HIGHER RISKS OF BURNOUT AMONG

MANAGERS
1)
The article entitled « HIGHER RISKS OF BURNOUT AMONG MANAGERS” adapted from
Business Insider on September 2023. The journalist aims to highlight the difficulties managers face
nowadays, leading to high levels of burnout and disengagement . It has become much harder to be a
manager as their responsibilities increase.
Indeed, the journalist points out the complexity of managing in the modern workplace. They are
directly impacted by restructuring, budget cuts and adaptation to remote or hybrid work. Which
increases their workload and stress. Managers often find themselves in survival mode. Nevertheless,
the wages may seem attractive to retains managers but the reality is different, managers are more
likely to actively seek new jobs than their staff even after a promotions. This suggests that financial
incentives are not enough to solve the deeper issues of job satisfaction. It’s important for large
companies to look after the well-being of their managers and create a healthy and productive work
environment.
The tone of the text is in a certain way and also various the journalist uses Gallup survey to carry out
his research and several outside opinions. “A Gallup survey of Fortune 500 chief human resources
officers found” or “Nela Richardson, chief economist at ADP said ” “said Heather Barrett, a director at
Gallup”.
2)
Managers are facing major difficulties, First of all according to the gallop survey the risk of layoffs
for middle managers is higher “middle managers are at the greatest risk of getting laid off in 2023”.
“managers are experiencing higher levels of burnout. This indicates that since covid middle managers
have been downsized meaning companies have less managers but with the same amount of work .Now
the work can be managed by a single person, as they also have to manage team, which significate they
have more responsibilities and can impact on their well-being, increases stress.
Additionally, burnout and disengagement are major challenges for managers. This is illustrated by the
following quote «This comes at a time when, overall, managers are experiencing higher levels of
burnout and disengagement than their staff”. In other words, in the current climate, managers feel a
higher level of stress and demotivation than their teams ,including a higher rate of being fired.
Thirdly, adapting to remote working and new responsibilities is a significant challenge. In a first place
“Managers have also had to figure out remote work, including how to oversee a virtual team, and other
duties they may not have had pre-pandemic”. The move to remote working has brought new
responsibilities for managers meaning to learn how to handle teams virtually .The type of challenge
they had not faced before the pandemic. “When do you set the team meeting?(…) Simple acts like that
have made managing teams a little more difficult.”
However, after the pandemic they faced a new dilemma return to Office Policies or keep a certain
form of remote work. Which can frustrate some employees, they have to take into account individual
preferences for remote working, which can have an impact on team cohesion.
3)
The following paragraph “Many managers are “in survival mode”, said Heather Barrett, a director at
Gallup and co-author of the article, meaning that they often cannot provide regular feedback or open
doors for their staff–leading to them indirectly “quiet firing” some of their staff”
In this context survival mode describe a scenario where managers are so overwhelmed by their
workload and the pressures they suffer from their position, to the disadvantage of their staff’s long-
term development and overall strategy.
The impact of this survival mode on work can be considerable, when this happens, it's hard for
managers to concentrate and think correctly, and they may feel like they're just falling through the
motion. By behaving this way, they will ignore important aspects of their jobs as giving feedback to
their staff , active support , empowerment and develop skills they need to do their job effectively.
Unfortunately, acting like that may lead on quiet firing. This creates conditions that could potentially
drive employees to leave the organization voluntarily ,without consideration by their managers and in
search of better conditions.
This paragraph highlights a vicious circle in which the pressures placed on managers not only affect
their well-being, but also have an impact for their teams.
4)
- Does a promotion help retain managers?
Promotions are generally seen as a positive career move, but they don't necessarily help retain
managers. The text specifies that “Sometimes, a promotion doesn’t mean a worker will stick around.
(…) A promotion means more responsibility (….)but also maybe new job roles that a person may be
less familiar with”. In fact, even if promotion include a higher salary it’s also means more
responsibility over their heads. It introduces new challenges including additional responsibilities and
potential unfamiliar roles .I think rushing internal promotion is not always the best decision to make.
Furthermore, analysis from data publish confirm the awareness over manager’s promotions “a
promotion increased a manager’s risk of leaving more than it did for individual contributor” they can
lead to increased turnover, especially if new roles and responsibilities don't match.
-Should companies promote managers or not?
Despite promotion might seems less attractive than expected for managers, it’s doesn’t mean to let it
go. Indeed, “helping people not only understand the basics of management, but what their own
personal management style is that is comfortable for them, for their industry, for their teams, is a really
great opportunity in terms of career development and helping with this transition” Promotions, in
themselves, are not presented as problematic. On the contrary, the challenge here is how managers are
supported before, during and after this transition.
What's more, the Gallup study highlights that “better leadership communication, increased training
and development, additional coaching support to prevent burnout, can loosen the “manager squeeze””.
If companies put more value on the well-being of managers These elements can reduce the pressure on
managers and enable them to lead their teams more effectively. As a value, Investment in manager
development has led to a 59% increase in engagement, according to another Gallup study. This
demonstrates that, with the right support, promotions can actually contribute to manager retention ,
rather than leaving.