有两套相互影响的菜单是不是很好？

I was told to fix an existing project built using flat PHP, HTML, and Javascript.

it has 2 different sets of menu (left menu bar and top menu bar). both look like this:

<ul>
<li<? if(basename($_SERVER['PHP_SELF'],'.php') == 'employee' && $_GET['act'] == 'dept'){?> class="bold"<? }?>>
    <span><a class="fontMainMenu" href="<? echo 'employee.php?act=dept';?>">dept</a></span>
</li>
<li<? if(basename($_SERVER['PHP_SELF'],'.php') == 'employee' && $_GET['act'] == 'peronal'){?> class="bold"<? }?>>
    <span><a class="fontMainMenu" href="<? echo 'employee.php?act=personal';?>">personal</a></span>
</li>

this is part of the .css file included in the code:

.fontMainMenu{
    font-family:"Comic Sans MS";
    font-size:12px;
    color:#007F00;
    text-transform:lowercase;   
}
.bold{
    font-weight:bold;
    letter-spacing:3px;
}

the problem is : when I choose the DEPT menu from the top menubar, the left menubar's active (bold) menu was also changed to DEPT.

my question is : is it really OK to have 2 sets of menus that affects each other?

personally, I find it weird but I'm trying to avoid making such big changes in the code. I've tried googling it but I haven't found an answer to this question..

sorry for my bad english. it's not my first language

EDIT: the top and left menubars are not 100% identical. but they affect each other

Ideally it is an overhead on page layout to having two same menubar. But, In some cases it is based on requirement. If your requirement is such like that then it will be okay to have two menus.

This isn't really a code question, right?

For usablilty you can use sites like https://usabilityhub.com/ and http://www.trymyui.com/ test the usability of your menu.

The same menu twice does seem a bit odd, especially if you can utilise that space for sub menus or something better?

The code looks a bit clunky so I put together a quick example of how you might want to move forward with your site. Happy to receive criticism.

<?php
  $arrMenu = array(
    "employee" => array(
      "dept" => array(
        "dept a" => "dept_a.php",
        "dept b" => "dept_b.php",
        "dept c" => "dept_c.php",
        "dept d" => "dept_d.php",
        ),
      "personal" => array(
        "profile" => "profile.php",
        "account" => "account.php",
        "history" => "history.php",
        ),
      ),
    );
  $strTopMenuHTML = "";
  $strSideMenuHTML = "";
  $strFile = basename($_SERVER['PHP_SELF'],'.php');
  foreach ($arrMenu as $strFileName => $arrFile)
  {
    foreach ($arrFile as $strTopMenuLabel => $arrSideMenu)
    {
      $strTopBold = "";
      if ($strPage == $strFileName)
        $strTopBold = " class=\"bold\"";
      // I like to put the code into a sting but you can disect it and expose it in HTML mode if you like
      $strTopMenuHTML .= "     <li".$strTopBold.">
";
      $strTopMenuHTML .= "       <span><a class=\"fontMainMenu\" href='".$strFileName.".php?act=".$strTopMenuLabel."'>".$strTopMenuLabel."</a></span>
";
      $strTopMenuHTML .= "     </li>
";
      foreach ($arrSideMenu as $strSideMenuLabel => $strLocation)
      {
        $strSideBold = "";
        if ($strPage == $strFileName && $_GET["act"] == $strSideMenuLabel)
          $strSideBold = " class=\"bold\"";
        $strSideMenuHTML .= "     <li".$strSideBold.">
";
        $strSideMenuHTML .= "       <span><a class=\"fontMainMenu\" href='".$strFileName.".php?act=".$strSideMenuLabel."'>".$strSideMenuLabel."</a></span>
";
        $strSideMenuHTML .= "     </li>
";
      }
    }
  }
?>
  <div id="container">
    <div id="top_menu">
      <ul>
<?php
        echo $strTopMenuHTML;
?>
      </ul>
    </div>
    <div id="side_menu">
      <ul>
<?php
        echo $strSideMenuHTML;
?>
      </ul>
    </div>
  </div>

Hope this helps you.