Are we overcomplicating work by trying to automate too much of it?

A lot of work today is spread across email, Slack, docs, and task tools, and it often feels like more effort goes into keeping everything in sync than actually getting things done.

Even when systems are introduced to simplify things, the workload doesn’t always disappear it just shifts. Instead of doing small coordination tasks, you end up spending time managing the system itself.

What I’m not sure about is whether automation actually reduces daily effort, or just changes the type of work you’re doing.

At what point does automation actually help, and when does it start adding overhead?