FORBES LEADERSHIP CAREERS

Why People Don’t Aspire To

Be Managers In Today’s
Workforce
Jack Kelly Senior Contributor
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I write actionable interview, career and salary advice.

0 Jan 19, 2024, 12:24pm EST

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Managers deal with a litany of challenges, including dealing with decreased

performance levels, ... [+] GETTY

For decades, the goal of corporate workers was to rise through the
ranks of their organizations. They’d want to quickly shed their
individual contributor roles and take up management
opportunities. This was perceived as the traditional way to climb
the corporate ladder of success—gain more responsibilities, earn
more money and wield power over a large staff.

However, times have changed. In a recent survey by CoderPad, a

technical interview platform for leading development teams, 36%
of tech workers expressed not wanting to take on a managerial
role, as Gen-Zs and Millennials tend to prioritize a healthy work-
life balance compared to older generations. For this cohort, the
trade off in extra hours without much more compensation isn’t
worth all the extra time, aggravation and stress commensurate
with overseeing workers.

Why Being A Manager Is No Longer

Enticing
At the onset of the pandemic, managers were advised to have
their employees work from home. Then, they needed to establish
policies and procedures for people working remotely at scale.
Once it became time to have everyone return to the office,
managers were tasked with coordinating hybrid schedules,
overseeing vaccination statuses and other responsibilities on the
behest of top corporate executives.

Managers had to navigate dramatic swings in the job market.

Once the pandemic waned, there was a fierce battle to start hiring
talent once again. The Great Resignation made it difficult to
recruit and retain workers, and companies found themselves
short-staffed. Directly following the war for talent, a steady
stream of white-collar layoffs announcements started to take
place in an array of sectors from tech to Wall Street.
When the going gets tough, the target is often getting rid of
middle management positions. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg
famously deemed 2023 the “year of efficiency.” Zuckerberg called
out the inefficiencies within his organization, which was also
happening at other large tech companies, stating, “I don’t think
you want a management structure that’s just managers managing
managers, managing managers, managing managers, managing
the people who are doing the work.”

Although manager effectiveness is a top priority for companies,

research shows that organizational support for managers is
plummeting, according to MIT Sloan Management Review.

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These professionals, according to leading executive search firm

Korn Ferry, take a “disproportionate share of blame,” which
understandably tarnishes the allure of being a manager. A 2022
survey by think tank Future Forum revealed that in the post-
Covid workplace, middle managers are the most exhausted
employees at any level of an organization. According to the
findings, 45% self-reported that they were burned out.
There is also a feeling of loneliness that comes with being the boss
and not a part of the team anymore. As a middle manager, you
are on the outskirts, stuck between senior-level management and
the rank-and-file workers. When you walk into a room, instead of
being part of the club, everyone stops talking and becomes more
serious in your presence.

Every time there’s a crisis in the office, the manager is tasked with
putting out the fire. The supervisor is now demanded to play
office politics, in an attempt to smooth out feuds and arguments.
No matter how the dispute is remediated, invariably someone will
walk away unhappy and cast the blame on the manager.

Managers deal with a litany of challenges, including dealing with

decreased performance levels, being understaffed, lack of
communication and teamwork amongst staff, constant pressure
to meet objectives, building a structure, dealing with difficult
personalities and finding ways to pivot from being a worker to
reinventing yourself as a manager of people and processes.

By taking on a management position, these professionals

sometimes forfeit doing the thing they actually love because they
are pulled in other directions. For instance, someone could be a
gifted coder who rose to management level. They were then
tasked to build a team and manage 10 staff members. The once-
rockstar software developer, instead of coding, now spends the
day managing the minutiae of the daily workflow.

Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn. Check

out my website or some of my other work here.
 Jack Kelly Follow

I am a CEO, founder, and executive recruiter at one of the oldest and

largest global search firms in my area of expertise, and have personally...
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