Was a project manager for a Fortune 100 company for a while. Had a multi-million dollar budget. Only approved vendors and contractors can be used for work, and the list is really shitty with companies who are getting fat off billing hours that don't accomplish much because they know they have a monopoly on these contracts.
I go up my chain trying to get a workaround for some of the work, to save us time and money on a critical project. Nope.
I look for alternatives in the existing system; competition is great for the consumer, and if I [company representative] am the consumer, I want options to ensure the work I get is of high quality. You'd think the people setting this up would have thought of that, right? Nope.
I proceed to bring the previous argument to my direct supervisor. Nope. Same argument, to a mentor of mine who could potentially help cut through red tape. Nope. Same argument, but applied to smaller parts of work that aren't critical to be completed by the entity doing everything else. Still nope.
I hire the contractors I'm required to hire. About a month goes by, over $60k has been spent and no visible work has been done. They're "planning," even though I gave them the plan including everything they needed to get started aside from workers and materials at the same time I hired them for the job.
Another month goes by, I'm getting questions about progress on the business-critical project. Well, I've been on these contractors all day every day and there's always some excuse, and there's no way I can force them to do the work because I have absolutely no leverage, and they have no incentive to go faster than a snail's pace given that every hour of 'work' is billable.
Upon explaining this, I am called in by a company executive and asked very pointed questions. How do I know they're stalling? Well I could have done the work they've done so far myself with a forklift if I applied my opposable thumbs and wasn't too hungover. I said this, in slightly different words. I'm then asked whether I find it difficult to work with people. I say I'm happy to work with anyone, though I suppose it is difficult to work with people who aren't willing to do any work. Questioning goes on like this with exec obviously trying to make me out to be the problem, and me making frustrated and slightly sarcastic replies. I knew I could get away with a lot, I'd made the company a lot of money and I had a backup at this point anyway.
6 months go by. Project is nearly complete... a huge chunk of my budget - many times over what it should have cost - is gone, and the contractors break something they weren't supposed to break and shut a whole section of the building down for another year or so, as well as having to restart everything.
Around this time, I get promoted and sent to a different department with a way more supportive team. I never once mention anything about "I told you so," but have a couple of higher-ups helping me out for awhile after that. Good times.