This article was published in Essence, a lifestyle magazine whose target audience is primarily young, African-American women. I cherry-picked out some meaty bits of the article.
"According to Deloitte, only 6% of Gen Z professionals express any desire to reach executive leadership.
Gen Z’s hesitation comes down to three things: burnout, endless red tape, and losing touch with the work they actually love.
For a lot of young professionals, the math isn’t mathing. Take for example, a marketing coordinator making $55,000. They might see a promotion to marketing manager paying $70,000, but if that role requires 60-hour weeks instead of 40, the hourly compensation actually decreases. Gen Z has watched millennial managers navigate impossible expectations, constant reorganizations, and the mental health toll that comes with middle management responsibilities. Whether or not it’s actually worth it depends on the individual, but if you look at the facts strictly on paper, it’s looking like a hard no for most.
For millennials (waving a yellow flag as an elderly millennial myself), the case against management is equally compelling. Many entered the workforce during the Great Recession and now question whether traditional career advancement is worth the personal cost. To say that we are stressed, overworked and underpaid is an understatement. Those who pursued management roles during the pandemic found themselves managing remote teams through unprecedented challenges while dealing with their own stress and isolation.
The article has the obligatory jabs at the Trump Administration. That seems ironic because the red-tape and nonvalue-added tasks were heaped on private enterprise by Obama and Biden's Administrations.
It is telling that even the True Believers can see how regulations are strangling managers and, ultimately, private enterprise. Now they need to connect the dots that private enterprise is the engine of economic growth and if they collapse because nobody with a brain wants a role in middle-management, then there will be no more tax-donkeys to bleed.
I concur with the article, surprisingly....
ReplyDeleteAs a former middle manager, I see and am actively looking through the want ads. I see some employers are starting to 'get it', while others are very seriously stuck in 5-years-ago mode.
I think there will be a large bifurcation coming among society along those lines. Sadly I think it will squeeze the little guy out. To be competitive against higher salaries large companies can afford/buffer against, they need to improve the working conditions beyond what big companies are able to.
ERJ, I also concur with the thought. What is equally annoying in my industry is the salary difference between a senior individual contributor and a manager is not that great for the amount of additional work it entails.
ReplyDeleteLoosing touch with the work you love happens to all of us, eventually. Part of that is simply that responsibilities change, part of that is that for some people (me for many years) my "work" was not what I was doing that I enjoyed. It is not necessarily enjoyable even now, but at least I can find some joy in the work that I do, even if it is not my calling.
How did you come to the conclusion that this is a result of regulation and not something else?
ReplyDeleteThe majority of the on-going training and the mandatory reporting/documentation I encountered as a working-stiff originated in mandates from laws like EPA, ADA and EEO. Then those laws were "extended" by regulators.
DeleteThrow in token promotions to balance the workplace, and the resulting increase in work-load on the people who were promoted for competence rather than checking-a-box and you have a recipe for burnout.
I would have to agree that moving from worker bee to middle manager may not be worth the aggravation. Especially working for Fortune 500 company. Proclamations from on high seemed to be made from Ouija board research yet you are expected to make them work. My issue was constant demand for increase productivity or sales with constantly diminishing resources. They rarely fire the VP who made the promises to the BOD, they just canned the manager and start with some other person.
ReplyDeleteI never had a case in my career where a token hire was the major issue, all of them knew they were over their head and wanted to be successful. I made director before I retired in a small firm. I know two manager here that declined promotions so they could spend more time with their family. Don't blame them.
Absolutely correct. I retired as a senior engineer. Probably could have made manager but after I saw the bullshit and hoops they had to jump thru I elected to stay where I was at. Also had a lot more fun
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