'''Basic Trope''': A bureaucrat who likes to help, but has many things to do at the same time.
* '''Straight''': Alice wants to get a weapon, but Bob is busy with his paperwork.
* '''Exaggerated''':
** Every time Alice wants help from Bob, he has a busy schedule to do.
** Bob has been doing the work of 20 Weapons Distributers for the last 40 years and has not have a day off since before he hit puberty.
* '''Downplayed''': Alice gets her weapon, but later than desired because of Bob's paperwork.
* '''Justified''':
** Bob's job is just naturally very busy and stressful, leaving him little time to help the heroes.
** Bob's department is understaffed and Bob is taking on work that really needs four or five people to do efficiently.
** Bob is this overworked because he's the HypercompetentSidekick, the OnlySaneEmployee, or some other character type who is predisposed to having to solve other people's problems.
* '''Inverted''': The VastBureaucracy Bob works for is fortunate to be so well-budgeted and overstaffed that he and his co-workers can afford to spend half their workdays lounging in the office, [[LeaningOnTheFurniture feet-up-on-desks]], and ''still'' get all their work done, on time. When Alice comes to him, he offers her to stay for tea and pancakes since the day's work is already done, but Alice refuses because she's got the world to save.
* '''Subverted''':
** Bob [[ObstructiveBureaucrat doesn't exercise]] any of the low-level rule bending or personal judgement that's ''expected'' of someone in his position—even by the standards of his fellow bureaucrats, who consider him a bit of a [[TheNeidermeyer Neidermeyer]].
** Bob's workload is not normally this massive, but [[AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs staffing issues after an enemy attack]] left him covering for several people while still running in emergency mode. When Alice comes to see him for the permits, she is shocked by the gravity of his situation.
* '''Double Subverted''':
** His fellow bureaucrats, however, are ''also'' beleaguered even when they're more flexible about the letter of the law simply because they're that overwhelmed. Bob's rules-stickling is his (possibly maladaptive) way of getting a grip on his situation without going outright insane.
** The staffing shortage might have been brought about by an emergency, but the situation persists long afterwards and nobody but Alice notices Bob's been left buried in paperwork.
* '''Parodied''': To get to Bob, any people inquiring for his help must either tunnel under literal mountains of paperwork, or climb them with mountaineering equipment.
* '''Zig Zagged''': Staffing levels aren't responsive up or down to current work demand for whatever reason, so Bob might be buried in paperwork or having a nice nap depending on what time of year Alice comes by.
* '''Averted''': When Alice comes to Bob and sees him buried in paperwork, he directs her to the ''backup'' office [[CrazyPrepared set up especially for priority requests]] that Bob can't approve fast enough due to existing workload.
* '''Enforced''': The story has a strong satirical undercurrent concerning [[ObstructiveBureaucrat the over-bureaucratization of society]] and how even the bureaucrats themselves are mistreated and overworked in this kind of situation.
* '''Lampshaded''': ???
* '''Invoked''': Alice's enemies target Bob's department with deliberate sabotage, having identified them as [[AchillesHeel the least-defended path to creating problems for Alice]].
* '''Exploited''': Alice is able to convince Bob to let this 'one little thing' slide by reminding him how much paperwork he has to do.
* '''Defied''': Bob manages his time well enough so he can still help out and get his work done on time.
* '''Discussed''': ???
* '''Conversed''': ???
* '''Deconstructed''': Bob's work as a bureaucrat is not sustainable. He eventually tells the organization to TakeThisJobAndShoveIt, quits - and large parts of the organization immediately collapse due to over-relying on him to be everywhere at once.
* '''Reconstructed''': The organization hurries to fix the hole Bob's resignation caused by temporarily divying out his old responsibilities to Charlie, Daniel, and Erica while Francis from HR studies the problem, but it only allocates enough resources to hire George and Henry because Francis is also overworked and can't do a thorough study of the initial problem with the time he has. This results in only a slightly improved workload situation for George and Henry, enough to keep Bob's department running without immediately breaking down but they're still overworked once they're reassigned the stuff Bob had been working on because Charlie, Daniel, and Erica are also eager to get rid of their temporary responsibilities from Bob's department because ''they're'' also overworked. If Francis had had more time and resources to properly address the problem and convince the higher-ups and Isabelle in accounting (and perhaps if Charlie, Daniel, and Erica had had less stress about their own workload and been able to step back and see the whole picture), Jane and Michael would have also been fast-tracked hired to properly alleviate the workload for everyone.
* '''Played For Laughs''': As Alice walks in the door, she is nearly buried under a literal pile of paper which was lying just outside the door... and has now crashed into similar piles lying all around the floor. This is apparently Bobs workload ''for the day''. When she apologises to Bob, Bob calmly says "sorry, little busy, could you maybe come back later about that weapon? Yes its on the list; ''yes'' I know thats the ultimate weapon needed to defeat [[ItsAllAboutMe Me Me]] [[TheMagnificent the Evil,]] you're only the third person to file a request for an ultimate weapon this week."
* '''Played For Drama''': After Alice quietly and politely files the request for the weapon, Bob tells her sullenly to come back in three days. When Alice says "[[MatterOfLifeAndDeath This is serious!]]" Bob, looking increasingly frazzled as he hears Alice explain the gravity of the situation, with a face that says that this isn't the first request like this he's heard, snaps his pencil, gets out of his chair, upends the desk, and goes on a ten minute rant about how he hasn't slept in two weeks because of trying to get various items out to people who also desperately need them, followed by [[GreenEyedMonster a brief rant about how Alice gets all the promotions/attention/respect for her actions in the field while he's stuck behind a desk all day.]] After this, he storms out, leaving a stunned Alice in his wake, who now needs to formulate a plan as to how she's going to get the weapon she needs quickly.
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Back to BeleagueredBureaucrat, if you can find the link under that pile of papers.
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%% Optional items, added after Conversed, at your discretion:
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%%* '''Implied''': ???
%%* '''Plotted A Good Waste''': ???