I can\u2019t blame you.\u00a0 Even sitcoms and pop culture memes portray the middle manager as a mockery by the employees who are often bullied by their higher-ups.<\/p>\n
But before we pull the punch lines, I invite you to give your middle manager a second look.\u00a0 There\u2019s more to them than meets the eye. A middle manager is the link between senior management and the junior levels of the organization.\u00a0 Unlike senior management, they are involved with the daily grind of running a business.\u00a0 They possess valuable information and are a repository of suggestions from the organization.\u00a0 Furthermore, the middle manager is a channel of communication.\u00a0\u00a0 They are tasked to disseminate information (such as major decisions of executives) to the lower levels, and coordinate work between upper management and workers. A middle manager is, well\u2026 a bit of a unicorn.<\/p>\n And Kathi, a division manager at a logistics firm, couldn\u2019t agree more.\u00a0 The role feels mythical and unreal.\u00a0 She makes dozens of decisions each day.\u00a0 When she isn\u2019t busy doing that, she\u2019s saddled with managing and coaching subordinates (around 14 of them), and then reports performances to higher-ups (whose policies she enforces, even if she didn\u2019t have a say in making those policies in the first place). In addition, she attends to daily operations, monitors each subordinate\u2019s performance, and makes sure that everything is done in compliance with the law and what the organization needs.\u00a0 It’s simple on paper, but a nightmare in practice. \u00a0Kathi feels she has it rough.<\/p>\n And she does.\u00a0 She has to take full responsibility for decisions made under pressure. And yet nobody can advocate for her when she needs it the most. It can be a thankless job.<\/p>\n This feeling of thanklessness is common in top-down, command and control organizations.\u00a0 In a collaborative work culture and leadership team, collaboration in the workplace involves individuals working together to solve problems across departments, management levels, and functions. This requires a different leadership mindset and improved interpersonal and team process skills that also spark higher levels of employee engagement. It also takes much of the double bind (damned if you do and damned if you don’t) sting out of middle management roles.<\/p>\n In 2015 research by Columbia University — a survey of 22,000 full-time workers —\u00a0 revealed that 18% of supervisors and managers reported depression symptoms.\u00a0 (For owners and executives, it was 11%, 12% for blue-collar workers.)\u00a0 A separate study in 2014 found that job satisfaction for managers was in the bottom 5%.<\/p>\n Could these subjects be middle managers with low-performance ratings, insufficient training, or inadequate experience?\u00a0 It\u2019s a valid first impression.\u00a0 However, many are college degree holders with at least 5 to 10 years of tenure. Most received a good (if not superior) performance rating in the last year too.<\/p>\n Why the dissatisfaction?<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/corevalues.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/MIDDLE-MANAGERS-1024x576.png\")
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Middle Manager<\/h3>\n
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<\/a><\/p>\nWhat does the research show?<\/h3>\n
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\u201cIf you want to look for the unhappiest people in an organization,\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>head to a middle manager\u2019s desk.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/h4>\n<\/blockquote>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/corevalues.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Why-the-sad-face-1024x576.png\")
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