{"id":4584,"date":"2026-01-06T10:10:48","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T10:10:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/manpower.lt\/success-stories\/darbuotojai-vis-dazniau-vengia-buti-vadovais-kodel-vidurines-grandies-lyderiu-pozicijos-praranda-patraukluma\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T10:13:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T10:13:11","slug":"darbuotojai-vis-dazniau-vengia-buti-vadovais-kodel-vidurines-grandies-lyderiu-pozicijos-praranda-patraukluma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/manpower.lt\/en\/insights\/darbuotojai-vis-dazniau-vengia-buti-vadovais-kodel-vidurines-grandies-lyderiu-pozicijos-praranda-patraukluma\/","title":{"rendered":"Employees Are Increasingly Reluctant to Become Managers: Why Middle Management Roles Are Losing Their Appeal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

More and more often, companies are facing a situation in which their most talented specialists decline promotions. Recruitment experts are observing a worrying trend: people are reluctant to take on middle management roles not due to a lack of ambition, but because of organizational cultures that embed a built-in \u201cburnout system.\u201d Evelina Laty\u0161ovi\u010d, Head of Business Operations at ManpowerGroup Lithuania, a global workforce solutions company, notes that today the role of a middle manager is increasingly becoming a trap rather than a step up the career ladder \u2013responsibility without real authority.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although public discourse often focuses on generational differences, HR experts emphasize that the refusal to become a middle manager is not related to an employee\u2019s age. According to Laty\u0161ovi\u010d, the reluctance to lead is often not an assessment of one\u2019s own personality, but rather an evaluation of organizational culture. For example, when employees see that management provides no support, they choose a safer path. In some cases, even employees who have already tried a leadership role \u2013 or who have closely observed what it entails for many years \u2013 choose not to pursue it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur practice shows that this phenomenon is most often a systemic response to widespread burnout, chaotic organizational structures, and unrealistically high expectations in today\u2019s labor market. People assess that the disadvantages of middle management outweigh the benefits. Even higher salaries or additional perks do not compensate for the risks involved: constant stress, responsibility for both personal and team mistakes, and sometimes even the loss of work\u2013life balance,\u201d says Laty\u0161ovi\u010d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Middle Management Trap: Responsibility Without Power<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this position, managers become intermediaries between two worlds: senior leadership and their own teams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMiddle managers are expected to represent the interests of both sides, but the reality is that enormous expectations are placed on them while they are given very limited resources and decision-making authority. From this position, a manager is expected not only to lead and motivate a team, but also to continue performing a significant amount of operational work,\u201d explains Laty\u0161ovi\u010d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn practice, it looks very down-to-earth: a person is offered a promotion, but along with it comes an \u2018invisible\u2019 part of the job \u2013 constant availability, conflict management, and the implementation of urgent changes \u2018starting tomorrow.\u2019 This workload often leads to additional overtime, which is frequently hidden from higher-level management. As a result, the specialist understands that the new role means not only a higher salary, but also becoming \u2018responsible for everything\u2019\u2013 even when decisions, priorities, or resources are beyond their control,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For these reasons, stress levels among people in leadership roles are also rising. As many as 71% of leaders worldwide report that their stress levels increased significantly after stepping into managerial roles, according to the world\u2019s largest leadership study, Global Leadership Forecast 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Common Mistake Made by Many Lithuanian Companies<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Laty\u0161ovi\u010d points out that a flawed promotion model is still prevalent in Lithuania: employees are \u201cthrown\u201d into managerial roles without any preparation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe typical scenario is this: one week you are performing regular specialist-level duties, and a few weeks later you may already become a manager. The employee\u2019s job title is changed, their salary increased, and it is assumed that they will automatically know how to lead. However, no one teaches them how to organize team work, conduct difficult conversations, hire or fire employees, or create a motivation system based on objective and achievable results. The person is left alone, and when mistakes occur, their competence and performance are evaluated \u2013 often using the English term \u2018performance\u2019 \u2013 even though in reality the biggest influence on those mistakes is the organizational system itself, which failed to provide the necessary tools and proper onboarding into the new role,\u201d the expert emphasizes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A survey conducted by the global research and consulting firm Gartner shows that nearly three out of four middle managers feel exhausted, and 40% of managers who have recently taken on these roles are already looking for new jobs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Therefore, if companies want strong leaders, they must change their approach to leadership. According to Laty\u0161ovi\u010d, today the priority should not be simply hiring new managers, but educating and empowering existing employees before promoting them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Key Is Attention and Strengthening Leadership Skills<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To make middle management roles more attractive, organizations need to change their structure, responsibilities, and leadership logic. According to Laty\u0161ovi\u010d, the first step must be a clear definition of boundaries and decision-making authority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf organizations want middle management roles to become more appealing, they must fundamentally reassess the expectations placed on them. Managers must be given real decision-making power, not just a formal obligation to implement decisions made by others. A person cannot be held responsible for results if they lack real autonomy to achieve them,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Equally important is the organization\u2019s approach to supporting middle managers. If support is limited to occasional training sessions or standard onboarding programs, managers are essentially left alone to deal with complex situations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cManagers need emotional support and the opportunity to consult with mentors, senior leaders, or peers without fear of appearing weak. Only then does real psychological safety emerge \u2013 the kind that enables decisive actions, which fast-growing organizations truly need,\u201d says Laty\u0161ovi\u010d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, the preparatory period before an employee becomes a middle manager is also critically important. Laty\u0161ovi\u010d notes that potential managers should be given the opportunity to \u201ctry on\u201d the role \u2013 by shadowing an existing manager, substituting for them during vacations, leading meetings, or observing complex decision-making processes up close. This allows individuals to make decisions based on reality rather than assumptions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFear of leadership often stems from uncertainty and from observing negative examples. If an organization creates a safe culture where mistakes are treated as lessons rather than verdicts, and where a manager is not left alone on the battlefield, there will certainly be no shortage of talents who are both willing and truly prepared to take on responsibility,\u201d concludes Laty\u0161ovi\u010d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More and more often, companies are facing a situation in which their most talented specialists decline promotions. Recruitment experts are observing a worrying trend: people are reluctant to take on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4581,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-insights"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/manpower.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/manpower.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/manpower.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manpower.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manpower.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4584"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/manpower.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4584\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4585,"href":"https:\/\/manpower.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4584\/revisions\/4585"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manpower.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/manpower.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manpower.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manpower.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}