>You have 5 employees who do what 1 could do...

Do you have a specific example that fits this description that you could point to?

My job requires me to interact with HHS basically weekly and everyone I talk to has no idea what the heck is going on and constantly sends me over to someone who also knows nothing. And this department is the one who makes the rules for healthcare, scary I know. As for the ratio given you can see it in in the increase of federal workers over the years. Government is the only sector that didnt have a plateau effect with the birth of technology. Now the 5:1 ratio is completely arbitrary but the point still stands.

I'm sure that those interactions are frustrating and are very hard to deal with. I'm sorry that you have to take on that stress so frequently.

That said, someone being unable to answer a question isnt necessarily indicative of a situation where "five people are doing the job of one person". Your example is very circumstantial (and is a scenario found frequently within the private sector, as well).