Enforcement by Software
&gt; Surprisingly, it appears that no other department has been routing around the damage that is this new tool.<p>I recommend a different strategy when you encounter annoying processes like this—insist upon following these processes, to the letter, and going through appropriate channels until the system collapses under its own weight.<p>For example—a place I used to work had an internet filter that was too restrictive. Rather than admit that the internet filter was poorly designed and never should have been put in place, the bureaucracy provided us with a form to fill out to unblock web sites when we were blocked from visiting something necessary for work.<p>You could obviously try to work around the filter, and some did. If they were blocked, they tried a different site or filled out the form, and just tried to get work done the best they could. This was, in my opinion, a mistake. Fight bureaucracy with bureaucracy. People started filling out forms every single time they tried to access a website for work that was blocked. Not just once per site, but every time they wanted to access a site they’d fill out the form. The IT department got a thick stack of forms to sort through every single day, and the entire web filter was scrapped not too long after.<p>“Silently routing around bureaucracy” is a good plan if what you’re doing has some real importance to it. But if you want to solve bureaucracy long-term, make it painful for everyone.<p>The other danger with routing around bureaucracy is that when something goes wrong, you end up dangerously exposed because you can’t CYA properly if you’re routing around bureaucracy. If you route around bureaucracy and shit goes south, bureaucracy wins and you take the blame.