Large Transport
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP); Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Multiengine
Communication Breakdown; Confusion
ATC Issue All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Human Factors
We received an ATC clearance out of ORF that I think was 10 [times] harder than it had to be; and we spent several minutes before push sorting it out. We complied with the clearance and there was no violation of any sort. My intent is to highlight the clearance to better improve safety and operations.Our dispatch release said 'DCT HPW DCT FAK J24...' The clearance we received from ATC was 'KISSR3 to WAIKS; then outbound on the ORF 290 radial to KELLE; then intercept the MOL 130 radial inbound to MOL; J24 as filed.' In reality; 'KISSR3 to WAIKS; direct KELLE; direct MOL; J24 as filed' is almost exactly the same and would have greatly lowered the workload. No datalink at this facility increased the workload since we had to manually enter the new route into the FMC.Perhaps the dispatchers and ATC weren't on the same page about how we should depart; which meant that ATC issued us something entirely different that also happened to be confusing and unnecessarily complex. Relook at how [Company] aircraft should depart this airport.
Air carrier First Officer reported ATC issued an extremely confusing and unnecessarily complex clearance entirely different from the route filed by the company.