Indeed. One should refer to the rules when one's in doubt. However, this assumes that everyone in company is equally humble, excellent at communication, and pro

Indeed. One should refer to the rules when one's in doubt. However, this assumes that everyone in company is equally humble, excellent at communication, and proficient at their job. Since most companies are unable to hire that well (maybe it's impossible), no one would admit that rules are not mandatory. This leaves an expert in a complex situation: everyone says you have to follow the rules, but you also know that The Right Thing is not in 100% compliance with them. If you're humble enough, you choose to follow the rules, because—well—you naturally assume that people who wrote these rules are more proficient. Then, after a while, you become very disappointed when you see that you didn't do The Right Thing only because people who hire and make the rules didn't do their job properly. If you choose to break the rules, you wait to get fired. If you don't, that may mean simply that nobody has noticed you. Or maybe they have, but chose not to speak to you about it—you can't tell, but you feel like you're an outlaw. And if you do get fired in the end, you become not so inclined to break the rules from now on (unless you have OP's self-confidence).