Bureaucracy often runs on rules that don’t always make sense.

So when a longtime government contractor had to prove his identity to a new HR department, his official government badge wasn’t acceptable.

But luckily, he still had an old college ID on hand.

Keep reading for the full story!

Used 15yr old College ID to prove my identity to my employer of a decade.

I worked as a gov’t contractor in a gov’t facility, and a new company assumed the contract. As part of the contract, all the previous employees were hired by the new company.

As “new” employees, we all had to fill out I-9 forms proving we were legal to work in the US.

There were quite a few restrictions on verifying your identity.

To prove my identity, we could not use our gov’t-issued ID badge we wore each day, however school IDs were valid.

I brought two college IDs — about 15 years old — into work and asked my boss to pick one.

He did, and I took it to HR to complete my hiring paperwork.

HR didn’t take it seriously at first, but when left with no other option, they were forced to accept it.

HR laughed and asked for my driver’s license.

I didn’t have one with me, but I offered my gov’t ID badge I was wearing. They said that wouldn’t work.

I referenced on the I-9 that a school ID was valid.

They consulted with their boss, then accepted it.

An ID is an ID!

What did Reddit have to say?

Verifying your identity always turns into such a headache.

Don’t most forms of identification all end up saying the same stuff anyway?

IDs can also be a little hard to keep track of.

For once, HR isn’t to blame here.

This story was bureaucracy at its finest!

Thought that was satisfying? Check out what this employee did when their manager refused to pay for their time while they were traveling for business.