The Middle Management Theater

Corporate dysfunction often wears a suit and tie. It hides behind titles like “Director of Process Optimization” or “Head of Strategic Alignment.” These are not leadership roles. They are camouflage.

The modern corporation has cultivated a specific pathology. It is a disease of middle management. This sickness does not kill the company immediately. It slowly suffocates it. It drains the energy, passion, and dignity of the workforce. Eventually, it leaves behind an empty shell of a workforce that merely goes through the motions.

The carriers of this disease are rarely the executives. They are the minor functionaries. The mid-level managers with outsized egos and undersized competencies. Their authority is inversely proportional to their actual skill. They possess little talent, but they have a massive appetite for the spotlight. To secure a fleeting moment of relevance in front of senior leadership, they will plow their tiny patch of dirt into a labyrinth.

How do they achieve this? By tormenting the people beneath them.

They invent new rules on Monday. They launch new workflows on Tuesday. By Wednesday, they have introduced a “synergy optimization framework.” These initiatives serve no business purpose. They do not increase revenue. They do not improve products. Their sole function is to prove that the manager’s whip…