Business Leadership: A Jossey-Bass Reader

Chapter 20. Managing Middlescence

Robert Morison

Tamara J. Erickson

Ken Dychtwald

Burned-out, bottlenecked, and bored. That's the current lot of millions of midcareer employees. In our research into employee attitudes and experiences, we heard many stories of mid-career restlessness, a phenomenon we call middlescence. There was the manager who was beginning to realize that he'd never become the company president, the senior executive who felt that she had sacrificed her life—and her spirit—for her job, and the technician who was bored stiff with his unchallenging assignments. Typical is the case of one productive and well-respected middle manager in his late forties. He was sandwiched between obligations at the office and at home, and his work group ...