Managers said they are under intense pressure to do their jobs well — and their workload is only getting more intense, according to survey data from Perceptyx released July 16.
Nearly 40% of those surveyed said pressure from leadership has increased since last year and 37% say pressure from direct reports has increased, too. Similar to last year, about a quarter of employees surveyed said they’re working for their “worst boss ever,” according to Perceptyx.
Those “worst manager” traits include a lack of integrity, bad communication skills, a lack of expertise and accountability.
At the same time, managers say they are working hard to improve at their jobs; 70% said that they have acted on direct report feedback. And while 81% said they had formal training, a majority said they could use more coaching. Nearly 1 in 4 said they had not been coached at all.
“When managers are hurting, it’s bad news for everyone,” Emily Killham, senior director and head of the Center for Workforce Transformation at Perceptyx, said in a statement. “Mid-level managers are the ones working face-to-face with other employees. They have a huge impact on overall employee morale, engagement, and productivity.”
Luckily for employers and employees alike, coaching can have “cascading benefits,” Perceptyx said. Managers who receive coaching are 1.3 times more likely to be engaged and say their stress levels are manageable compared to those who don’t.
Manager training may be key to culture improvement, other surveys have shown. About 8 in 10 workers with highly effective managers feel valued at their organizations, according to a Society for Human Resource Management survey released in June, compared to 35% who do not have such managers. And workers that said they work for a highly-effective manager were twice as likely to feel committed to their employer, according to SHRM.
