Today's career assumptions1 are you can get a lot of development, challenge and job satisfaction and not necessarily be in a management role.

A new malady is running rampantly in corporate America: management phobia.2 Many people don't want to be a manager ?nbsp;and many people who are managers are, frankly, itching to jump off the management track ?nbsp;or have already.

"I hated all the meetings," says a 10-year award-winning manager, "And I found the more you did for people who worked for you, the more they expected. I was a counselor, motivator, financial adviser and psychologist.3"

With technology changing in a wink, you can never slack off4 these days if you're on the technical side. It's a rare person who can manage to keep up on the technical side and handle a management job, too.5

In addition, the Dilbert factor is at work.6 With Scott Adams's popular cartoon character ?nbsp;as well as many television sitcoms7 ?nbsp;routinely portraying managers as morons8 or enemies, they just don't get much respect anymore.

Supervising others was always a tough task, but in the past that stress was offset by hopes for career mobility and financial rewards.9 Along with a sizable pay raise, people chosen as managers would begin a nearly automatic climb up the career ladder to lucrative executive perks: stock options, company cars, club memberships, plus the key to the executive washroom. 10

But in today's global, more competitive arena, a manager sits on an insecure perch.11 Restructuring have eliminated layer after layer of management as companies came to view their organizations as collections of competencies rather than hierarchies.12 There are far fewer rungs on the corporate ladder for managers to climb. In addition, managerial jobs demand more hours and headaches than ever before but offer slim, if any, financial paybacks and perks.

Furthermore, managers now must supervise many people who are spread over different locations, even over different continents. They must manage across functions with, say, design, finance, marketing and technical people reporting to them.

In an age of entrepreneurship, when the most praised people in business are those launching something new, management seems like an invisible, thankless role. Employers are looking for people who can do things, not for people who make other people do things.

Management layoffs13 have done much to erode14 interest in managerial jobs, of course. American Management Association surveys say three middle managers are laid off for every one being hired.

Moreover, it may not pay to be a manager ?nbsp;at least not the way it once did. Ms.Chmielewski says. "The emotional rewards can be great, and there were times I enjoyed management. But a 10-to-11-hour day and one weekend day a month is the norm."15

With more people wary of16 joining management, are corporations being hurt or worrying about developing future leaders? Not many are. While employers have dismissed a lot of managers, they believe a surplus lingers on at many companies.17 Another reason companies aren't short of managers, contends Robert Kelley, a Carnegie Mellon University business professor, "is that so many workers today are self-managed, either individually or via teams, you don't need a manager."

1. career assumption：职业设想。

2. 一种新的病症——经理恐惧症——正在美国的公司内迅速蔓延。malady：病症；rampantly：狂暴地，猖獗地；phobia: 恐惧症。

3. 我要同时扮演顾问、动员者、财务顾问和心理咨询师的角色。

4. changing in a wink：瞬息万变；wink：眨眼；slack off：松驰，懈怠。

5. 很少有人能既懂技术又担负管理职责。

6. 此外，Dilbert效应也在起作用。Dilbert：美国漫画家兼作家斯科特·亚当斯创作的迪尔伯特系列漫画，主要反映白领办公族的工作生活。

7. sitcoms: situation comedy的缩写形式，即情景喜剧。

8. 通常经理们都被描绘成蠢材。moron：傻子，蠢人。

9. 尽管监督别人工作总是件棘手的事，但在过去升职的希望和经济上的回报为此做出了补偿。offset：补偿，抵销；mobility：（人在社会地位、职业等方面的）流动，此处指向上的移动，职位升迁。

10. 被（公司）选中成为经理的人们差不多将自动沿着晋升阶梯一路通向有利可图的高级管理层：拥有股票认购权，享受公车，成为高级俱乐部会员，享受行政人员的专用洗手间。 lucrative：生利的，赚钱的；perk：= perquisite特殊待遇，特权。

11. 但在今天全球竞争加剧的环境中，经理的位子不容易坐得稳。perch：高处，较高的位置。

12. 随着公司开始意识到企业的组成方式应该是招贤纳士而不是等级森严，（企业内部的）重组逐渐打破了层层管理。

13. 管理人员的裁减。

14. erode：磨损，削弱。

15. 情感上的回报是巨大的，我也曾很喜欢自己的工作。但平均每天要工作10到11个小时，一个月只有一天周末。norm：标准，规范。

16. be wary of：谨慎的，小心翼翼的。

17. 雇主们大量裁减经理的同时，相信许多公司的经理备选人仍然是供大于求。surplus：过剩，盈余，这里指求职者大大多于职位需求；linger on：留恋，徘徊。