---
id: "quote-managers-get-buried"
type: "quote"
source_timestamps: ["§ AI Is Squeezing Middle Managers"]
tags: ["organizational-support", "ai-adoption"]
related: ["concept-role-elevation", "contrarian-ai-productivity-paradox"]
speaker: "Julia Shin and Sandra J. Sucher"
speakers: ["Julia Shin", "Sandra J. Sucher"]
quote: "Their new responsibilities—the oversight, coaching, and quality-control demands of AI—have simply been layered onto their existing work. Without organizational support, managers don’t get elevated; they get buried."
sources: ["reskilling"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-reskilling"
originDay: 10
articleStem: "hbr-sig-49-ai-squeezing-middle-managers"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2026/06/ai-is-squeezing-middle-managers"
sourceTitle: "AI Is Squeezing Middle Managers"
---
# Managers Get Buried

> "Their new responsibilities—the oversight, coaching, and quality-control demands of AI—have simply been layered onto their existing work. Without organizational support, managers don't get elevated; they get buried."
> — [[entity-julia-shin|Julia Shin]] & [[entity-sandra-j-sucher|Sandra J. Sucher]]

**Context.** Shin and Sucher explaining the failure of [[concept-role-elevation-d49|role elevation]] for middle managers when AI is introduced without proper organizational scaffolding — the crux of [[contrarian-ai-productivity-paradox]] and the motivation for [[action-provide-ai-manager-support]].

Related: [[concept-role-elevation-d49]] · [[contrarian-ai-productivity-paradox]] · [[action-provide-ai-manager-support]]