If you’ve been a middle manager at any point in the last five years, congratulations! You’ve survived a nonstop barrage of shifting priorities, unclear expectations, and the general sense that you’re responsible for keeping everything together while also, somehow, maintaining your sanity. You’re basically a corporate MacGyver, duct-taping projects, people, and processes together while leadership wonders why engagement scores are dropping.
And according to this piece by Pavithra Mohan, it’s only going to get worse unless companies wake up and actually do something about it.
Mohan highlights some brutal truths about middle management today, including the fact that Gen Z workers aren’t exactly lining up to take these jobs. (And honestly, can you blame them?) The role has evolved into a pressure cooker, where managers are expected to balance strategy, execution, and emotional support—often with little training or backup. So, let’s break down three key takeaways from this article and what we can do about them.
The middle manager burnout cycle is real
“Being explicit about mental health resources and other workplace benefits can also be an important aspect of supporting middle managers, who often report feeling invisible and underappreciated”
Translation: middle managers are drowning, and most companies are handing them a brick instead of a life raft. The stress of balancing day-to-day execution with long-term strategy isn’t just overwhelming—it’s a full-blown endurance sport. As I wrote in Becoming a manager shouldn’t be as hard as becoming a parent, the expectations placed on new managers often come with no real guidance, just a vague “figure it out” approach.
Instead of leaving middle managers to fend for themselves, organizations need to invest in real training—practical, people-first coaching that acknowledges the actual challenges of leadership.
The “manager crash” is looming
“As managers struggle, Gen Z sees the toll of the job and backs away, leaving fewer employees to rise into management roles. This puts more pressure on remaining managers.”
If that doesn’t scream unsustainable, I don’t know what does. The manager pipeline is drying up because, let’s be honest, the job has lost its appeal. Who in their right mind wants to sign up for a role that guarantees stress, ambiguity, and the occasional feeling that you’re stuck in an endless loop of meetings with no real progress?
Yet, instead of fixing the system, companies just keep stacking more responsibility onto the managers who are left standing. More direct reports. More strategic projects. More performance management. More expectations to “own” culture and morale. It’s no wonder Gen Z is looking at all this and saying, “No thanks.”
Here’s the hard truth: people don’t avoid management because they don’t want to lead. They avoid it because they don’t want to be set up to fail. We keep expecting people to jump into leadership roles without training, mentorship, or a reasonable workload—and then act shocked when they burn out or quit.
In Investing in the future, I wrote about how leadership development isn’t just about checking a training box—it’s about creating an environment where people want to grow. That means giving them the tools and support they need before they step into management, not after they’re already floundering. If we actually want strong, capable leaders in the future, we need to stop treating management like a sink-or-swim experiment and start treating it like a skill we actively develop.
Delegation is a superpower, not a weakness
“Ultimately, the middle manager’s role is to empower their teams to grow. It’s impossible to do this when we’re too stuck in all the details and barely able to come up for air.”
Delegation is one of those things everyone says they’re doing, but, in reality, most managers avoid it because it feels riskier than just doing the work themselves. Too many middle managers get stuck in execution mode because they don’t feel like they can delegate or were never taught how. And let’s be honest: if you’re constantly in the weeds, you’re not leading—you’re just getting lost.
A big part of the work we do with teams is helping managers shift from “doing” to leading. That means creating clear expectations, empowering teams to take ownership, and actually trusting people to do their jobs. This isn’t just a feel-good leadership philosophy; it’s a necessity. Teams don’t grow when their managers hoard responsibility instead of developing people to step up.
The bottom line: It’s time to stop winging it
Executives and HR leaders, this one’s for you. If you’re not investing in learning and development, if you’re not actively right-sizing roles, and if you’re not making it possible for middle managers to succeed, you’re setting your organization up for failure. This isn’t a nice-to-have—it’s a business imperative.
You want managers who can actually lead? Give them the skills and time to do it. You want future leaders? Start training them before they get thrown into the deep end. And if you’re tired of hearing about burnout, maybe stop designing jobs that burn people out.
At the end of the day, middle managers shouldn’t be glorified task-jugglers—they should be strategic leaders. That’s where Teamangle comes in. It helps leaders clear alignment issues, focus on the work that actually matters, and make strategic decisions instead of getting stuck in the chaos. If you’re ready to stop the cycle of mismanagement, start by giving your managers the clarity and support they deserve.
