Most rules should be followed as strictly as possible, but you do have to read the room sometimes when you can tell people are not upset about the rules. At Walgreens, we are supposed to offer everyone credit cards to sell, and when that happens, there are some people that arrive angry and you have to make sure they get out as fast as possible. Conversely, sometimes breaking the rules is like admitting that we left a deal up for too long and we have to go back, see if the tag is still up, check it, and give them the coupon reward price. Another time when it is good to break the rules is when you have to prioritize stuff over the current task and get that done fast, then do the current, get that done fast because it would take like 10-20 minutes. If you don't do that over your current task, food would be spoiled, or your current task won't take that long in hindsight. You have to know when you can carefully break the rules so you can do other stuff in a nice, safe manner.