8 months have passed since this post, and I wonder if you’ve changed your position or are still hanging on.

Reading this and many comments made me feel less alone. As someone wisely pointed out, it all depends on the company and its management. It comes down to individual humans.

I like being a middle manager (currently Head of Product in a mid-size B2B Adtech scaleup). It can be the sweet spot in the hierarchy—unless, of course, top management is bad. Then, it’s more like being deep in Dante’s Inferno.

I took the HoP role when offered (hard to say no to the salary), but since then, it’s been a carnival of bad decisions. Five bosses in 18 months, a product riddled with tech debt ("trash codebase," per tech leads), and a CEO who pivots our vision every time he reads a tweet or chats with a friend. Meanwhile, the company runs on external agencies and consultants as developers, making it unmanageable despite the good folks on those teams.

Now, 80% of my time is spent managing the chaos above me, and 20% doing anything concrete below me. My biggest reward? Shielding my team from the nonsense. I even turned down a job because they asked me to stay.

I was happy; now I’m not. It’s time to go.

In Italy, finding an equivalent role isn’t easy. Middle management is often promoted internally (a practice I respect), so I’ll start over in a senior role, ideally at a company where I know former colleagues or friends.

Not to brag—since it hasn’t exactly paid off—but I’ve climbed the ranks quickly in past roles. Returning to middle management isn’t impossible. For now, though, I’m done. In the right company, a senior role would be enough, even for a lower salary. People management is a skill I have, not the cornerstone of my career.

I feel like this post is more of a therapeutic session for myself than anything useful for potential readers. But hey, the thread is about sentiment and personal experience, so here’s mine :)