This is still the case? My mother told me she used to take a bottle of some alcohol to drink with them and after spending an hour or two with them she would usually get what she needed. That was in Andalucia which I guess might be a special case even in Spain...

I lived in my country's capital for almost ten years, and since a huge part of the population there are in public service (you get in through a selection exam and once you get in you pretty much can't get fired, and the pay is pretty good). While I lived there, some of my friends would do this at work: Use most of their work hours to study for a higher paying public service exam. Play online multiplayer games. Everyday. (don't know if only within their department or connected to the outside) Do nothing 60% of the time. Work half the hours they were supposed to, because the whole department decided that they had enough people to turn an 8 hour shift into 4 hours and get everything done. When a new boss decided to end this and made everybody work their 8 hours, they rebelled and the department couldn't get anything done. And no one could be fired. *etc

Not everybody did this, of course. I had some friends who worked their hours, and put their effort to it, but the culture was definitely messed up.

I (from NL) have been in ES and PT for a long time and noticed that Spanish natives make a scene when it is urgent; crying or shouting or both with certain types of (semi) gov employees. It works; I get whatever I want, fast. I don’t like it so I only do it when it actually is urgent; for most things I don’t care if it’s a week or a year so I just wait.