middle management is absolutely incompetent and they have produced the bad reviews seen here.
they dont know the job the people under them are doing. in many cases those top performers under them are now better qualified than they are. therefore, since they are scared to lose those top performers (by promoting them and then having to teach a new person a job the middle manager does not know himself) they just continue to "string them along until they quit". this stringing along means a few years of frustration until you quit, but in the meantime, the middle manager has benefited from having you there.
this also explains the: constantly getting varying explanations of the promotion process, many references here to politics.
this also explains the "focus of the day". the incompetent middle managers need to show what they are contributing or how they are leading the company to the senior managers. as they dont know what the real job is, they constantly come up with a new focus every month. this is very distracting from the real jobs we are trying to do on the ground.
another effect is the micro-managing. which is just a way for them to stay in the office, have us produce myriad reports from the field, so they can create a powerpoint presentation for senior management on how they are managing the guys on the ground (by sitting in the office). everyone knows successful capable sales guys run a territory like their own business, and achieve a monthly target from diligent approach and follow up on 2 to 3 large orders (the rest is by keeping customers satisfied and so get regular orders). this micromanaging pretends as if each order is the same value and we should keep running 24/7, which eventually results (of course) in a burn-out and quit, or a "corrective action plan"
these middle managers are not held accountable for their performance in any way. not measured on how they developed their people, or quality (even feasibility) of things they present. meanwhile, guys on the ground are under the big microscope, when they are the biggest contributors of ideas and hard work. this means when a lacky (as described above appears) he can stay there for years.
