New to the corporate world — is this level of confusion normal?

I joined a big finance company a few months ago as an application support analyst, and honestly I’ve been surprised by how inefficient some of the processes are.

As a new team member, I ask different teammates questions and often get completely different answers to the same thing. For example, for one report, one person told me to just change the dates on old reports, while another told me that was wrong and said I had to pull the data from a specific source. For some routine tasks, one teammate says they’re required while another says they’re unnecessary.

I’ve also noticed that some teammates don’t even know the tools other teammates are using, even after being on the team for almost a year.

Another thing that confused me: since we often need to contact other teams to resolve issues, I asked if we had a documented contact list or escalation guide. The answer was basically no — people either search through old emails or ask experienced teammates who to contact.

I don’t understand why so much knowledge depends on asking senior teammates instead of documenting processes and contacts somewhere accessible.

Wouldn’t it be easier and more efficient if everyone had standardized instructions, documentation, and clear processes? Is it normal in corp world?