URL: https://www.caitlinsteele.com/we-didnt-start-the-fire-the-crisis-of-middle-management-in-tech/
Growing up in Nevada City, California, fires were a constant threat. From summer through fall, we remained vigilant for any signs of wildfire.
I remember the thick smoke and how my mom kept a list of valuables organised by evacuation time frames: 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours, and up to 4 hours. She piled our family photo albums by the front door in case we had to flee without time to pack.
Author Kathy Austin coined the platitude, “Managers light a fire under people; leaders light a fire in people.” I consider myself both a manager and a leader, but in the last few years, I spent more time fighting management fires than sparking passion and creativity in my teams.
Lenny Rachitsky’s recent large-scale survey of over 8,200 tech workers found that “fewer than 1 in 3 tech workers (26.6%) rate their managers as highly effective, while more than 4 in 10 (42.3%) rate their managers as ineffective.” Perhaps more telling, the survey revealed that 84% of tech employees are experiencing burnout and “44.67% of all respondents are currently experiencing significant burnout.” The data confirms what many of us feel: we’re not just tired; we’re operating in crisis mode.
When the people responsible for crafting human-centred experiences are themselves feeling dehumanised by their work environments, it signals a fundamental breakdown in how we value and support creative work.
The parallels between increased fire danger in forests and the increase in metaphorical fire fighting for managers are striking: just as rising temperatures, prolonged droughts, and shifting weather patterns have created conditions where fires ignite faster, spread wider, and burn longer, the tech industry’s macroeconomic shifts over the past few years have created a perfect storm for human burnout.
This isn’t a new McKinsey article on the future of middle management but it still feels relevant, an interview with the authors of “Power to the Middle: Why Managers Hold the Keys to the Future of Work.” The takeaway: Middle managers are more overburdened than ever, yet they remain essential to organisational success. There is an urgent need to redefine their roles for maximum impact.
Did you catch that? Happier managers lead to more productive teams and a 3X increase in value return. Citing macroeconomic conditions is the top reason companies argue they are making changes to their organisations and ways of working… the illusion of efficiency and compliance with the 40% rule is destroying the cultures of growth which could fuel the revenue growth these companies are chasing.
This isn’t about individual resilience; it’s about organisational design. When 84% of workers are reporting burnout, that’s a systemic problem, not a character flaw. I have no advice for frontline and middle managers; you already receive too many directives about prioritisation and “building resilience.” You can’t meditate away excessive responsibilities. The Eisenhower Matrix can’t handle simultaneous performance reviews and quarterly planning.
Organisations I join flourish like well-tended groves: teams put down deeper roots, new talent branches out with confidence, and innovation blooms across the forest floor. But I am never the star player; my teams are the ones reaching toward the canopy.
I have had to prune dead wood, and not everyone appreciated the process, but I earned respect and cultivated growth. I keep in touch with almost everyone I ever managed, celebrating as they sow their own seeds in new organisational ecosystems. I learned from my best managers how to nurture growth, and I learned what not to do from my worst managers whose practices poison the soil.