Kellie Olah, SPHR, CVPM, SHRM-SCP
Being in middle management can come with plenty of challenges—whether you’re a veterinary practice manager, office manager, technician lead, or client service lead. These professionals manage one or more employees but are not part of the top level of management, and they’re tasked with communicating practice directives that may not be popular with employees. Often stereotyped as an unnecessary layer in the workforce, middle managers often shoulder big responsibilities without enough resources and without being empowered enough to carry them out.
The pandemic years have added more challenges to serving as a middle manager in a time when finding enough quality employees was already difficult in the veterinary industry and when turnover was already rampant. These middle managers have needed to find ways to meet the unique work-life needs of employees during the COVID era, balancing them with the requirements of the veterinary practice and its patients while facing pandemic-related challenges in their own lives.
And, as if this isn’t a difficult enough situation, a 2023 McKinsey and Company study shows that nearly half of a middle manager’s time is spent on nonmanagerial work, including a significant amount of administrative duties, instead of being spent on guiding the people they’re supposed to supervise and support.
Looking specifically at the veterinary industry, more than half of the technicians surveyed were experiencing moderate to substantial levels of burnout, according to information derived from a Flourish Veterinary Consulting study that was conducted before the challenges of the pandemic even existed. About one in three managers, this study shares, felt moderately to completely unequipped to deal with workplace stresses. How much higher are the numbers since COVID?
In short, the problem is real. So, what’s causing this phenomenon? What are the solutions?
Definition of Burnout
Although feeling tired and stressed are classic hallmarks of burnout, the condition is more entrenched, creating emotional, mental, and physical exhaustion. A few nights of good rest or a motivational talk or two isn’t going to be enough to address the situation. Instead, it will take time and intention to rebound from burnout before someone can feel engaged and motivated again. In the workplace, it typically arises from some sort of ongoing stress that has not been effectively addressed. People in caregiving professions—such as in veterinary practices—may be especially prone to burnout.
Burnout doesn’t just affect the people experiencing the syndrome, either. As it progresses, people feeling burned out will often become increasingly distanced from their job, and their efficiency and effectiveness can decrease. When you consider the connectional role that middle managers play between top management and the employees, their burnout can have a negative impact that spreads throughout the entire practice.
Causes of Burnout
According to the Harvard Business Review, common causes include the following:
• Unsustainable workload, which can come from the volume of work involved and or its chronic pace and intensity
• Perceived lack of control over how someone works, when, and with whom; corporatization in the industry may increase this factor
• Insufficient rewards for effort, which includes but isn’t limited to pay
• Lack of a supportive community, which can be especially challenging in a caregiving professional like veterinary medicine
• Lack of fairness, which includes when policies are unevenly applied
• Mismatched values and skills (personal and organizational), which lowers the motivation to fully engage in work
Here’s something else to consider with middle management professionals. Many times, they’ve been promoted because of the quality of work they’ve performed in a previous position in the practice—one that didn’t require management skills—but they haven’t been provided with training to learn how to manage well.
Fighting Back Against Burnout
Top level management and human resource professionals can come to the aid of middle managers by checking in regularly to see what help they need and by being open to discussing the challenges they’re experiencing. Then, it’s important to listen to the responses, which may start out with plenty of venting; other times, middle managers may be reluctant to discuss problems, feeling as though they should be able to handle the issues themselves.
Using the causes listed above as general guidance, try to identify the root causes of the burnout in your specific managers to develop targeted solutions. Whenever possible, draw upon solutions that have worked for other professionals and pair middle managers with appropriate mentors to guide them. Then, continue to monitor the situation.
Other solutions involve helping middle managers to streamline their job duties to work more efficiently. This can help to reduce burnout triggered by unsustainable workloads. During this process, practices may find it useful to look at their overall structure, including but not limited to your org chart and how people in the practice communicate information with one another. It’s easy to become comfortable with structures that, over time, may be ineffective and less than fully functional.
Help middle managers to find meaning in their work and guide them towards embracing the idea that what they do is meaningful. Be careful, though. When trying highlight the meaning inherent in a job, don’t simply increase the job volume, which can have the opposite effect, adding to the feelings of burnout. Also help managers to set boundaries to protect their work-life balance and provide them with the training needed to be successful in their jobs, including education in how to manage effectively and well.
Rewarding middle managers for their hard work can encourage them, which can also help to lift burnout. When doing so, find out what specific rewards your middle managers would like to have. In the McKinsey and Company study, rewards in order of preference are as follows: increased autonomy, including decision-making authority; increased responsibility, which can include a broadened role in the practice; bonuses, raises; promotions; learning opportunities; recognition such as public praise for accomplishments; and rewarding experiences such as events tickets. Note that the top two selections don’t involve receiving more money. Rather, they can help middle managers have more freedom to do their work and expand their influence in the practice.
Addressing burnout in middle management can come with double the returns. Besides helping the middle managers to become more productive and fulfilled in their jobs, these managers, in turn, can coach and guide the employees they oversee to do the same.
Preventing Burnout from Reoccurring
Once the current burnout has lifted, it’s important for practices to continue the actions that help middle managers to put boundaries on their job duties and find meaning in the work they do—or else the syndrome can reoccur.
If, for example, they’ve found meditation practices to be helpful, they should focus on continuing them—and top-level management and human resources professionals could check in with them to monitor the situation in positive ways. If having a mentor as a sounding board is useful, they should keep options available for that activity even if it means finding different mentors for different purposes or during various stages of the managers’ careers.
Regardless of the specifics required to address burnout in middle management and to keep these team members engaged and energized, this is a valuable investment in your managers as well as in your overall practice.
