Millennials are officially the majority of managers. So prepare for a combination of burnout, buddy atmosphere, and boundary issues

Every six months Work-life trend report According to Glassdoor, millennials became the largest share of administrative workers in late June 2025, chasing after Gen Xers, who had dominated leadership for the past 20 years. In the current trend of aging, according to predictions from Glassdoor’s chief economist Daniel Zhao, Gen Z will provide more manager share in late 2025 or 2026 than baby boomers. Already, Z has 1 in 10 managers.

Glassdoor

Since becoming the most populous generation in the workforce in the mid-2010s, millennials have steadily risen in their ranks, driven by demographic inevitability, retirement among baby boomers, and new attitudes towards organizational leadership.. The rise curtails years of warnings and speculation about how millennials shape the workplace.

Zhao did not use this particular Gen Z Slang, but now uses the state of the workforce managed by millennials It’s in the middle. “At least it doesn’t look like the workers are feeling sick,” Zhao said. “I don’t know if I can call it a silver lining.”

Millennials managing through the ongoing “burnout crisis”

That’s what millennials are like It is widely trusted Push “empathy” and “happiness“At the forefront of management culture. They prioritize policies such as: Remote work, Benefits of mental healthand boundary setting – there are many reasons why millennials emphasize mental health so much: they’re experiencing it Burning out levelstress, and work anxiety itself, leads some workplace experts to warn them of looming.Manager crash”2025. Zhao agreed to this line with the anecdote of Glassdoor’s review, but not data from his research.

Zhao writes that on his part the mental health challenges facing the current workforce “there are no signs of decline.” He wrote burnout as a “continuous crisis,” mentioned in a Glassdoor review, which surged 73% year-on-year as of May 2025. Don’t wear the remaining employees. ”

Of course, the term “burnout” is Anne Helen Petersen’s Viral 2019 BuzzFeed Article I have transformed this subject into a deep vein of books and reports for years to come. Speaking to Petersen’s paper, millennials were born into a culture and climate of constant work from an early age, and the average number of direct reports per manager has almost doubled in recent years, resulting in burning levels of stress as the majority of managers.

Zhao refused to comment directly on Petersen’s paper, but more generally on the subject of burnout, many millennial managers, especially in their late 40s, are aging to the responsibility of X’s typical “sandwich generation.” Zhao added, “In a way, they are stuck between rocks and hard places.”

Despite their ambitions, many millennial managers report receiving There is little or no formal leadership trainingoften finding themselves unprepared for the complexity of managing teams across multiple generations and responding to rapid organizational changes. This should be worsened by twice the historical average report. And while they emphasize empathy, millennials are the generation who invented the term “.ghost” For avoidance behavior on social media Many people struggle with assertion and managing workplace conflicts from the front. Finally, millennials sayParticipating Trophy“Generation, and some Bruise Tiktok videos argue that millennial bosses have a toxic tendency to try to be friends with all direct reports. ”Wolf in sheep’s clothes,” they were called.

Behind the emotional intelligence

Zhao said luck There’s a flip side to the worn-out cliché that millennial managers are known for their focus on empathy. Glassdoor has seen a change in the way people talk about management over the past five years since the pandemic, he said. Reviews discussing management that increasingly emphasize terms related to emotional intelligence, such as “respect for boundaries,” “empathize,” “promote employee well-being,” and “promote burnout,” show an increase in workers’ expectations.

It doesn’t mean that millennials are inherently talented in emotional intelligence, Zhao said they’re just hoping for their reporting on their fellow millennials, ZZ, or perhaps even Gen X and Boomers. Zhao referenced a study that the phrase “emotional intelligence” really began to pick up in the 21st century. So, the population that made emotional intelligence mainstream when they entered the workforce now has a responsibility to manage it.

Millennials generally try to build trust and provide awareness; Generation divisions last: A small number of well-known employees, especially Gen Z, remain neutral or uncertain about the perceptions they receive.. According to A comprehensive Deloitte surveythe millennials themselves are looking for more feedback, mentorship and growth opportunities, both in their teams and in their careers..

This may be why millennials are being added with horrifying monikers: what is called “Cool boss. “Recent reports and virus social media content have encouraged criticism to blur the line between managers and friends.A false sense of warmth“It overshadows the underlying power dynamics. In terms of achieving results, cool boss actions lead to inconsistent or unclear expectations, and promote anxiety among staff. And if negative feedback is required, cool bosses can shock their men by dropping their masks.

Many millennial managers report It’s difficult to set clear boundaries Their team struggles to switch from familiarity to authoritative, depending on the demands of the situation. Setting boundaries becomes even more complicated with generational changes. Young employees, especially Gen Z. Prefers fluid boundaries and flat layerssometimes reinforce ambiguity about roles and expectations.