I once worked for a manager who never made a decision.

[mike_bowler@hachyderm.io]

I once worked for a manager who never made a decision. He was thoughtful, well-intentioned, and completely committed to having all the right information before doing anything. I’d suggest a change and he’d say “let me think about that”, and then nothing would happen.

Every time he went on vacation, I would be put in charge, and on the first day, I’d implement every change he’d been sitting on. The team knew what needed doing; we’d been talking about it for months. We just needed the space to do it.

When he came back, he’d look at the new state of things and see they were working. Then he’d leave them in place.

This happened every vacation, without fail. We’d make forward progress a couple of times a year and then be stalled again.

That was my experience as the subordinate. A client described the same dynamic to me recently, from the other side of it. Every team lead wanting to be involved in every decision, every manager reluctant to hand anything off. A different flavour of a fundamentally similar problem.

I have to ask, what this behaviour is actually costing the organization. Not in the abstract. In specific, concrete terms.

Continued on my blog: https://blog.mikebowler.ca/2026/05/25/the-vacation-test/