Why do this to their colleagues? The something deeper you mention may be to do with this: Degree of Difficulty by Malcolm Gladwell. It's not something nobody's ever thought of before, but he summarizes very clearly how hard it is to know the difficulties anyone else overcomes if you haven't dealt with them yourself. A good imagination can go a long way, but there are too many people who don't even try. If that's the root of the "real" part of the problem (as opposed to pettiness, selfishness, stupidity, and so on), then the solution, as Tom says, is to have everyone observe, or help out to the extent possible, in other people's jobs. If we got rid of all the useless paperwork, it wouldn't even take any extra time. (I can dream, can't I?)