2025 expected to bring a ‘manager crash’ after all the burnout and lack of support combined

It was one of four main predictions set out by lQuilibriuma digital coaching platform aimed at promoting wellness in the workplace. (The remaining three factors: willingness to change becomes a top priority; the health benefits of remote work are gradually eroding; and Generation Z is struggling with change more than their older colleagues.)

“Like a market crash, we will see a significant decline in manager health, performance, and ability,” Alanna Fincke, meQuilibrim’s content and learning lead, wrote in the report. continue to lead as champions of change.”

“If no one cares about managers, they are at a higher risk of burnout and turnover than the people they manage,” Fincke emphasizes.

The prediction is not entirely surprising. Middle managers—non-executive-level employees responsible for supervising other employees—often feel less supported by their superiors than their teams. However, dissatisfaction at the middle management level is especially dangerous because happy, motivated managers serve as a “critical force” for the success of the entire organization, meQuilibrium wrote.

You (really) cannot afford to lose your middle managers

To avoid an impending “crash,” organizational leaders need to take decisive action before the new year to clarify the importance of mental health. “It’s a goal worth pursuing,” Fincke explains: “The benefits will ripple throughout the organization, improving productivity, innovation and the overall health of the workforce.”

Likewise, don’t tackle the impending tsunami of burnout the way management does and their stress will subside. Employees who don’t feel supported by their managers tend to have difficulty during transitions. Workers — at all levels — are four times more likely to quit their jobs and twice as likely to report poor overall health when they don’t feel supported, Fincke warns.

The outlook is not promising. Employee confidence has declined this year, but confidence among middle managers fell to its worst level ever in February. each glass door. That’s because “middle managers are under pressure to do more with fewer resources,” Glassdoor chief economist Daniel Zhao said at the time. Zhao added that seeing all the middle-management layoffs has left remaining workers “increasingly pessimistic about their employers’ prospects.”

Middle managers have had it the worst — and Gen Z is taking note

Burnout is a frequent problem for middle managers, which is not surprising.

They are often caught in Impossible location to placate difficult executives and quell the concerns and demands of entry-level workers. It’s no surprise that nearly half of the middle managers surveyed in one UKG Report 2023 said they might quit this year because the role is too stressful.

“We put too much pressure on managers and we didn’t give them enough of a platform,” says Pat Wadors, UKG’s chief people officer. speak Luck, describes the recipe for overwork and burnout.

Providing abundant, ongoing support to often-forgotten middle managers is surprisingly effective in preventing burnout—and is especially meaningful for workers, who work best when they feel supported. “You can’t expect them to lead if they don’t feel supported and no one is rooting for them,” said Tapaswee Chandele, global vice president of talent, development and pipeline partnerships at The Coca-Cola Company, said at luck Impact Initiative Conference in 2023.

But even as middle managers keep pushing — exhaustion and all — trouble keeps coming.

Last year, middle management roles accounted for nearly a third of all layoffs, per year Bloomberg report, up from a fifth five years ago. (Look no further than Mark Zuckerberg’s statement “The Year of Efficiency” for Meta, focusing primarily on “reducing” the company’s management level.)

If these issues are not resolved in the new year, companies may soon face a shortage of middle management. The unattractive nature of the middle management role has become difficult to hide – and as current leaders quit, entry-level workers are starting to become discouraged at the prospect of taking on the role.

Nearly three-quarters of Gen Z workers want to advance their careers as individual contributors rather than move up the ranks and become managers, a recent research by recruitment firm Robert Walters, highlighted. However, more than a third of respondents who believed they would one day become managers admitted that they did not expect to. Obviously, they have good reason.