Australian Middle Managers Burnt Out, New Study Reveals

The implications of these findings are severe, not just for the workers themselves but also for businesses and economies. Burnout affects productivity and innovation and can lead to high turnover rates. It is a problem that needs to be addressed from both personal and organizational perspectives. 
 
Premature promotions seem to be one of the main culprits behind middle management burnouts in Australia. These managers are often thrown into their roles without adequate preparation or training, leading them to feel overwhelmed by their responsibilities. This situation is further exacerbated when there's a disconnect between what their job entails on paper and reality. 
 
Imogen Jones' story illustrates this gap perfectly. Despite her role as a middle manager being defined by certain KPIs (key performance indicators), she found herself dealing with tasks that weren't accounted for in those parameters, like onboarding new employees, which requires significant time commitment yet doesn't appear anywhere in her formal job description or KPIs. 
 
This discrepancy creates an environment where extra work goes unrecognized and unappreciated because it doesn't align directly with predefined KPIs. As Jones points out, many middle managers likely find themselves extending their work hours or taking work home just to meet role expectations, all while feeling unseen and undervalued. 
 
Her experiences resonate with findings from an AUT study conducted among 1000 Kiwis after New Zealand's first COVID-19 lockdown in March 2020: almost one-third of workers were dangerously close to burning out if they hadn’t already hit the wall. 
 
Interestingly enough, factors such as company size seemed to have some bearing on worker burnout levels, according to this study: employees at larger firms were over 150 percent more prone than those at smaller firms to burnout symptoms; essential workers shared similar statistics compared against their non-essential counterparts; managers who stepped up covering staff had over twice the likelihood reaching breaking point; and a and a younger workforce under thirty years old too showed a higher susceptibility towards burning out relative older colleagues. 
 
Professor Jarrod Haar, who was associated with the study, painted a grim picture of burnout's effects on workers. Symptoms range from high job anxiety and depression to physical pain and sleep deprivation. These issues not only affect their personal health but also their work performance. 
 
In conclusion, these studies highlight the urgent need for businesses to address worker burnout effectively. It's critical that organizations reassess how they define roles and responsibilities, especially in middle management positions where there might be a disconnect between official KPIs and actual tasks carried out by employees. This would involve recognizing the unseen labor that contributes significantly towards organizational goals, thereby making sure all employee efforts are appreciated appropriately. 
  
Furthermore, companies must ensure adequate training is provided before promotions so as to equip managers with the necessary skills required for new roles; this can help prevent premature promotions leading to overwhelming situations or burnouts. Lastly, creating supportive environments and promoting balanced lifestyles should become a corporate priority. A healthy workforce equates to a to a productive workforce; it’s time we recognized this vital equation more than ever before.