According to research conducted from 2020 to 2021, middle managers are at the greatest risk of suffering from a burnout, who reported, besides being subjected to higher levels of stress and burnout, “worse physical well-being and work-life balance than the people they manage.” More alarmingly, managers are quitting at higher rates than other employees in non-managerial roles. Especially over the past few years, managers have been expected to take up challenge after challenge – most oftentimes barehanded without the necessary skillsets.

To make things worse, managers are stuck in the middle between those higher up and those they manage. For example, their subordinates may demand a deadline extension due to an onerous workload and time pressure, while their superiors may insist on on-time completion. Having little say in the matter, managers are forced to resign themselves to a state of defeat and powerlessness. This has the unintended but very concerning consequence of impacting negatively on managers’ mental health, owing to “their position of authority without strategic power”.

Managers working at scale-ups are more vulnerable to this plight, as there is often a mismatch between the pace at which their skills are scaling and the pace at which the business is scaling. Furthermore, rapidly growing organisations start to increasingly shift their reliance on systems rather than relationships, and without timely corrective action, organisational inefficiencies may begin to crop up. These conditions unfortunately provide an ideal breeding ground for burnout. It is, therefore, imperative for leaders to watch out for signs of burnout, which include a slump in the quality of work produced, apathy and disengagement, and an increased frequency of complaining, with employees being generally disgruntled.