Nobody talks about the middle manager. Not kindly, anyway.
They’re the buffer. Above them: leadership making decisions they don’t understand. Below them: a team asking questions they can’t answer. They sit in the middle, translating bullshit downward and filtering reality upward.
The middle manager knows the layoffs are coming. Can’t tell the team. Knows the roadmap is fantasy. Has to present it anyway. Knows their best person is about to quit. Can’t fix the thing that’s pushing them out.
Middle managers don’t make the decisions that hurt people. They deliver them. And then they sit in the one-on-one and absorb the reaction while the person who actually made the decision is on a plane somewhere.
The middle manager is the human shield of corporate hierarchy.