"Code Nazis" can, I realize, describe two different mindsets. While both are often found in the same person, it's also quite possible for the ideas to live apart.
The first is the guy who thinks everything needs a rule. It's not enough to specify drywall - it has to be a certain type, with certain marking, hung in a certain way with specific fasteners with sundry approvals.
Far fetched? Hardly. A specific case arose when Mike Holmes (of TV fame) went to build in California. He went to assemble the code-specified lumber with the usual power nail guns, only to have the nails bounce off of the 'engineered' lumber. It was possible to drive screws - but the assembly had never been 'rated' with screws, so screws were out. No matter that 'everyone knows' that screws are far better fasteners than any nail of similar size.
The other type of 'code Nazi' is the troll who appears when the balance of power shifts, to where you can't operate without their blessing. Don't let appearances fool you; these sadists often present the most polished, professional face, and never set a foot wrong. They're just being 'thorough' or 'conscientious.' Yea, right. Some have personal agendas, favoring one over another. Others have nothing but contempt for their "customers." You see this expressed in the remote, inadequate parking, the long waits, the inability to contact, the false "professional" names, and the armed guards and security barriers to keep you away.
One can readily find an example of this second sort of troll at any government office administering anything resembling a 'benefit.'
Now, I want every government employee reading this to pause, and look at their place of work. Who uses the "good" parking spaces? Are the ones for the public the most expensive metered spaces in the downtown district - and the cashier forbidden to make change? Do your 'open' hours more closely resemble a bank- or a supermarket? Are more folks brought to serve the counter when there's a line? Will my application get trashed if I use the wrong color ink?
It's those 'little things' that identify who the institution REALLY serves.
