{"id":81807,"date":"2023-10-24T02:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-24T02:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.talogy.com\/?p=81807"},"modified":"2025-09-18T22:25:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T22:25:11","slug":"how-to-overcome-employee-burnout-in-middle-managers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/talogy.com\/en-gb\/blog\/how-to-overcome-employee-burnout-in-middle-managers\/","title":{"rendered":"How to overcome employee burnout in middle managers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Leaders have a lot on their shoulders no matter the industry in which they work or the level at which they fall within an organisational chart. But recent studies have shown that those designations can impact their overall wellbeing at work. As reported by the Financial Times, Vitality Britain\u2019s Healthiest Workplace (2022) surveyed 8,500 workers and found that middle managers were most likely to say they had experienced burnout<\/a> compared with top executives or non-managers. They were also least likely to say they had good work-life balance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Times also reported the findings of an international study by Microsoft in September 2022, of 20,000 workers in 11 countries. The results found that 53% of managers felt they were burned out<\/a>. There are many more surveys and studies out there confirming this is a problem, and it affects not just leaders and managers, but the entire organisation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the \u2018squeezed middle?\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

McKinsey describes this phenomenon as the \u2018squeezed middle\u2019<\/a> and refers to anyone between senior leadership and the front line. There are times, no matter where you are in an organisation, when you will be the \u2018squeezed middle\u2019 \u2013 e.g. an executive between the Board and the organisation, or an organisation between its shareholders\/investors and its customers. But for this scenario, I\u2019m going to focus specifically on those in leadership roles who are sandwiched between high-level executives they report to and the individual contributors that they oversee. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, what is causing this \u2018squeezed middle\u2019 effect? Where is this added pressure from both sides originating from? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The organisational hierarchy is one potential culprit. Middle managers are trying to balance the demands of both their team members and senior leadership. They are seeing a higher demand from their team for additional resources and support that, many times, they do not have in their artillery. It\u2019s also important to factor in a changing work landscape where employee wellbeing and engagement need to be prioritised. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Combine that with a culture where leaders are pressuring those middle managers<\/a> to deliver more with less due to factors such as an uncertain economic climate or workforce redundancies and those employee burnout statistics listed above make a lot of sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recognising middle manager burnout<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

All of these elements can contribute to what Barry Oshry terms as \u2018system blindness.\u2019 Oshry, a pioneer in the field of human system thinking, describes this as a disintegration where, in this disintegrated state: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c \u2026we fall into an \u2018I\u2019 mentality in which we experience ourselves as separate from our peers. In this state, we may often insert ourselves into other people\u2019s issues and conflicts and make them our own.\u201d<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

An example of these dysfunctional scenarios could be experiencing situations as threatening, when they are probably not because this is what we are learning to expect from the system. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another example is when we reflexively connect with some parts of the system \u2013 e.g. those higher up \u2013 and reduce our connectivity to other parts of the system \u2013 e.g. those lower down. Or the other way around. This \u2018system blindness\u2019 can lead to managers providing an unintentional lower quality service to those they lead, manage, coach etc. because they are less knowledgeable about the wider system issues. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Have you ever experienced this? I know I have. In my first role as a manager, although it was many years ago, I can still remember the feeling as if it was yesterday. I felt like I had little in common with others and that I was always in some level of competition with those around me. I was evaluating others on surface issues and misunderstanding other\u2019s intentions and actions. It certainly felt very personal \u2013 but the reality is that it isn\u2019t personal at all. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We need to remember that we always have a choice, and we have more choice than we think we do. We can actively choose not to see the scenarios as personal and when we do that, we can see the opportunity to positively affect it. We would all benefit from learning to ask great questions to help us see the system such as:<\/p>\n\n\n\n