What's a good word or idiom for the action (or the person) of creating unnecessary work steps when the task at hand can be accomplished much faster?

Question

For example, it would take me 3 min to email a supplier about an update on a recent purchase, or I could start a new task board, set up an account for my PA, and assign him this task, which would take 15 minutes (so 5 times the amount of time) - what's the word for that type of pen pushing overkill?

Welcome to EL&U. The "single-word-requests" tag requires you to include a sample sentence, with a blank where the word would go. The sentence gives necessary information including the part of speech of the word, so you might get better answers. — niamulbengali, Feb 08 '21 at 17:21

score 1 · Answer 1 · edited Feb 08 '21 at 17:27

1

Heath Robinson is one way to describe it

doing something simple in a very complicated way that is not necessary.

[Merriam-Webster]

edited Feb 08 '21 at 17:27

Cascabel_StandWithUkraine_

20,777

answered Feb 08 '21 at 17:09

user405662

8,423

1

I have never heard of this. Is it peculiar to BrE? – Cascabel_StandWithUkraine_ Feb 08 '21 at 17:29
1

@Cascabel I think so. Rube Goldberg in AmE. – user405662 Feb 08 '21 at 17:35

What's a good word or idiom for the action (or the person) of creating unnecessary work steps when the task at hand can be accomplished much faster?

1 Answers1