Take one example of this, where technical staff were required to visit remote sites to test, repair, and maintain important equipment. This was, essentially, the entire function of the company. As the organization sought to replace old paperwork with new software systems, claiming attempts to modernize when really the core intention was more oversight and control of technician movements, they made one grave mistake.
While there were all sorts of little bugs and issues with unsaved paperwork, the main problem was that both management and whoever was designing the software had overlooked a critical flaw in the software. See, the software was written in such a way that it needed to be connected to a cellular network at all times in order to function properly. Instead of being saved locally, every entry on the electronic forms would send a request to and from the company’s server. Because, again, the real intention behind all of this was more oversight and control over staff movements.
As we’ve already addressed and you’ve probably already noticed, this created major issues where staff were unable to complete the required paperwork on remote sites, and in order to comply with the company policy of properly completing paperwork before moving on to the next job, they had to drive to somewhere they had reception before going back out of reception to complete more work. But, this presented another issue, as staff were legally required to complete all paperwork and leave a copy on site before departing. So they were double-filing paperwork now, completing both the original paper copies before leaving the site to complete the software.
This all resulted in a massive waste of time and resources, and the new documentation processes actually made it harder for the company to continue to blame their lowest-level staff for their problems. The extra documentation had effectively created a process where employees were able to protect themselves from retaliation.
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