The Invisible Middle: Are Midlevel Leaders Quietly Burning Out?
As we head into the holiday season, midlevel leaders are facing record burnout as organizational culture shifts.
Do you feel like you’re carrying the weight of your entire team? Do you spend your day firefighting instead of leading? Do you leave your desk or home office feeling both responsible for everything and powerless to change anything?
If that feels familiar, you’re not imagining it. Midlevel leaders within and beyond the channel ecosystem are reaching a breaking point.
And the data backs up exactly what you’re experiencing.
You’re Not Imagining It: The Middle Is Breaking
Burnout is highest in middle management.
In 2021 and again in 2024, Gallup found that midlevel managers report the highest levels of burnout of any role in the workplace, even surpassing frontline staff. In addition, managers are buried in work that could be deemed organizationally low in value. Approximately 40 percent of a manager’s day is spent on administrative tasks or solving everyday problems. In the 2024 Global Human Capital Trends report, 53 percent of managers said they are experiencing work burnout.
Long story short: Stress levels are worsening. Another analysis found that 36 percent of managers reported a steady rise in pressure as their teams shrank and expectations grew. And for small businesses? Workforce analysis displays the average number of direct reports for middle managers nearly doubled from 2019 to 2024—from three to six—due to flattening structures, hiring freezes and attrition.
Managers and midlevel leaders are “the most overburdened role in the modern organization,” according to McKinsey. People in middle management are implementing decisions they do not make and absorbing consequences they cannot control. So, if you’re exhausted, stretched thin or wondering why you can’t seem to catch up, know the issue is not solely on you. It's the system of work you’re leading inside of.
Why The Middle Is Breaking (And Why It Feels So Personal)
- You’re absorbing constant transformation with no buffer.
AI adoption, tech consolidation, rapid restructuring—everything flows downhill until it lands on your desk. Not because you asked for it, but because you’re closest to the work of the team you manage. You’re expected to stabilize teams while you’re barely holding yourself together.
- You’re doing two jobs… and sometimes three.
Open roles are unfilled. Budgets are tight. Direct reports multiply. And the assumption becomes, “you’ll figure it out.” Even when the workload is unmanageable. Even when it costs you clarity, creativity, and rest.
- You’re the face of leadership without the voice of leadership.
Employees look to you for answers.
Executives look to you for execution.
But too often, decisions happen without your input—and you’re still accountable for rolling them out.
- You care deeply, which also increases your load.
Midlevel leaders tend to be the glue: the ones who coach, steady, translate and humanize. When trust cracks, when communication breaks, when morale dips, you’re the one absorbing the impact.
What You Can Actually Do Right Now
This isn’t about “being more resilient.”
You’re already resilient.
This is about systems, structures and power.
Here are three moves that shift your workload into something sustainable—not sacrificial.
- Clarify your decision rights. Stop carrying responsibility without authority.
Make a list of:
What you fully own
What you influence
What’s outside your decision-making scope
Then review it with your leader.
It’s not a confrontation—it’s a realignment.
Clarity is an antidote to overwhelm.
- Create a cross-functional support pod.
Midlevel leaders burn out because they become the only point of connection between siloed teams.
A support pod distributes the thinking and the load.
Invite:
one technical partner
one operations partner
one HR/finance partner
Meet biweekly to share risks, blockers and ownership.
You shouldn’t be the landing pad for everything.
- Advocate for structured development and visibility.
Your growth should not be accidental or dependent on being available 24x7.
Ask for:
skill-specific stretch assignments
increased visibility with senior leadership
support for capability building tied to your next role
You deserve development, not just tasks.
You’re Not Failing. You’re Overburdened.
If you’re overwhelmed, stretched, or questioning your capacity, remember this:
You’re not the problem.
You’re the reason the system still works.
But you shouldn’t have to hold it together alone.
Leaders who want healthy, high-performing organizations in 2025 must confront the truth:
The middle isn’t weak.
The structure around them is.
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