In a recent article for Fast Company, top keynote speaker and executive coach Wema Hoover drew attention to a troubling trend she’s noticed: middle managers, who are ultimately responsible for overseeing 90% of the United States’ workforce, are facing a burnout crisis of unprecedented proportions.

With high levels of dissatisfaction among employees at large, KPMG data reports that 1/3 of all middle managers are disengaged at work, and nearly 2/3 suffer from unsustainable stress. Combined with rising economic uncertainty  and constant cost cutting, things look truly dire.

Hoover knows it’s too early to give up on middle management– to do so would cause a broad corporate collapse. To counteract these circumstances, senior leadership must provide their middle managers with the tools needed to maintain autonomy and develop their own talents further. Those that do so, she argues, will thrive in this era of disruption.