I face this all the time in Japan, a culture you could say is *based* on “It’s policy,* and I question people whenever they use that phrase. If it’s a particularly annoying practice or will continue to cost me time and money I leave my contact details and demand an explanation from a superior. That gets people to think and, sometimes, change. Here they have a bad habit of adding “it’s a tradition” or “that’s how we do things in these parts,” (which you also get in parts of the USA), to which I respond, Well that was the past; from now on, we’re doing it this way.