Have you ever worked in the Her Majesty's Civil Service? As an external you can't even go to the loo without an escort or signed pass.

Mundane, draconian bureaucracy is about as British as beans on toast. HMSC is just keeping the time honoured tradition alive.

I’ve been to a lot of .gov offices in the US.

It’s always surprising to me. The most intense over the top security process I ever ran into was an agency that disbursed grants to artists.

I had to get a pass to go to the bathroom as a guest at a Google office once too.

Both institutions with nation state level security threats.

I've heard worse about Electronic Data Systems (EDS), H. Ross Perot's company.

I got counseled by my boss about my shoes. I worked at a client site. A manufacturing plant. And they wanted me to wear fancy shoes. He also made fun of me for wearing a blazer.

I used to own steel-toed dress shoes. They exist specifically for "wearing fancy shoes" while visiting factories.

When I started with EDS in 1999 it was right after the dress code policy and such changed. I was given a new employee that specified the dress code (IIRC it was jacket whenever away from your desk, certain colors for shirt/tie/socks/shoes), but the only dress code at the time then was "business casual".

Doing onsite IT support for a big car company that meant khakis, a golf-type collared shirt, and boots. I was fine with that.

The key is they're so draconian that they follow the draconian rules even when it defeats them (as in the story here).

So lawful evil in alignment?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alignment_(Dungeons_&_Dragons)...

They might be lawful neutral depending on how strictly they follow the rules that benefit employees.