Thanks, that's insane. Sometimes I look at the HR group where I work and I'm astonished at how much (relatively easy to automate) work is still done manually or semi-manually. For example, today I had to send an email to a specific individual for what should be a simple form in the modern & best-of-breed HR system we use.

After reading your story, I am very glad that we probably have in aggregate 2 or 3 full-time employees doing things that might be automated away. It's not like that prevents mindless bureaucracy of all sorts, but something like your situation would certainly never happen.