Thought your office had strange rules? Some of these tales of from the workplace may have you counting your blessings. A thread discussing dumb workplace rules on Reddit attracted nearly 14,000 contributions from disgruntled employees.

Here are a few:

• No cell phone shaped objects in your pockets at work.

• Someone at work sneezed and another one said "Bless You!" A third party heard it and complained to HR about it. Now, “blessing” is not allowed.

• One attorney told how they are not allowed to bring in soda to share with other employees because the office has a vending machine.

• One user, who said they worked for the United States federal government, said staff are not allowed to move their own furniture.

• One office workers shared how they have to wear safety goggles when using a stapler.

• One office doesn't trust its employee with water bottles - possibly because they think they will fill them with alcohol.

1. Send less (and better) e-mail. E-mail follows one law you've probably heard before: You get what you give. If you're sending out dozens of messages, you're going to receive that many back and more. 
2. 
   Filter and Automate. Nearly every e-mail program or service lets you set up some form of automated message filtering. This can be as simple as setting up folders to separate important mail from the clutter.
3. 
   Turn off notifications. One of the biggest e-mail annoyances is notifications. These come from Facebook, Twitter and other social sites.