Instruction creep

The accumulation of bureaucratic requirements results in overly complex procedures that are often misunderstood, irritating, time-wasting, or ignored.

Instruction creep is common in complex organizations, where rules and guidelines are created by changing groups of people over extended periods of time.

The constant state of flux in such groups often leads them to add or modify instructions, rather than simplifying, consolidating, or generalizing existing ones.

[1] Many of the rules added over time are intended to cover edge cases or other uncommon situations.

Employees may spend excessive amounts of time dealing with red tape in the form of complying with the rules or documenting their compliance with the procedures.

In other cases, specific rules may be replaced with statements of more general principles and a decision to empower people to use their best judgment.