Delays in changing workflow status

Hi

There is a long delay between the time that a Purchase Requisition is submitted to workflow, and the status actually changes so that it can be approved. I've been told that there is a job that runs every minute that changes the status, and that the job can't be run more often than every minute. We work much faster than that. Seems sort of funny that in a package there is a job that needs to be run to make something happen, that it's not just doing real time updates. Does anyone else experience this delay? Is there anything that can be done about it?

Thanks