diff --git a/.github/workflows/CI-unixish.yml b/.github/workflows/CI-unixish.yml
index adb91138..74100265 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/CI-unixish.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/CI-unixish.yml
@@ -29,6 +29,14 @@ jobs:
       with:
         persist-credentials: false
 
+    # the man-db trigger causes package installations to stall for several minutes at times. so just drop the package.
+    # see https://github.com/actions/runner/issues/4030
+    - name: Remove man-db package on ubuntu
+      if: matrix.os == 'ubuntu-24.04'
+      run: |
+        sudo apt-get update
+        sudo apt-get remove man-db
+
     - name: Install missing software on ubuntu
       if: matrix.os == 'ubuntu-24.04'
       run: |
diff --git a/.github/workflows/clang-tidy.yml b/.github/workflows/clang-tidy.yml
index fd71bdfe..9ebb6683 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/clang-tidy.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/clang-tidy.yml
@@ -17,6 +17,13 @@ jobs:
         with:
           persist-credentials: false
 
+      # the man-db trigger causes package installations to stall for several minutes at times. so just drop the package.
+      # see https://github.com/actions/runner/issues/4030
+      - name: Remove man-db package
+        run: |
+          sudo apt-get update
+          sudo apt-get remove man-db
+
       - name: Install missing software
         run: |
           sudo apt-get update