During a college summer break, I had a job drilling water wells. Once, another guy and I had to go to Dow Chemical to hook up the pump for a new well. We got the wires connected but union rules prevented us from turning on the switch to test the pump. So, an electrician had to come out to throw the switch. After the test, the pump was not to remain on, and neither we, nor the electrician who could flip the switch on, could turn it off. So, we needed a second electrician who was union certified to turn off the switch off. The pump housing contained a small pipe to divert condensation away from the motor. The pipe was uninvolved in the test, but a pipe-fitter had to be at the scene anyway. Union regulations stipulated that members had to work in pairs, so we actually had two electricians to turn the switch on, two to turn it off, and two pipe-fitters. The size of the crew required the presence of a foreman. They also needed a van and van driver to transport these "workers" to the site. There you have it, eight employees, probably and hour to assemble everyone, get to the pump, test the switch, and return to another assignment. All for something I could have done myself in less than a minute. UFB.
Like the time I was in graduate school, and we (accidentally, I swear) shorted out the electric service to our lab. Well, nearly all the flourescent tubes blew, so we were sitting around in the dark (our usual state of being, BTW). My advisor wanted to know why we weren't changing the light bulbs ourselves...
That was months after the organic division people in the lab above ours had had a slight water leak. They rained overnight into our lab in the basement. So we show up one morning to see our instruments adrift at sea. Okay, we (the other grad student and I) get a mop and start swabbing. Oh! You'd think I was taking lollipops from babies, to hear Facilities crying over us mopping our own floor...