- 1依法(按規定)辦事的抗議行動、按章工作；工會的一種怠工手段(只做契約規定內的事，不加班、不多做)
A work-to-rule is a form of protest by workers who do not stop working — they keep working, but do exactly and only what their contract and the official rules require. No overtime. No covering for absent colleagues. No answering emails at night. No little extras that keep the place running smoothly.
The clever, quiet point behind it is this: most workplaces only function because people do more than the rules say. Teachers run clubs after school. Nurses stay late. Train drivers accept extra shifts. When everyone suddenly follows the rulebook to the letter, the whole system slows down or jams — and nobody can be punished, because they are all obeying the rules perfectly. It is a strike you cannot be for.
It is a countable noun ('the union called a work-to-rule'), and also works as an adjective before a noun ('a work-to-rule campaign'). Without , 'work to rule' is the verb phrase: 'the nurses voted to work to rule'.
The term is strongly British and Commonwealth, and belongs to unions, railways, schools, and hospitals. Americans know the idea but tend to say 'rule-book slowdown' or 'blue flu'. It sits in a family with 'go-slow' (deliberately working slowly) and 'strike' (stopping altogether) — a work-to-rule is the mildest of the three, and often the first step.
work-to-rule 是工人的一種抗議方式：大家照常上班，但只做合約和正式規定寫明的事，不加班、不替缺席的同事代班，晚上也不回信。重點在於，大多數工作場所之所以能運作，靠的是大家做了規定以外的事，例如老師放學後帶社團、護理師晚下班、火車司機接額外的班次。當大家突然照規定走，系統就會慢下來甚至卡住，而且沒有人會因為照規定做而受罰，所以它是一種不會因此被開除的罷工。這個詞可以當可數名詞，例如「the union called a work-to-rule」；也可以放在名詞前當形容詞，例如「a work-to-rule campaign」；不加連字號的 work to rule 則是動詞片語，例如「the nurses voted to work to rule」。英式用語較多，美國人懂這個概念，但比較常用別的說法。同一家族還有故意慢慢做的 go-slow，以及完全停工的 strike；三者中，按章工作最溫和，常常是第一步。
From the word’s history
From the verb phrase work to rule.
由片語 work to rule「照規定做事」轉成名詞。
組成Made directly from the phrase 'work to rule' — to work according to the rule. English does this often: it takes a whole verb phrase and freezes it into a noun (a going-over, a run-up, a stand-off).
原始詞典資料2 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
work-to-rulenoun
- 1
A labor protest in which employees do only the minimum work required by the rules of a workplace, following safety or other regulations to the letter in order to cause a slowdown.
work-to-ruleadj
- 1
Of or pertaining to such a protest.
- Disgruntled by chronic staff shortages, doctors threatened a “work-to-rule” action at the East London Hospital Complex by the end of this week.
摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。