60% of my week is documentation theater and I tracked it

I’ve tracked my time last month out of morbid curiosity.

60% went to vendor assessments, audit questionnaires, evidence packets, and reformatting the same controls for whatever template the recipient decided to use this time. SOC 2 wants it one way, client procurement wants it another, but the regulator wants a third. identical substance every time and the packaging eats hours.

The other 40% was actual work: reviewing alerts, investigating cases, updating the risk assessment, and training junior analysts. the stuff that actually prevents financial crime.

It keeps getting worse, every new client relationship kicks off with a 200-question spreadsheet that's 70% identical to the last one but just different enough that you can't copy-paste without checking every answer.

Spent a full day on one last week.

Nobody on the receiving end read past page 3.