Each individual measure may make sense in isolation, but just like with any long-lived project, the sum total of all of them can absolutely still add up to absurdity.
The next day the CTO called me into his office and said he should have me fired right then and there for violating security protocols. I explained what had happened but he didn't care because it looked bad for him. Apparently I should have had someone call security to escort me back to my desk.
Two months later they started construction on the room I was in to provide a path to an exit that didn't go through the main office. To use the bathroom I had to go through that exit and leave the building, walk outside to the main entrance and use the "non-secure" bathroom and then be escorted back to my desk through the office.
the windowless rooms and sterile environment are actually not much different from commercial telecom stuff, like if you meet a person who works for an ILEC and has a desk in a CO.
stick your cellphone in the little shelf box outside the entrance to the secured area, pick it up when you leave, etc.
Maybe this is unfair and what seem to be failures are actually by design. Maybe the soul crushing environment is a necessary condition to be in the right frame of mind to inhibit ethical analysis and implement DoD policy.
GTFO.