> Since these policies so rarely help improve or ship features, it’s just an ever-increasing source of productivity loss from the perspective of someone who wants to get stuff done. When internal politics are complained about, this is typically the root cause.

"Why do I have to fill in this mountain of paperwork, in triplicate, just to get permission to do this basic activity that is an essential part of my job, and hence the permission being granted is a foregone conclusion anyway?"

"Eleven years ago a guy named Bob tried something similar and screwed up terribly."

"But not the same?"

"No, but similar. So anyway now we have a 'process' to make sure nothing like that will ever happen again."

"Is Bob liable to make the same mistake?"

"Oh no, he's learned his lesson. Also, he was fired a year later, so he's not around anyway."

"So, has anyone made the same mistake since?"

"No."

"Do you think I'll make the same mistake?"

"I don't believe so, no."

"So why do I have to fill out the paperwork to avoid making a mistake we all know I won't make, especially now that I've been made aware of it."

"Just in case."

"Just in case, what?"

"Well, how do we know that you won't make mistakes? We have to have proof, some sort of written evidence."

"But you can't prove ahead of time that people won't make mistakes! People don't make mistakes on purpose, so no amount of paperwork will ever stop mistakes happening."

"You're just being argumentative now. You're not special, everyone has to do the paperwork."

"Why everyone? You just said only Bob ever made the mistake!"

"HR told us that we can't make rules just for Bob, so everyone has to follow the same rules. That's fair."

"But you don't need the paperwork any more, you got rid of Bob!"

"Yes, but the process has been established, it would take a lot of time and effort -- and paperwork -- to change it now."

"It's less than making everyone jump through unnecessary hoops just to do their jobs!"

"Maybe, but I'm very busy. Back-to-back meetings to discuss important matters, like how several staff are behind on their paperwork and may need to be disciplined."

etc, etc, etc...

I've had conversations like that -- nearly verbatim -- at several organisations in contexts such as:

"Why does it take four weeks to add a firewall rule?"

and:

"Why is the minimum permitted change turnaround time two months?"

and:

"Why can't person responsible for system X have access to said system X?"