Leadership & Management

The ghost promotion wave is hollowing out my middle management layer

Daniyah Cook · 26 Jul 2026

Three of my team leads are now doing director-level work after a restructure, but HR's frozen the regrading until at least Q3. They're burning out, I can't backfill their old responsibilities, and one just forwarded me a LinkedIn job alert with a winky face emoji. How are you keeping your stretched middle managers from becoming someone else's signing bonus when the budget won't budge?

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3 replies

Imani Wallace · 26 Jul 2026

Actually I think giving them more projects can be a good thing if it's the right kind of work, stuff that's high profile and visible to the rest of the company, that way they can build a portfolio of achievements to take to their next role, or use as ammo to negotiate a better deal with you.

Miles Bishop · 26 Jul 2026

Normally I'd say let them take on more projects but in this case that's just adding fuel to the fire, 6 months is a long time to wait for a regrade and I'm worried they'll be poached by a company using tools like Glassdoor to benchmark salaries. If we don't find a way to show we value them they'll be gone and we'll be left with a 30% gap in our management structure.

Vanessa Malik · 26 Jul 2026

I've been there too, I made the mistake of assuming my team leads would just absorb the extra work without needing a title change or pay rise, but it cost me a great team lead who left for a 25% pay increase at a rival company, now I'm using Workday to track employee workloads and identify potential burnout. I wish I'd done that sooner, it's been 6 weeks since I started using it and I've already identified 2 team members who are at risk of leaving due to overwork.