Uhh, yeah they do. The grass isn't all that greener on the corporate side of the fence it just seems that way.
There is some BS shit.. But FAR less than the Navy.
See the thing is here.. If we (corporate guys) add a requirement for training or some process metric, and it cost time (therefore money) to collect, and the ROI is too low or negative.. It goes away.
As opposed to stuff that is constantly added to the Navy's admin load, that does no apparent good, and NEVER goes away.
For example, in the last week I did about $100k of revenue on a small job with me and one technician. My total paperwork time overhead for the whole job, from start to finish has been maybe 4 hours. That's pre job safety, compiling a load list for our warehouse to load on the trucks, actual data recording not specific to the project (aka customer satisfaction stuff and our hours worked and travel data) and making the customer field ticket (which is a prelim invoice to let them know about what the final bill will be +/- 5%)
If they added paperwork and admin overhead to the point where I had to bill more days/hours for a project, it would cost them money. Therefore, while there is some corporate BS, its orders of magnitude lower than what a similar trip would be in the Navy.
Example. I need to go to a meeting in Aberdeen, Scotland.
Boss tells me I need to go to Aberdeen.
I get dates from him.
I log onto company website, click travel, put my travel dates and needs (car, hotel, airfare) in and BAM. I have flights to choose from, and I select my flights, hotel and rental car.
Less than 5 minutes later I have plane tickets, car reserved, and hotel arranged.
For per diem, I just click a box on my time sheet, and select the country from the drop down box. BAM Per Diem done
When I get home, I just scan my hotel reciept and car rental form when I do my monthly expense report.
Total time involved for a 7 day international travel? Less than 10 minutes from "you are going" to "Travel claim liquidated"
In the Navy, how many people would be involved, even once the trip was approved by "higher"?
I'd have to get TAD orders or NATO Travel orders cut (OK, it's the Military, I can see this)
Then I'd have to deal with admin, who then has to deal with SATO, and so forth.
Then I go on the trip
Then I come back. Fill out a claim form which is then routed, and then is put into DTS by a YN or PS.
Then it waits. Then it gets kicked back for some accounting code or whatever (BHIs travel system won't let you submit unless codes are right, and they have a "search for cost center" which remembers your most common ones)
Then, just maybe then I get my per diem.
Possibly, my govt CC gets paid before I start showing up on someone's hit list, even though I did my travel claim the day I returned.