Bad news for 2025: After years of unresolved friction, overwork, and a flawed support system, “managerial crash” will enter the workplace.
That is one of the four main predictions meQuilibriuma digital coaching platform aimed at strengthening workplace well-being. (The other three: making readiness to change a priority; the welfare benefits of remote work are slowly eroding; and Gen Zers struggle with change more than their older peers).
“Like a market crash, we will see a significant decline in executive well-being, performance and ability to continue to lead as champions of change,” Alanna Fincke, content and learning leader at meQuilibrim, wrote in the report.
“If no one cares about managers, they will be at greater risk of burnout and turnover than the people they manage,” Finck emphasized.
The announcement is not entirely surprising. Middle managers—non-executive-level employees who supervise other employees—are historically less likely than their peers to feel supported by their superiors. But middle management discontent is especially dangerous because happy, motivated managers act as a “crucial force multiplier” for the success of the entire organization, meQuilibrium wrote.
You can’t (really) miss middle managers
To avoid the next “crash”, organizational leaders must take decisive action before the new year to make clear the importance of mental well-being. It’s a worthwhile pursuit, Finck explains: “The benefits will ripple throughout the organization, improving productivity, innovation and overall employee health.”
Likewise, don’t address the tsunami of burnout through management and their stress will plummet. Employees who do not feel supported by their managers tend to struggle during times of transformation. Workers — at any level — are four times more likely to quit their jobs and twice as likely to report poor overall well-being when they’re not supported, Finck notes.
The outlook is not promising. Employee sentiment has dipped this year, but middle manager confidence fell to its worst ever reading in February, Per Glassdoor. “Because middle managers are under pressure to do more with less,” Glassdoor chief economist Daniel Zhao said at the time. And witnessing all the layoffs in middle management has left other workers “increasingly pessimistic about their employer’s prospects,” Zhao added.
Middle managers have had it the worst, and Generation Z is taking notice
Burnout is a consistent theme for middle managers, which should come as no surprise.
They are often caught impossible position placating demanding executives and assuaging the concerns and needs of entry-level employees. Not surprisingly, almost half of the middle managers surveyed 2023 UKG report he said he would probably quit within a year due to the stress of the role.
“We put so much pressure on the manager, and we don’t give them enough scaffolding,” UKG chief people officer Pat Wadors. say luck, describing a recipe for overwork and burnout.
Providing extensive and ongoing support to the often-overlooked middle managers is surprisingly effective in combating burnout, and it’s especially meaningful for employees, who function best when they feel supported. “You can’t expect them to lead if they don’t feel supported, and there’s no one to back them up,” Tapaswee Chandele, global vice president of talent, development and systems collaboration at The. Coca-Cola The company said at of luck Impact Initiative conference in 2023
But even if the middle managers stay out – burnout and all – the problems keep coming.
Last year, middle management roles accounted for nearly a third of all layoffs, a Bloomberg report, more than a fifth of five years earlier. (Look no further than what Mark Zuckerberg said “Year of Efficiency” For Meta, it focused largely on “slimming” the company’s management ranks).
If these issues are not addressed in the new year, companies may soon face a shortage of middle management. The unattractive nature of the middle management role has become hard to hide, and as current leaders leave, entry-level employees are turning a blind eye to the prospect of taking on the role.
Nearly three-quarters of Gen Z workers prefer to advance their careers as individual contributors rather than move up the ranks and become managers. final exam By hiring the company Robert Walters, he highlighted. However, more than a third of respondents who believe they will one day become a manager admit that they do not look ahead. Obviously, they have good reasons.
