When Process Becomes the Harm
Amplify series
This signed video includes elements of British Sign Language and Sign Supported English (SSE), alongside English subtitles to support accessibility across Deaf and hearing audiences.
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Sometimes the process becomes harder than the problem you’re trying to solve.
Processes are meant to create fairness, clarity, and protection.
But when institutions prioritise procedure over people, the process itself becomes the harm.
Forms are repeated instead of resolved.
Evidence is requested again instead of acknowledged.
Timelines stretch while urgency is dismissed.
Each step is presented as neutral.
Together, they create exhaustion.
In complaint systems, HR frameworks, and healthcare pathways, procedural compliance can replace meaningful accountability. The burden shifts onto individuals to remain regulated, patient, and compliant while the system moves slowly or inconsistently.
Harm is reframed as inconvenience.
Distress is treated as impatience.
This is not due process.
It is attrition.
When process replaces accountability, institutions can claim they are “following procedure” while people are breaking under it. Harm does not need to be intentional to be real. It only needs to be repeated and unaddressed.
Process should protect.
When it doesn’t, it must be named.
When has a process caused more harm than the issue itself?
The question and options at the end of the video were originally shared as part of an Instagram Story.
