I worked at NIST until recently, and my password expired every 90 days. We also had separate passwords for a half-dozen legacy IT systems (timesheets, travel requests, IT support, etc), all with more stringent and senseless length/character requirements than the last. And password managers were not allowed per security policy.
So did you use a written note in your wallet or a password manager on your smartphone (from which you can read it)? What did you or the average colleague do?
It was frustrating.