When I worked at Boeing on the 757 gearbox design, at one point the box was put into a test rig to see how it would behave under load. I went out to the shop to in case any questions needed answering.
At one point, a bolt needed turning (don't recall why) and I stepped forward to do it. The shop union steward literally lunged in front of me, arms outstretched, to block me. He informed me that only a union mechanic can turn a bolt, and my job was to tell the mechanic (not the steward) to turn the bolt.
It was ludicrous. Evidently every job required 3 people - an engineer to tell the mechanic what to do, and a union steward to ensure the engineer didn't touch anything. Somehow this crazy system evolved.
It sounds like this is an example of things going too far, but I can totally understand a leader not wanting someone from a different department wrenching.
This bolt was probably inconsequential, but I'm guessing that he had to fill out paperwork enough times where some cowboy from the office fouled up a day's work.
I'm an engineer now, but I used to work on commercial boats. I came up with all sorts of semi-valid reasons to politely tell customers and superiors why they weren't allowed to do things (you can't drive the boat for "insurance reasons"). The real answer was: "I don't know how competent you are. The worst case scenario is that you injure a person or destroy valuable equipment. That probably won't happen, but a 1% chance of losing my job or having to deal with the aftermath is worth stopping you with a technicality."
Um, I worked on the design of that gearbox for two years. I knew it intimately. That's why I was sent to the test.
The test was to see if the box would crack, deform, or snap under the ultimate load. It didn't. But the test rig bent :-) hahahahahahahaha. Math works.
After seeing enough questionable crypto scattered around in code bases written by people who I can only imagine were trying to "demonstrate complexity" for their perf review, I now have half a mind to suggest software engineering have a system whereby only the crypto dev is allowed to write anything relating to crypto.
At one point, a bolt needed turning (don't recall why) and I stepped forward to do it. The shop union steward literally lunged in front of me, arms outstretched, to block me. He informed me that only a union mechanic can turn a bolt, and my job was to tell the mechanic (not the steward) to turn the bolt.
It was ludicrous. Evidently every job required 3 people - an engineer to tell the mechanic what to do, and a union steward to ensure the engineer didn't touch anything. Somehow this crazy system evolved.