A slow release of work frustration

Does bureaucracy ever decrease if the players remain the same? Or does that require new players in the game? It seems to me that my work has found an increasing need to go through layers. Sometimes it’s to save money, which costs me in time and frustration. Sometimes it’s to save someone else time, which means that it takes me longer and I can’t get any support.

Some of my criticism comes from the automation that gets introduced. I know having certain systems automated must reduce bureaucracy, save time and money, but the one I'm thinking of fails in my eyes. What was once done on paper with relative ease is now done on systems that are so far from user-friendly that they might be user-mean. If I’m able to navigate the meanness, I usually end up having to do something twice because I missed a step or failed to code something correctly. This is my problem, I recognize, but it’s not just my problem when everyone I know is doing the same thing.

Give me some step by step instructions. I might follow them. That very well could be the rub.

Poor automation does its best, but unfortunately even automation still involves people. People are automation's downfall.