People in their 40s and 50s want to work hard before retiring. With more than 20 years of rich experience, they hope that companies will cherish their experience and wisdom. But in this era, companies may not need middle-level managers anymore. Maybe they don't think their experience is so valuable, or For efficiency reasons, now is especially not the time to change jobs for executive-level talents.
Foreign media combed through government data and interviewed corporate employers and economists and found that the so-called "curse of Generation X professionals" is not due to age discrimination, but because there are not enough supervisory vacancies.
The survey shows that in the wave of layoffs in 2023, middle-level managers will account for 32%, compared with only 20% in 2019. Companies have turned to recruiting lower-level employees, resulting in a sharp increase in the number of job seekers aged 40 to 50, but they can only compete for increasingly lower-level jobs. vacancies.
Mid-level managers become a thorn in the side
Experience that should have been a selling point for senior leaders has become a burden. To find a job, many fired supervisors have no choice but to put aside their brilliant resume records and apply for jobs downstream in the corporate food chain. Some people delete the first few jobs on their resumes to hide their management experience, or even A former chief operating officer applied for an administrative assistant job.
It is assumed that the efficiency of this flattening of enterprises will be better, and the ultimate success or failure will determine the future of these former executives of the middle-aged generation.
Many CEOs insist that laying off middle managers is not about saving money but about creating "stronger" companies and building "higher quality products." If this assumption is accepted, the corporate ladder you spent your career climbing might disappear forever.
But the experiment has not been successful, and many companies are finding that having fewer middle managers puts operations under tremendous pressure. This includes surviving executives being forced to manage more people, leading to burnout, Gen Z losing mentors and becoming increasingly alienated, departments more siled than ever, and no one taking on the tedious, thankless and important job of coordinating teams.
The 2025 Supervisor Meltdown Is Coming
The Great Flattening trend will continue in 2025, spelling disaster for the remaining executives.
After years of unresolved burnout, overwork and flawed support systems, a "supervisor meltdown" will hit the workplace in 2025, according to meQuilibrium, a workplace wellness platform capabilities have dropped significantly.
Human resources platform Glassdoor also pointed out that employee sentiment has declined across the board this year, but confidence among mid-level managers has dropped to its worst ever. Glassdoor's chief economist said this was due to "pressure on mid-level managers to do more with fewer resources," which saw mid-level managers being laid off, leaving supervisors "increasingly pessimistic about their employer's prospects." .
As burnout increases, companies may soon face a shortage of middle managers and lower-level employees disinclined to take on management roles. The survey found that nearly three-quarters of Gen Z employees would rather advance as individual contributors than advance to supervisors.
Career experts believe that dissatisfaction among middle managers is the most dangerous, because happy and inspiring supervisors are "key force multipliers" for the success of the entire organization. Good supervisors have benefits for the entire organization, including improving productivity and innovation capabilities. As well as overall employee health, even AI systems cannot completely replace human management advantages. Experts warn that executive stress needs to be taken seriously as companies cannot afford to lose mid-level executives.
