I have been battling bureaucracy in the place where I work. It has not been pleasant.
I am gaining a new appreciation for the power of bureaucracy. In particular, for the power of systems that are designed around rules for the sake of saying “see, we have rules”, without regard to the fact that reality does not conform to rules and real people are not interchangeable bodies or countable heads.
Unfortunately, knowing that does not help in battling the bureaucracy. It just helps me be even more motivated to overcome it in the end.