Before you break a rule, find out why it exists. Some rules are scar tissue from somebody else’s mistake.

Most rules that look arbitrary were written after something went wrong. Somebody got hurt, something got stolen, or a day collapsed, and the rule is what remains of that afternoon. That does not make every rule worth keeping, but a rule you do not understand is probably guarding against something you have not seen yet.

Ask whoever enforces it what happened, which is a more useful question than arguing about fairness. At a job, ask whoever has been there longest. Once you know the reason you can judge it properly, and you will sometimes find the rule has outlived the accident that produced it.