The corporate landscape is full of miserable middle roles where the authority is thin, but the accountability is absolute. Yet, too many managers stay put, while being exhausted and resentful. It's less about courage, and more about finding a safe, miserable balance.
My question isn't why managers quit bad jobs. It's why they don't?
You know that the five years you’ve spent climbing the ladder at your current company shouldn't dictate the next five. The problem shifts from invested time to invested self-image. It’s the sunk cost fallacy*.
You're not just leaving a job. You're discarding a well-defined professional identity that took a while to build. Leaving means becoming "the person who had to step away" or "the one who took the pay cut," and the ego finds those labels more toxic than the daily grind.
Then there are the golden handcuffs. Besides a decent salary, it’s the whole predictable package, like your pension funds getting locked in, the bonus money you won't see if you leave early, the paid-for training, and all that unused holiday time. These aren’t assets you own, but they are chains demanding you stay.
Add in the risk of the unknown: a long hiring process, a probationary period, losing your status. It feels too big compared to the misery you already know and get paid for.
The final part is the structure of the management role itself. Managers often serve as the buffer for the organization. You translate executive pressure and communicate difficult reality to your teams. You are constantly dealing with too many demands and not enough resources.
This creates a powerful feeling of responsibility. The idea that your team depends on you to keep things running smoothly becomes a heavy, internal commitment. Staying feels less like a career choice and more like a professional duty.
It’s an unhappy relationship where you are both the victim and the accomplice. The company relies on your competence and your fear of starting over.
Clever tricks or mindset change won’t help to break out of this cycle. You’ll need clear and simple math to calculate the cost of staying versus leaving.
And the result is rarely in favor of staying.
*Sunk cost fallacy - is a cognitive bias where people continue an endeavor or behavior because of resources (time, money, effort) already invested, even when it is clear that stopping would be the more rational choice.