In case you aren't aware, it's easy to explain by that fact that most finance departments are afraid to question your spendings on grounds of looking incompetent.
So it's less about 10$ and more about: "I understand what a wireless mouse is and it doesn't look mission critical to me."
"No idea what those items on that AWS bill mean, but I'll probably be better off not asking"
If you must exist in this kind of organization use this to your advantage. Get involved in important projects, setup purchase proposals, then make sure you add in new laptops, cables, mice, extra monitors, and whatever other accessories you need. Do you have a remote KVM attached to all 100 servers? Yes. Will finance care if you add 100 monitors, keyboards, mice, etc? Nope. Will your vendor happily add those on to the price? Yup. How do you get involved in projects? Find a Director or VP who wants to get something done and say "yes" or "we'll find a way" to whatever it is they want to do. Then do your research and give them a proposal: "We can accomplish X in 24 months with Y headcount and Z equipment budget". If you can cultivate a reputation as someone who "gets things done" eventually you will find the normal rules no longer apply to you. Finance will stop asking questions about your projects.
You have three rational choices: 1. Play the game, 2. Keep your head down, 3. Quit and move to a company that doesn't play those games.
Sitting around complaining that a big company has crappy inefficient processes is like complaining that water is wet. A complete waste of time and makes you look incompetent to other people in the company who are playing the game. These inefficient processes end up optimizing for people who know how to talk the code and cultivate the right relationships. Take advantage of that.
First you need something core to start a bill around. Let's make a law that makes it easier to buy guns.
But no one is going to vote for that, so let's give it a name you CAN'T say no to. It will henceforth be known as "The Child and Family Home Protection Act".
Great we have a cool name and we have a law significant enough to send to the floor of congress. Now let's get enough people to promise to vote for it so we don't waste our time. Oh, Congressman X says that he would vote for it as long as we add another law about funding polar bear research. Sure, whatever just add it in, we need the votes. Congresswoman Y says she will vote for it if we add a law about requiring masks at church. We need the votes, tack it on. Congressman Z has been trying to get more tanks sent to Afghanistan for nearly a decade, if we add that in I bet he will vote for out law too.
Then these things get bundled up and sent to the floor where people vote on laws with fun marketing names added to them.
The same thing happens in business. You start off with a core project like a new ERP system. Give it a complex sounding name that no one in accounts payable will say no to. Then we add in a bunch of computers into the budget that we have been trying to get for 2 years. Add a new printer. Throw in some docker desktop licenses for our developers, and then bundle it up and send it to Accounts Payable. Bam, now you have docker desktop licenses and new computers. You're welcome.
Too cheap. Been in a few places where getting 700k for something with a boring but plausible name was a no questions asked thing, but trying to get a $15 miro board license was literally impissible. I paid for a lot of tools out of my own pocket to avoid the hassle. I bet I am not alone with this approach.
It's not even about the price or approval. For mental health, I'll pay for my keyboard and mouse from a local shop rather than get a quote from an approved provider, submit it for approval, submit it to IT, submit the receipt to process expenses, and wait for delivery of an approved-crappy-hardware. (with two run corrections because I didn't fill out the forms properly) It's not worth it.
Agree. I have subsidized places where I worked due to this. Bosses often say - oh don't pay yourself but then when you put in the request for something months will go by waiting for that certain manager to say yes or no. Face to face or on the phone it's easy to get a 'yes but first send me the proposal/information', only then to get ignored. Yeah you can keep pushing and finally get the item you need months later, but by then the project is over cause you or someone else hacked together or found a free solution... or worse used a personal credit card.
So it's less about 10$ and more about: "I understand what a wireless mouse is and it doesn't look mission critical to me."
"No idea what those items on that AWS bill mean, but I'll probably be better off not asking"