GPS and Workplaces—Getting Back on the Right Road
How unexpected work detours provide new insights and unstick you
Welcome to Manic Idea Monday 💡! Each week, I’m unpacking some workplace ideas that might leave us dropping our jaws, maybe scratching our heads, but definitely making us think.
Get ready for a fast-paced start to your week with some truly unexpected twists and turns that will leave you asking, “They did what now?”
Last summer, I set out for a quick drive downtown. Fifteen minutes. Maybe twenty if I hit a red light. I didn’t pack snacks. I wasn’t planning on an afternoon expedition. I expected to be there and back with barely a thought.
But then I ran into construction. In Michigan spring doesn’t just bring flowers, all things green again, and the buzz of bumble bees. It also means orange cones and roadblocks that can last for what feels like forever.
Last year, entire streets were torn up, like someone had gone through the neighborhood with a jackhammer and didn’t bother to put things back. Detour signs were everywhere with nowhere to go. I felt like an unwilling participant locked in an escape room but with a car.
There were blockades. Detours to the detours of detours. I watched confused drivers back up, take wild U-turns, and head in every direction except the one they needed to go. I thought I’d outsmart it.
I ended up on another road that looked fine until it wasn't. The pavement simply ended. Past the orange barrels was nothing but dirt and heavy machinery. I turned around again and faced a choice. Go right, take the long way around, and guarantee arrival. Or go left and gamble.
Naturally, I went left.
And naturally, I got lost. Fast.
Yeah, yeah - go ahead and say it: You did what now?
Getting lost on purpose is not a strategy
The road twisted in unfamiliar ways. I had no idea which direction I was heading. North, south, east, west. They’re all useless concepts when you are surrounded by construction cones and regret. I tried pulling up my GPS, but it failed. I could still get some offline guidance thanks to how often I had used the Waze app. On my phone it was like trying to read a map drawn by ants.
What should have been a short trip turned into an eye rolling, infuriating 40-minute ordeal. I hated every second of it. Some people love getting lost. They call it an adventure. I call it wasting my life one wrong turn at a time.
Even as a kid, I dreaded detours. Family trips with my dad were endless scenic routes. He enjoyed exploring the backroads. I loved quietly seething in the back seat, counting the minutes we were losing.
If you’re wondering what this has to do with leadership. Hold on, I’m getting there. Just taking the circuitous route to set the stage. But here it is for my fellow impatient drivers: this experience mirrors some of the most challenging parts of work culture.
When detours become the norm, no one gets anywhere
Some people genuinely want to get the work done. They want to finish the project, close the deal, and deliver the results. These are your goal-oriented individuals. They’re not in it for the endless meetings, the committee theater, or the performative busyness of the performance-oriented.
But the workplace often rewards the people who like to stay jam-packed without moving forward. Meetings become the product. Emails become the measure of productivity. Energy is spent, time is burned, but very little is actually built.
It is exhausting for the people who want to accomplish something real.
One of the cruel jokes of work life is that you can have all the right credentials, do everything right, and still end up stuck.
Degrees
Certifications
Climbing every rung
But when you get to the top, you find the next floor is missing or it just doesn’t offer the reward you were expecting.
If the leadership is hollow, and the company is stuck in a past it refuses to leave, no GPS can fix that.
Meetings that solve nothing except boredom
I once had a boss who loved meetings so much that she made sure to attend them just to catch up on her colleagues’ lives. She genuinely preferred talking about her dogs and the neighbor’s barbecue plans than discussing the status of any actual work.
Another boss lived for the meetings because they kept him in charge. People deferred to him for every decision, every minor call. It was a power trip disguised as collaboration. He never trained others to step up because that would mean sharing the stage.
This is the workplace equivalent of wandering aimlessly and calling it a leadership strategy.
People do not learn to lead if they are never allowed to drive. They sit in endless meetings. They nod. They offer polite input. They never actually get to build or decide anything that matters. This is a life sentence without parole for your ambitious go-getters and the fastest path to disengagement, quiet quitting, loud leaving, burnout, and unfulfilled potential.
Real leadership means clearing the road so others can move forward even if that means they eventually leave you. Otherwise, everyone stays idling in the same spot with nowhere else to go.
Inbox full, no progress
Another symptom of scenic route culture is the badge of honor people give themselves for having a cluttered inbox. During crunch times, some coworkers practically bragged about how buried they were in email.
I used to have a system. I built templates for common questions and adapted them when needed. My inbox stayed manageable even during peak madness.
When I offered to show others how I kept up, they turned it down. Efficiency was not the goal. Looking overwhelmed was. It was a public sign that they were "in demand," even if they were spinning their wheels all day answering the same email for the ninth time. But it was a form of job security.
Efficiency is boring to people who prefer the chaos of distraction and looking stretched thin. But it is the only way the work actually gets done.
Mission statements that say nothing
Higher education takes this problem and turns it into performance art. One year, a university rolled out a marketing campaign: “What can you do with a liberal arts degree? Anything you want.”
It sounded empowering for about three seconds. Then it sounded totally and completely empty.
Students were not interested in slogans that offered no path with a decent salary. Parents wanted answers, not wishful thinking. The campaign died a quick and quiet death. Nobody wanted to admit that "anything" often means "nothing specific."
If you want people to move forward, you have to give them real destinations. Not cloudy promises that sound good in a marketing deck but collapse under basic questions.
Constant reaction is not real strategy
Some workplaces think that as long as there is a lot of movement, there must be progress. They react to every problem with a new initiative, committees, or a task force. Decisions that should be given time to develop are pushed through at lightning speed. Others that could move the needle never mature past infancy.
It all feels busy, productive, and important. But in the end it doesn’t build anything real. Being good at reacting is not the same thing as being good at leading.
If you find yourself stuck in a culture that loves scenic routes, you have a few options.
Stop waiting for permission. Build your own direct paths where you can. Network up, down, and sideways. Get good at identifying real work versus busywork. Save your energy for the tasks that actually make a difference.
Do not fall into the trap of glorifying being overwhelmed. Create systems that protect your time and attention. Share them if others are willing to listen. Keep them to yourself if they are not.
And most importantly, be honest about what kind of road you are on. If the leadership loves detours more than destinations, it might not be a road worth staying on.
You deserve a path that leads somewhere, not driving in endless circles. If all you currently get is gridlock, it’s time to find a better map.
"If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else." — Yogi Berra
© 2025 Bette A. Ludwig: All rights reserved
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Somewhere along the way, many workplaces started confusing being busy with being valuable. We put more weight on looking frantic than actually finishing meaningful work. It's a broken reward system. One that encourages wheel-spinning while actual progress dies quietly in the background.
Staying too long in a place addicted to scenic routes isn’t just frustrating. It’s dangerous. Because eventually, you start adapting. You start mistaking stillness for patience. You start lowering your own standards just to survive. You gave me an idea for an article. Thank you Bette.
This type of culture where everyone is busy and nothing is produced is incredibly frustrating to work within. Unless you are just killing time, waiting for a pension. But it's a form of toxicity because it kills creativity, accountability and hope. They tend to buy expensive consultancy just to get things done.