Corporate HR gone awry … Microsoft bans photos of dogs

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.