In one company where I worked, was surprised to find not one but two folks walk onto the flight deck in FCO one day, with boarding pass in hand, marked 'obs cockpit seat'.
When I asked just why, they both replied...'well, there wern't any cabin seats left, and the very nice station supervisor guy said it would be alright'....whereupon they plopped their backsides down and tried to buckle their seat belts..without much success.
Borrowed the loadsheet guys celphone and called the station manager, and he mentioned...a new directive from CMB.
Asked the station manager (quite a nice guy actually) to book me a ticket to PHX via LHR if this nonsense was to continue...and oh yes, I want to leave 'today'.
After a very long pause, said station manager mentioned...'ah Captain, this directive from CMB has now been permanently recinded'.
We left with the two on the obs seats, because he said... 'please, i'm in a bind here, bigtime'.
An absolutely true story.