Temporary fixes have a way of becoming permanent infrastructure.
You remember when you invented it.
Something didn’t work the way you needed it to. The software couldn’t do what you wanted. The process had a gap. So you got creative. You figured out a workaround, a clever little hack that solved the problem.
This’ll do for now
We’ll fix it properly later.
That was three years ago.
The workaround is still there. It’s become part of how things work. New team members learn it during onboarding. It’s documented in a process guide somewhere. It’s just how things are done now.
The temporary fix became permanent. And you’ve been paying the cost ever since.
How Workarounds Become Normal
It happens gradually, almost invisibly.
Day one, the workaround is a clever solution to an immediate problem. It’s a bit clunky, but it works.
Week two, you’re still using it. Fixing it properly hasn’t made it to the top of the priority list. There’s always something more urgent.
Month three, the workaround is just how things are done. Nobody questions it anymore. It’s part of the process.
Year one, new people join and learn the workaround as if it’s normal. They don’t know there’s another way. This is just the system.
Year three, you’ve forgotten it was ever supposed to be temporary. The workaround has become invisible, hidden in plain sight, woven into the fabric of daily operations.
Until something goes wrong, or someone new points out how strange it is, or you finally calculate how much time it’s actually costing.
The Hidden Cost of Workarounds
Workarounds feel free. You’re not paying for software. You’re not investing in development. You’re just working around the problem.
But workarounds have costs. They’re just hidden.
Time
Every time someone executes the workaround, they spend time that a proper solution wouldn’t require. Five minutes here, ten minutes there. Multiply that by every person, every day, every week. It adds up to hours. Then days. Then weeks over a year.
Errors
Workarounds are usually manual processes filling gaps that should be automated. Manual processes have error rates. Every extra step is an opportunity for something to go wrong. Those errors have consequences, including rework, corrections and sometimes real damage.
Friction
Workarounds make things harder than they should be. They slow people down. They create frustration. They make onboarding new team members more complicated. They make everything just a bit more difficult.
Fragility
Workarounds often depend on specific people who know how to do them properly. If that person is sick, on holiday or leaves the company, the workaround might fail. Your process becomes dependent on individuals rather than systems.
Opportunity cost
Every minute spent on a workaround is a minute not spent on something more valuable. The cumulative time lost could have been used for growth, improvement or work that actually matters.
Workarounds You’ve Probably Normalised
These might sound familiar:
- Exporting data from one system, reformatting it in Excel, and importing it into another system
- Copying and pasting information between tools because they don’t talk to each other
- Using email to track things that should be in a proper system
- Maintaining a separate spreadsheet because your main software doesn’t have a feature you need
- Running manual reports that could be automated
- Using naming conventions and folder structures to track status because your system doesn’t have proper workflows
- Remembering to do things because there’s no automatic reminder or trigger
- Training every new person on “how we actually do this” because the official process doesn’t work
Each of these probably started as a temporary fix. Each of them is still there, quietly costing you time and reliability every single day.
Why Workarounds Persist
If workarounds are so costly, why don’t people fix them?
They’re invisible
Once a workaround becomes routine, you stop seeing it. It’s just how things work. You don’t consciously think about the time it takes because it’s built into expectations.
The cost is distributed
Five minutes a day doesn’t feel significant. But five minutes across ten people for three years is a lot of time. The cost is real, but it’s spread thinly enough that it doesn’t create urgency.
Fixing it feels expensive
The workaround is free, or at least it appears to be. A proper solution requires investment in time, money and effort. It’s easier to keep doing what you’re doing than to make a change.
There’s always something more urgent
Workarounds don’t create crises. They create low-level friction. And low-level friction rarely makes it to the top of the priority list.
Fear of change
The workaround works. It’s annoying, but it works. Changing it introduces risk. At least you know how to deal with the current situation.
What Fixing Actually Looks Like
Replacing a workaround doesn’t always mean a massive system overhaul. Sometimes it’s surprisingly simple.
Maybe it’s an integration between two systems that currently don’t talk to each other, eliminating the copying and pasting entirely.
Maybe it’s a small custom tool that does the one thing your main software can’t, replacing that separate spreadsheet.
Maybe it’s automating a manual process so the task no longer requires human attention.
Maybe it’s building the feature your off-the-shelf software is missing, the one you’ve been working around for years.
The solution is often more targeted and less disruptive than people expect. You don’t have to replace everything. You just have to fix the specific gap that created the workaround in the first place.
Once it’s fixed, every day going forward is a day without that friction, without that error risk and without that wasted time.
The Question
That workaround you invented three years ago. You know the one.
How many hours has it cost you since then?
How many errors?
How much frustration?
How many more years do you want to keep using it?
Temporary fixes don’t have to be permanent. They just need someone to finally fix them properly.
We build custom software that eliminates the workarounds you’ve been living with, replacing clunky manual processes with systems that actually work the way you need them to.
If you’re ready to stop working around your tools and start having tools that work, let’s talk.