An ethical exception can become a privilege when the same people repeatedly qualify for it.

An exception that keeps landing on the same people has stopped being an exception. Each instance can be justified on its own, and the pattern across them is a standing advantage, invisible from inside because everyone involved is only ever looking at the individual case. Privilege often arrives as a series of reasonable one-offs.

So look at the pattern rather than the instance. Who has been granted flexibility this year, and who has been told the rule is the rule. If you are the one who keeps qualifying, that is worth noticing without shame and worth acting on, because you are usually the person best placed to say that the rule should change for everyone.