The Gervais Principle is much more accurate in my experience. One of the important reasons middle management has to be "clueless" to drink the kool-aid and take on more responsibility for minimal extra compensation. The checked out employees of the world know their work is meaningless, but the clueless ascribe to it some greater meaning which makes them trustworthy.

▲

dpark 2 hours ago | parent [-]

The PHB is not middle management. Middle management is at least one level above the PHB.

▲

zahlman an hour ago | parent [-]

That depends on the company size, surely?

	▲	dpark an hour ago \| parent [-]
		No. A first level manager cannot be middle management. A small company might not have middle management but the first level manager is bottom management.