Know the rules inside out and become anally retentive with your self-discipline. Probably will upset the more adventurous guys you fly with but you just have to protect yourself... being caught carrying a coffee in uniform won't get you fired, but it may exacerbate your situation if you have an innocent slip-up doing your job on the line.
No one likes to take the small rules seriously, until they get burned and suddenly they're on their way out.
Meh. Disagree. I didn't take ANY of the small rules seriously...by the end I was breaking as many as possible, probably subconsciously TRYING to get fired. But no one even noticed. So I quit.
I think EK has much, much bigger problems these days than hats and coffee cups...