62% of managers say they’re more engaged. Employees can’t tell.

Friday. If you’ve spent another week with Still Monday, thank you. Keep voting, replying and forwarding us to the manager who has been working extremely hard behind the scenes and would like somebody to notice.

Today we have excellent news for managers.

They say they are more engaged.

Employees have one question.

Where?

Let’s get to work.

Management contains a surprising amount of invisible work.

A manager makes a judgment call before the meeting. Negotiates with another department. Reviews an AI-assisted analysis. Pushes back on a deadline. Rearranges priorities. Handles a problem an employee may never know existed.

From the manager’s chair, that can feel like intense engagement.

From the employee’s chair, the manager missed the one-on-one again.

The American Management Association surveyed 1,088 professionals across seven global regions and found a striking perception gap. Sixty-two percent of managers said their engagement had increased over the previous 12 months. Meanwhile, 51% of employees said their managers’ engagement had stayed the same, and 20% said it had decreased. American Management Association

Both groups can be right.

The manager’s job has become cognitively heavier. AMA says managers are spending more time making decisions, solving problems, navigating uncertainty and reviewing AI-assisted work.

Employees do not see most of that.

They experience management through a smaller set of moments. Did you explain what matters? Did you answer the question? Did you coach me? Did you give useful feedback? Did you remove the obstacle? Do I understand why the priority changed again?

AMA found another piece of the puzzle: 41% of managers said AI has increased their expectations for how much work employees should complete in a given amount of time. AMA

So the manager may be working harder while simultaneously expecting employees to work faster.

Everyone feels extremely engaged.

Nobody feels particularly supported.

The answer is not performative management. Employees do not need a running commentary on every executive meeting their manager attended.

They need the consequences of management to become visible.

Here is what changed. Here is why. Here is what no longer matters. Here is the decision I made. Here is the obstacle I removed. Here is what I need from you.

That communication converts invisible managerial effort into clarity.

Owners should pay attention too. When managers absorb more work without making decisions and priorities visible, teams can interpret overwhelmed management as absent management.

Then leadership responds by asking managers to engage more.

Usually through another meeting.

AMA says managers continue to report heavier workloads, employee stress, frequent organizational change and cross-functional collaboration as major demands on the role. AMA

The job description appears to have discovered append-only mode.

Despite all the new technology and complexity, managers and employees in AMA’s research still agree that communication and coaching are among the most important management skills.

The future of work continues being annoyingly human.

Separate AMA research involving 1,249 respondents found 71% of leaders perform work outside their formal role, and 59% said that spillover limits their ability to focus on strategic priorities. AMA

Please delegate the delegation initiative.

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At the end of a busy management week, send your team a short note with three things: decisions made, priorities that changed and obstacles you removed or still need help removing.

Do not list every meeting you attended. Nobody needs proof that your calendar suffered.

Make the work visible by making its consequences clear.

When employees do not understand decisions, priorities or ownership, they fill the gap with meetings, duplicate work and cautious approvals.

That is labor cost.

A manager who spends thirty minutes communicating a decision can sometimes save ten people two hours of interpretation.

Clarity has an hourly rate.

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MANAGER: I’ve been in meetings all day solving problems for the team.

EMPLOYEE: Great. Which problems?

MANAGER: Hard to explain. Lots happening behind the scenes.

EMPLOYEE: Can you approve my PTO?

MANAGER: Haven’t had time.

EMPLOYEE: I can feel the engagement.

The manager experiences everything they did.

The employee experiences what became easier, clearer or better because the manager did it.

That difference may explain more engagement surveys than another engagement initiative.

Vote below and tell us the one thing a manager does that immediately makes them feel present and useful.

Then send this to a manager who deserves a quiet Friday compliment.

Preferably before scheduling anything.

Technically Friday. Emotionally “can you see my calendar?”

— The Still Monday Desk