to be added to the bottom of product boxes sold in California. There was no debate about the wording—it came straight from the legal department and I copy/pasted it. It took me about 45-seconds to create it, make a PDF proof and send it to the appropriate project manager. It took two weeks to get through the approval process because the management team “didn’t have time” to talk about it in their weekly meetings.

Dumb rules for onsite attendance – It’s 2017. We have our own computers, and they’re usually much more powerful than the cheap crap companies try to get by with. We also have high-speed Internet, and it’s almost always much faster than the company Internet connection because it isn’t being shared by dozens if not hundreds of employees and network servers. You’re paying us well, and treating us decent… so why won’t you let us work from home a few days per week? I’ll tell you why. Because the people in charge are old school “We need to get our money’s worth out of you and the only way we can make sure we are is by seeing you sitting at a desk.”

So you need to be home to let the repair guy in to my house for what will probably be an hour of work. The problem is that he doesn’t know exactly when he’ll be at the house… sometime between noon and 3pm he says. If I’m allowed to work from home, I can spend all but the 5 minutes it takes to let him in and explain the problem GETTING WORK DONE. But no… you need to take an entire day off, putting everyone else behind waiting for you to return to work the next day to get what they need from you. Brilliant. That’s getting their money’s worth, alright.

I’ve heard these same stories from numerous friends working for companies of all sizes. The one constant is management/owner mentality that they need to see an employee in order to believe they’re working. Studies have shown that people are happier, and almost always more productive working from home, I have no idea why owners refuse to buy into it.

The dumb rule missing from the list
You’re always going to find somebody that abuses a work from home policy, it’s unavoidable. But that brings me to a dumb rule that’s not on the list in that article.

The “no cause” clause that companies refuse to follow. In most professional companies, you sign some sort of agreement saying you’ve read the employee handbook and accept the rules stated. One of those rules is always “you can be fired for no cause.” So if you have an employee that isn’t performing, and/or abusing the work from home policy, WHY DON’T YOU JUST FIRE THEM??? Why must the rest of us suffer through months and months of “we need to build a case to get rid of him” time? It’s insulting to good employees—putting unnecessary stress on them—and it’s doing more harm to the company than any worry of lawsuits.

Image courtesy of FreePik.

Do NOT show a client any logo design that you don’t really love.

This is the most important rule. Many years ago I had this stupid idea that I would “show the cool logo” along with “two crappy logos to make the one I like look even better.” The problem is, the client almost always chooses one of the crappy logos and then I’m stuck using it. Never ever, ever, EVER show a client a logo you don’t love!

Show the logos in black & white ONLY.

I explain that we will work on colors only AFTER the final design is approved. The reason is simple, you don’t want to give them yet one more thing to focus on. The client WILL spend a ridiculous amount of time just thinking about the color scheme instead of what they should be thinking about, which is how well the logo conveys their brand/image. Also, with little exception, 60-80% of the clients work will probably be in black & white or one color, so it needs to look good in black & white. And when I say black & white, I mean BLACK and WHITE, no gradients or tints.

I ALWAYS design my logos in Adobe Illustrator.

Any logo, even one for a Web site, needs to be scaled for different use. Designing a logo in Photoshop leaves you with a ceiling you may not be able to live with later on. Designing your logo in Illustrator also allows you to “break it apart” and use the pieces in other aspects of the client’s work. It gives you flexibility in how it’s used (outdoor, ads, multi-media, etc.) and keeps it easy to edit later.

Go straight to the top.

Never accept a logo design job where a committee of 10 people must approve the design. You’ll end up taking a great logo and turning it into a giant puddle of monkey piss in a matter of hours trying to please 10 people. Find out who the decision maker is and work ONLY with them. If there is no single decision maker, then don’t accept the job! You’ll thank yourself for it later!

Make sure the logo works at ridiculously small sizes.

This goes along with the black & white rule. Clients will use that logo on all sorts of things, including imprinting it on a pen. The logo must work at a small size! You might also consider how it will work in a tall skinny ad, a square ad and a wide ad layout. Is it easy to fit into the “flow?”

Avoid using filters, effects and other gimmicks.

A logo is a big investment for a company. Creating a trendy/gimmicky logo will result in it looking outdated and cheap next year.

Create simple artwork.

Don’t get too complex with the design or the way you build it. Don’t use more than two fonts and one single graphic image. A logo that is too complex serves to do nothing but dilute the brand and look horrible at small sizes.

Create offspring.

OK, not THAT way! Once you have a design you like, check to see if there’s a way to use only part of the logo. The Coca-Cola logo is a perfect example. You can use the scripted type, but you can also just use the ribbon design and people still know it’s Coca-Cola, even though it doesn’t say it. Apple Computer is another great example. Apple stopped putting the word “Apple” with the logo years ago, yet you still know it’s Apple. You might also want to create a horizontal and vertical version of the logo to give you and your client a little more flexibility.

My final bit of advice is to think ahead.

Don’t design a logo that looks cool on a blank piece of paper. Your client most likely will want to use it in ads, in TV commercials, on banners, billboards and even on a truck. Design a logo that “works” with a lot of different end-uses. Make sure the logo is balanced. Does it work well at the bottom of an ad, regardless of whether it’s in the lower left, centered or lower right? Does it look good with a Web address centered below it? Does it work on a dark background? Will it look good on a coffee mug? Of course rules are made to be broken. You’re the designer, you make the rules. But you have to assume the worst, look at all possibilities and put yourself in the mindset of the client. While you may not end up with an award-winning logo every time, you will have a happy client and, hopefully, a very nice logo.