After navigating COVID-19, high inflation, persistent labor shortages, and the mandate to return to the office, managers are burned out. Some 46% of middle managers say they will quit their job in the next 12 months because of related stress, according to a new survey of 3,400 people in 10 countries from the Institute of Workforce at UKG.
Middle managers’ mental health problems are not news to executives. During the pandemic, many managers warn that they are struggling to cope with the workload. In October of last year, a record 43% of middle managers said they were burned out, a Slack Technologies Future Forum survey found.
“What we’ve seen, quarter after quarter, is that middle managers have struggled,” said Sheela Subramanian, founder of Future Forum. Bloomberg in time.
Now, more than half of middle managers surveyed by the Workforce Institute say someone told them not to accept their current job, and 70% say they would take a pay cut for a new position that “more supports mental health.”
“Chronic anxiety that comes from working through the only global crisis that employees have,” said Dr. Jarik Conrad, executive director of The Workforce Institute at UKG, on the results. “Being overwhelmed uses human energy and affects retention, performance, innovation, and culture.”
Why middle managers are important
With many CEOs preparing for the recession, the increased focus on employee well-being that began during the pandemic is waning in some sectors.
Facebook-parent Meta is leaning toward what CEO Mark Zuckerberg calls the “Efficiency Year,” putting some middle managers on the chopping block and asking others to move into rank-and-file positions to help the company cut costs; Elon Musk has opted for a “very hardcore” work culture after the $44 billion acquisition of Twitter; and investment banks like Goldman Sachs have aggressively pushed for workers to return to the office.
Michael Friedman, chief executive of New York investment firm First Level Capital, said The Wall Street Journal Last November the CEOs successfully took “tired of all the whining” from employees. But it might make sense for the C-Suite to prioritize the mental health of middle managers.
“In workplaces around the world, leaders and managers can have more influence on the mental health of their people than they think,” said researchers at the Institute of Workforce at UKG. “Managers have just as much influence on people’s mental health as their spouses—and more influence than doctors or therapists.”
A disgruntled middle manager can sabotage a company’s mental health initiatives by closing the lines of communication with employees. About 40% of employees are “often” or “always” stressed about work, but 38% “rarely” or “never” talk to their managers about it, the Workforce Institute study shows. And about 78% of employees say that stress has a negative impact on work performance, something executives may want to pay attention to.
Additionally, 64% of employees say they would take a pay cut for a new job that is “more supportive of mental health,” meaning that ignoring middle managers’ mental health issues can be costly. The cost of replacing an employee today can often be three times their annual salary.
“I think we’re putting too much pressure on managers, and we’re not giving them enough scaffolding,” said Pat Wadors, chief executive at UKG. fortune‘s Amber Burton and Paolo Confino Tuesday. “This tension gives [managers] basic skills, emotional intelligence, compassion, empathy, and listening skills are just there… The humanitarian side of managers is usually not covered in your manager courses.
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