We talk a lot about employee burnout but you know who’s quietly drowning? Your managers.
The team leads, department heads, middle managers, and even executives who are constantly holding the line, absorbing pressure from both directions, and trying to lead through it all with a calm face.
They’re tired. Some are hanging by a thread. And no one is asking how they’re really doing.
The silence around manager burnout is not just harmful, it’s expensive. Because when managers burn out, it doesn’t just affect one person. It creates a ripple effect across teams, culture, and long-term retention.
And if you’re noticing unexpected resignations in your leadership layer, this might be why.
What Manager Burnout Actually Looks Like
Forget the dramatic breakdowns. Most manager burnout doesn’t look like crisis it looks like constant low-level exhaustion.
Here are the signs:
- They’re always on. Slack at 10 p.m., emails at 6 a.m., weekends blurred into weekdays.
- They cancel their own PTO because “the team needs me.”
- 1:1s with their reports still happen. But their own check-ins with senior leadership? Long overdue.
- Their patience is thinning. Delegation is slipping. Decision fatigue is creeping in.
- They show up. But they’ve stopped contributing fresh ideas, vision, or energy.
According to a 2023 Deloitte survey, nearly 70% of senior leaders say they’re seriously considering stepping down for the sake of their mental health (Deloitte x Workplace Intelligence).
And middle managers? They’re often the most overworked and under-resourced group in the organization.
What’s Causing It (Beyond the Obvious)
Yes, workloads are heavy. But burnout isn’t just about being busy. It’s about being unsupported, unclear, and stretched beyond what one person can carry.
- Unrealistic expectations: Most managers are doing the work of two people, people leadership plus their original IC duties.
- Lack of training: New managers are promoted based on technical skill, not leadership readiness. Then they’re left to sink or swim.
- No peer support: Managers rarely have a safe place to talk to other managers about the real stuff. Everything becomes performative.
- Constant change with no direction: Reorgs, shifting priorities, high turnover without clear communication from above.
- Invisible wins: No matter how much they do, it never feels like enough. Because no one says, “Hey, that was excellent leadership.”
The World Health Organization defines burnout as chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. And yet, most organizations don’t even track how managers are coping, let alone intervene early.
The Cost of Burned-Out Managers
Let’s break it down clearly:
- Burned-out managers make riskier decisions. They default to short-term fixes instead of strategic choices.
- Their teams feel the weight. Engagement and psychological safety decline when a leader is running on fumes.
- Top-down attrition begins. When your managers leave, team members follow. Leadership exits often signal instability.
- Culture takes a hit. Managers model what’s acceptable. When burnout is normalized at the top, it trickles down fast.
- Your leadership pipeline dries up. Why would high performers step into leadership if they see it draining everyone?
According to Gallup, managers account for 70% of variance in team engagement (Gallup Workplace). So when a manager burns out, team performance doesn’t just dip—it drops off a cliff.
What You Can Actually Do About It
This isn’t a job for HR alone. It’s a leadership and business continuity issue.
Here’s what works:
- Build regular manager health check-ins. Don’t just ask about metrics, ask about morale. Ask what’s draining them.
- Normalize asking for help. Your best managers are often the least likely to raise their hands. Reward vulnerability.
- Review workloads. If your manager is still doing their old job plus leading, you’re under-resourcing by design.
- Provide leadership coaching. Not just on performance but emotional regulation, energy management, and boundaries.
- Protect their time. Block out focus time on calendars. Limit late-night comms. Model boundaries from the top.
- Create a peer space. Give managers a cohort, forum, or private space to talk shop, decompress, and exchange leadership lessons.
And most importantly: celebrate them. Acknowledge good leadership the same way you acknowledge strong performance. Praise the things that don’t show up on dashboards, coaching, listening, guiding, and de-escalating.
Burnout at the Top Is Contagious
When a manager quietly leaves, everyone looks around. Who’s next?
If you want to retain your best people, start with the people who lead them. Manager burnout isn’t just a wellness issue. It’s a retention issue. A culture issue. A strategy issue.
And if you don’t talk about it? You’ll watch your leadership layer slowly disappear one quiet resignation at a time.
Good leadership doesn’t come from pushing harder, it comes from building support systems that last.
Ready to take care of your leaders the way they’ve been taking care of everyone else?
Let’s get started, send us a message at hello@anutio.com.
