[JPnyc]

Brad went to the heart of this issue. Being excessively pedantic about relatively meaningless rules (quite often) is not only counterproductive, it's just plain stupid. As a manager or executive, what is your objective? It makes absolutely no difference what field you're in, your objective is always to get the most out of the people who answer to you as possible.

Be concerned with one thing, and one thing only, when managing others. Do they do their job well, meet deadlines, produce quality work, work well with the other members of your team, and are they dependable. That's it. The only rules that matter should be ones that will sacrifice some of the above-mentioned characteristics, or place them in jeopardy.

For example, if you have a user who insists on logging in to a secure site from a public computer, well that's a problem.

The other side of the issue is, if you want to be that pedantic and inflexible about your rules, you better have a pay scale that is proportional to those demands, if you intend to keep quality people. If you're a public company, your stockholders would probably appreciate if your employees perquisites numbered a little higher, and their salary numbered a little lower.