In the “another reason to work at a start-up” category, Microsoft has an official HR policy that no photos or paintings of dogs can be displayed in its office. The reason? Apparently, a small number of people (humans) are so sacred of dogs (canines) that they freak-out when they even see a photo of a dog.
While I wasn’t able to confirm that this is a world-wide policy at Microsoft, it certainly is the policy of their Mountain View campus.
In more corporate HR craziness: A person I met at IBM printed the hobbies of the members of his team on their business cards. This was a huge hit among the employees and among the people they met … and it increased moral for no cost to the company. A really great out-of-the-box idea … until corporate HR got a hold of it and made him shred all the business cards.