History Main / BeleagueredBureaucrat

* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'': Mayor Dewey is revealed to be one in "Political Power". Keeping the citizens of Beach City happy in the face of all the weirdness that goes on thanks to the presence of the Crystal Gems is apparently very stressful.

* Even service and retail jobs like customer service isn't immune to this. It is not uncommon to see a single person trying to help several customers at once due to lack of staff, [[ProfessionalSlacker a lack of coworkers willing to actually help]], or the entire staff being overwhelmed. You either get a worker trying to help as quickly as possible to get to everyone that needs attention or they help one person at a time, which can cause waiting customers to grow impatient. This in turn can get the worker's supervisor to either scold them for doing shoddy work by cutting corners to help everyone quickly or taking too long to help each person.

You get the ObstructiveBureaucrat, who is just being a bit of a jobsworth and stopping something crucial from happening. And then you get the Beleaguered Bureaucrat.

The Beleaguered Bureaucrat would love to help you with your problems... if they weren't dealing with a dozen other equally important (in the bureaucrat's eyes) matters at the same time, usually while being shouted at for not being able to do five things at once. Basically, this is a character who is swamped with too much work whose performance (and stress level) is clearly suffering for it. If it's a main character, expect their stress at this to become a RunningGag. Can become a problem for heroes if they need something done by this character quickly.

The tropes Beleaguered Bureaucrat, DepartmentOfChildDisservices, and SocialServicesDoesNotExist overlap since they all involve the same or similar problems. The employees are often overworked, underpaid, lack resources, and suffer the public’s wrath. They then turn into the ObstructiveBureaucrat and use BotheringByTheBook to slow down the workload or get revenge on the people who make unreasonable demands.

* They will typically be buried, sometimes literally, under waves of red tape and paper work. Online archives either do not exist or are unavailable in some way, so they have to look the info looking in vast physical archives. Expect every comic bureaucrat related trope to be in full force. If on the phone, they will either be talking very quickly or getting yelled at. Bonus points in animation if they are trying to answer two phones at once.

* In ''LightNovel/TheSaintsMagicPowerIsOmnipotent'', King Siegfried is the absolute monarch of the kingdom of Salutania. The entire country is beset by monsters and monster-producing miasma that is rapidly outpacing regular humans' ability to control them; the Saint that is supposed to appear to save them has not, necessitating a risky ancient ritual only meant to be used ''once''; and supplies, industries, and civilian lives are being threatened, bringing the society ever closer to the brink of collapse. This is not even involving the protagonist, Sei, the antics of his first son, Prince Kyle, or the sheer amount of politics and factions he has to navigate and appease to keep everything together for as long as it can.

* Deirdre, the IRS caseworker from Film/EverythingEverywhereAllAtOnce, fits squarely into this category. Though she’s willing to work with the Wangs, she’s also jaded from her many years at the IRS (and Evelyn’s misunderstanding of tax requirements certainly doesn’t help).

* Even service jobs like customer service isn't immune to this. It is not uncommon to see a single person trying to help several customers at once due to lack of staff or the entire staff being overwhelmed. You either get a worker trying to help as quickly as possible to get to everyone that needs attention or they help one person at a time, which can cause waiting customers to grow impatient. This in turn can get the worker's supervisor to either scold them for doing shoddy work by cutting corners to help everyone quickly or taking too long to help each person.

* One of your followers in ''VideoGame/JadeEmpire'' is Zin Bu the Magic Abacus, a [[CelestialBureaucracy Celestial Bureaucrat]] who was assigned to tabulate the player character's karma but couldn't keep up with them and was demoted to commerce, with an entire department replacing him. Now he tries to salvage his career by selling you spirit gems, at a markup.

[[folder:Film -- Live action]]

* [[http://bobadventures.comicgenesis.com/d/20100309.html Legate Zippobic]] the dragon in ''Webcomic/TheInexplicableAdventuresOfBob''.

* They will typically be buried, sometimes literally, under waves of red tape and paper work. Expect every comic bureaucrat related trope to be in full force. If on the phone, they will either be talking very quickly or getting yelled at. Bonus points in animation if they are trying to answer two phones at once.

* ComicBook/IronMan: Tony Stark during his time as the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. had some serious aspects of this. Especially during the Knauf's run. Steve Epting wrote him like this, constantly exhausted and at one or two points thinking about relapsing back into alcohol addiction.

* In ''Fanfic/TheNewRetcons'' Elly Patterson of ''ComicStrip/ForBetterOrForWorse'' goes insane. When family members try to get her committed to get treatment, the law says they can't do it unless the husband gives consent (which John refuses to do cause he thinks it would make him look bad) or unless she becomes a danger to herself or society. [[spoiler: The latter happens when she kidnaps a boy thinking he's Michael's childhood friend.]]

[[folder:Film]]
* This is the source of the troubles of the eponymous protagonist of ''Banana Joe'': Joe has traded in bananas for his village without a license for years, and when the police is informed by the men of the local gangster boss Torsillo (as he has plans on his village and finds more practical to get rid of him with legal means) they ''have'' to impound his boat and cargo until he gets a license and the police chief instructs him ''exactly'' on what to do, even to go to the archbishopric to get a copy of his baptism certificate to get around the lack of a birth certificate keeping him from getting an ID... Except the archbishopric suffered a fire years earlier and they don't have his baptism certificate anymore, and the only other way to get his birth certificate would be to produce the ID he cannot have without a birth certificate.

* Frank Herbert's [[Literature/ConSentiency Jorj X. McKie]] stories. [=McKie=] is a member of the Bureau of Sabotage ([=BuSab=]), whose job it is to make every efficient government worker a BeleagueredBureaucrat, in order to prevent the [=ConSentiency=] government from working too fast and going out of control.
* Ponder Stibbons, of Literature/{{Discworld}}'s Unseen University, is the only wizard who cares much about anything besides his next meal, leaving him saddled with dozens of jobs. This leads him to a mini-[[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome CMOA]] (at least mini by Disc standards) when he interrupts the feuding Archchancellors of two magical universities by saying that his various posts give him enough votes on the University Council to control it.
* The Lamplighter-Marshal in D.M. Cornish's ''Literature/MonsterBloodTattoo'' series is this; it is telling that his first on-screen appearance has him running all about his domain having been sent to the wrong place by a (probably malicious) clerk. Otherwise, however, he's a perfectly ReasonableAuthorityFigure [[spoiler:until he's called away as part of a power-play by his EvilChancellor, who just happens to be a genuine ObstructiveBureaucrat in charge of a legion of {{Obstructive Bureaucrat}}s. Not quite the man you want in charge of what is effectively a military frontier.]]
* [[Literature/DarknessVisible Sir John Busby]] tries his best, but once the proverbial hits the fan, he can't really keep up with the volume of Wardens' reports, and his usual efficiency takes a nose dive.
* In ''ComicBook/TransformersTransTech'', the red-tape-happy [[CityOfAdventure Axiom Nexus]] is full of bureaucrats, including this sort. In "Withered Hope" in particular, the inability of an overworked and underpaid bureaucrat to help the [[WesternAnimation/ChallengeOfTheGoBots GoBots]] (yes, you read that right) find among the thousands of others waiting to be processed through Customs the rogue scientist that escaped from their group, is what sets all their problems in motion.
* The IRS recruiter in Chicago in ''Literature/ThePaleKing''.

* The Hoons, one of several species of {{Obstructive Bureaucrat}}s in the ''Literature/{{Uplift}}'' series, are thoroughly unhappy with their lot in Galactic life. A few centuries ago a group of Hoons decided to ditch their technology and live simple lives as sailors of wooden ships on Jijo. In the second trilogy a young Jijoan Hoon goes back into space to teach his Galactic cousins their way of life, he's treated almost as a messiah.

* Just one of Jim Hacker's many problems in ''Series/YesMinister''. His woes regarding this trope continue in the sequel, ''Series/YesPrimeMinister''.
** Bernard wades into this territory every now and then; the most notable examples are "The Economy Drive," where he is one of the few DAA staffers left after Hacker attempts an ill-considered economy drive, and "A Diplomatic Incident," where he is tasked with the organisation of Hacker's predecessor's funeral.
* In ''Franchise/StarTrek'', [[TheFederation Starfleet Command]] sometimes give the impression of being somewhere between this and ObstructiveBureaucrat.
* The entire point of ''Series/ParksAndRecreation''. Laid out clearly in the Season 2 episode "Christmas Scandal," where the office divides up Leslie Knope's schedule and realizes [[{{Workaholic}} exactly how busy she is]].
** In large part this seems to be why Mark Brendanawicz leaves at the end of season 2.
* Dr. Lisa Cuddy of ''Series/{{House}}'' constantly gives the impression that she has far too much on her plate, and in her ADayInTheLimelight episode "5 to 9," this impression is confirmed with a vengeance, showing that the titular physician, for all the antagonism he gives Cuddy, is only about 50% of her problems.

* The 1970s New Zealand stage show, and later 1980s TV sitcom, ''Series/GlidingOn'' parodied this trope.
* Norman Briggs, the hospital administrator in ''Series/DiagnosisMurder'', initially came across as an ObstructiveBureaucrat, but in later episodes revealed that he genuinely cared about Community General, and was caught between the needs of the hospital and the realities of the economy. In one of his last episodes before being PutOnTheBus, he pulled out all the stops, including some veiled blackmail, to prevent a CorruptCorporateExecutive from buying Community General with the express purpose of closing the hospital.
* On ''Series/GreysAnatomy'' this is the fate of any of the doctors who get promoted to an administrative position. Dr. Webber finally gets to enjoy himself after he steps down as Chief of Surgery. Derek resigns as Chief because he cannot handle the bureaucracy involved. Owen runs himself rugged trying to stop the hospital from closing down due to a lawsuit. Meredith, Cristina and Callie experience this when they become [[spoiler: co-owners of the hospital]] and have to decide which departments and pet projects should get funding. Jackson finds himself on the hospitals board of directors due to {{Nepotism}} and becomes extremely frustrated when the demands of the position prevent him from doing any actual work as a doctor.
* ''Series/LastWeekTonightWithJohnOliver'' has explored this multiple times, most notably regarding the IRS (who, despite [[IntimidatingRevenueService their reputations]] as ObstructiveBureaucrat, are ham-strung by budget cuttings, limited staffing, and rules that change constantly) and with public defenders (who are so overworked and understaffed that they only can meet with defendants for an average of '''seven minutes''').

* One of your followers in ''VideoGame/JadeEmpire'' is Zin Bu the Magic Abacus, a [[CelestialBureaucracy Celestial Bureaucrat]] who was assigned to tabulate the player character's karma but couldn't keep up with them and was demoted to commerce, with an entire department replacing him. Now he tries to salvage his career by selling you spirit gems, at a markup.
* According to the audio logs and emails, most of the administrative employees in ''VideoGame/{{Doom 3}}'' were having a nightmare of a time dealing with the workload in Mars City before Hell invaded, with extended back-to-back shifts that were barely enough to keep up with the incident reports on work-related injuries, disappearing personnel, power deficiencies, equipment breakdowns and bouts of clinical dementia, and that's only on entries directly regarding the reports. One PDA from a dead benefits analyst implies the financial work dealing with the costs of the incidents was a terror unto itself.
* ''VideoGame/MassEffectAndromeda:'' Director of Colonial Affairs Foster Addison, whose plan in Andromeda was to wait a few months for a colony to be set up, bugger off to it and live in blissful isolation and obscurity. Things having gone very wrong since the Initiative arrived in Andromeda means she's second in-command under [[ObstructiveBureaucrat Jarunn Tann]], which has made the already grouchy woman beyond pissed when Ryder shows up. A minor side-plot is that her assistant is a total fuck-up, but she's turning a blind eye because he's (appearing) to do some of the more annoying jobs (though as it transpired, part of the beleaguering is because of said assistant). Not helping at the start of the game is that her title is ''meaningless'', since the first two colonies came to bad ends.

* Rumisiel would like you to believe he was one in ''Webcomic/{{Misfile}}'' and that his having [[http://www.misfile.com/misfile/2004-03-08 far too much]] [[http://www.misfile.com/misfile/2004-03-09 to do]] with [[http://www.misfile.com/misfile/2004-03-11 no breaks]] was the reason for his little [[TheStoner recreational drug use]] that kicked off the plot. It may even be true since [[ReassignedToAntarctica The Fifth Branch]] is [[http://www.misfile.com/misfile/2009-11-02 later referred to]] as only having one clerk who is on administrative leave.

* ''WesternAnimation/BuzzLightyearOfStarCommand'' has Commander Nebula, Buzz and Team Lightyear's commanding officer, and veteran ranger who for most of the time, plays this trope straight, save for a few [[AvertedTrope Aversion]]-[[DeusExMachina Ex-Machinas]] where he shoved his bureaucracy aside to save Buzz and his squad from certain danger. Invoked in the episode "Conspiracy" where Buzz notices that signing paperwork is something Nebula wouldn't be willing to do. [[spoiler:Which causes Buzz to shoot Nebula, where the Nebula he shot is a mechanized disguise used by tiny alien terrorists in an attempt to fool Lightyear into assassinating the Galactic President, after framing him for their own attempt to kill the Galactic President with another disguise modeled after Buzz himself. ]]

* Mayura Ichikawa of ''Anime/BestStudentCouncil''. She's constantly overstressed due to having to balance the Best Student Council's budget, when they spend recklessly without informing her.

* The first nine chapters of ''Manga/DailyLifeWithMonsterGirl'' portray Ms. Smith as lazy and uncaring about the constant onslaught of problems she creates for Kimihito by dumping monster girl after monster girl on him without his permission. She clarifies just how overworked she is with no raise in pay in chapter ten, then chapter eleven is her {{day in the limelight}} where you see one example of the variety of crap she has to put up with.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* In ''Film/{{Brazil}}'', Sam Lowry has to put up with {{Obstructive Bureaucrat}}s all around and above him, particularly after he attempts to correct a typo that caused the department he works for to make a wrongful arrest.

* In ''Film/{{Brazil}}'', Sam Lowry has to put up with {{ObstructiveBureaucrat}}s all around and above him, particularly after he attempts to correct a typo that caused the department he works for to make a wrongful arrest.

* In Film/{{Brazil}}, Sam Lowry has to put up with {{ObstructiveBureaucrat}}s all around and above him, particularly after he attempts to correct a typo that caused the department he works for to make a wrongful arrest.

This trope is quite closely related to HanlonsRazor. Don't always assume that people in office work or government aren't managing things properly because they're corrupt or malicious. They may simply have way too much work on their hands, and not have the skills or resources to deal with them. This trope is subject to political use, as well, with a distinct undertone of "they don't have the skills and resources to deal with their workload because the people paying, the taxpayers who directly or indirectly rely on these bureaucrats, are too cheap to pay for them." (Whether this is true or not is [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment something we will not discuss]]; suffice it to say that works that use this trope usually bring this perspective.)