It’s been a tough road for Millenials. From one side they’ve been pilloried for eating too much avocado toast and saving too little money. On the other, many entered adult life and the workforce smack in the middle of a profound global recession when loans for the very things they were excoriated for not buying, homes and equities, dried up.
This has created a generational culture of over-work. Millennials are the “hustle” generation. And, just as they are discovering about the treacherous slopes of homeowning, those who are entering middle management are learning that extreme striving doesn’t necessarily lead to a satisfying work life.
That is, according to a recent profile from BBC’s “Worklife,” the subject of which is the rock and hard place between which middle managers, many of whom are “Millennials,” find themselves. For some, it’s their first foray into management, often being picked to lead a department or group for which they currently work.
Suddenly those who were so recently their co-workers are to be overseen and scrutinized for productivity and keeping on task. Middle managers become the gatekeeper of and messenger for upper management, sandwiching them between workers and bosses. They often feel like they have little control and incur the resentment of those below them for relaying the will of upper management.
It is not the only place Millennials are sandwiched, with some calling them a “sandwich generation” responsible for care of parents as well as of their own children, something the Global pandemic made even more stressful.
The cumulative effects can lead to burnout, stress and other mental health issues, with middle managers reporting much higher levels of depression than either upper management or “blue collar workers.”
The Worklife profile offers few structural solutions, hewing mostly the psychology of the individual finding ways to lower stress levels and create healthy work/life boundaries, such as accepting and keeping separate their different working identities. What might help more is things like paid family leave, universal childcare and a stronger social safety net, but with little traction in the halls of Congress, band-aids for the individual might be the best we can muster for the moment.
