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Business English vocabulary · Working Life

Work to rule

Meaning in business english, with examples

phraseAdvanced term

In business english, work to rule means: To work strictly within required rules and duties, often as a form of industrial protest.

In Turkish: yalnızca kuralların gerektirdiği kadar çalışmak

How it is used

Used in industrial relations. Staff continue required work rather than stopping altogether; the effect depends on how much operations rely on extra effort.

Example sentences

  1. Staff voted to work to rule and stopped volunteering for tasks outside their agreed duties.

    The protest limits extra cooperation while normal duties continue.

  2. When employees work to rule, informal shortcuts that usually speed up service may disappear.

    Strict adherence reveals the operation's dependence on informal flexibility.

Common collocations

  • decide to work to rule
  • continue to work to rule
  • overtimeTime worked beyond your normal working hours, or the extra money paid for that time.
  • company policyAn official rule or set of rules that guides how employees should act in particular situations at work.

More terms: Working Life

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