The Joyless Life of New Managers

Struggle is part of the transition into your first leadership role

Photo by Elisa Ventur on Unsplash

We go to work to earn a living — and if we are lucky, to do something that matters to us, and build a career, be that in design, programming or production.

For some, building that career involves moving up the ranks of management by setting our technical skills aside and learning to lead the performance of others, in large part by having frequent conversations to clarify goals, inspire growth and address performance gaps. While there are challenges in making this transition and taking on greater responsibility, those who’ve done it successfully have gone on to find satisfaction in their leadership roles.

Lately, however, leading teams in an ongoing-pandemic world is increasingly a headache, a struggle and an all-too-quick path to frustration and burnout, with managers saying this isn’t what they signed up for. As one people leader commented in a BBC post: “A manager before Covid-19 compared to today is completely different.”

Middle managers especially are caught between senior leaders who expect their every edict be fulfilled, and employees who have reshaped their professional and personal lives in ways they are loathe to give up. The managers I coach are grappling with how to make things work in this space, and saying things like:

• My director told me I have “do what it takes” to get my team to come to the office three days a week with no exceptions allowed. How am I supposed to convince my employees it’s good for the business when they have been really productive and happy working at home full-time? I feel I’m bring set up to fail.
• Since the start of the pandemic, I have been working way longer hours, mostly because I am in back-to-back online meetings all day, and can only get to my my own projects and tasks after hours. My health and family life are suffering.
• My organization has no strategy or any policies when it comes to managing a hybrid workforce, so I have been left on my own to create as fair and equitable a system as I can for my team, all of whom are in different roles with different needs. I am dealing with this every single day and I’m exhausted.