I am staring at the blue glow of a cursor that hasn’t moved in thirty-seven minutes, mostly because the man responsible for signing off on the structural clearance is currently deep-faking his own productivity for a vice president three states away. It is a specific kind of silence. It’s the silence of a chimney that hasn’t been swept in seventeen years, thick with the kind of creosote that smells like old campfire and impending disaster. In my world, which usually involves crawling through tight spaces and judging the integrity of 107-year-old brickwork, a blockage is a physical reality. In the corporate world, however, the blockage is often the person sitting in the corner office, hunched over a laptop, obsessively polishing a PowerPoint deck until it shines with a luster that hides the rot underneath.

My manager, let’s call him Marcus, spent the entirety of last week crafting a forty-seven-page masterpiece for the executive review. It featured charts that moved in three different directions and a color palette that supposedly triggered ‘subliminal confidence.’ Meanwhile, back on the ground, the rest of us were suffocating. We were waiting for three critical decisions regarding the ventilation system of a historic brownstone-decisions only he had the authority to make. But Marcus was ‘too busy’ to meet. He was busy managing the perception of his success, leaving the actual mechanism of that success-his team-to choke on the soot of his neglect. It’s a common paradox. The managers who are most lauded by the C-suite are frequently the ones who have completely abandoned the people they are supposed to lead.

When a manager spends 77 percent of their time catering to the whims of their boss, they stop being a leader and start being a funnel. They filter out the inconvenient truths of the frontline-the equipment failures, the burnout, the 47-year-old boiler that’s about to blow-and only pass upward the sanitized, sparkling results. This creates a hollowed-out middle management layer. It is a vacuum of accountability. Inside that vacuum, employee disengagement grows like mold in a damp basement. You start to feel like a ghost in your own job. You’re doing the work, but the person who is supposed to represent that work is only interested in how it makes them look in the next 17-minute Zoom call.

“I’ve been a chimney inspector for a long time, and I’ve learned that if the draft isn’t right, the house fills with smoke. In an organization, the ‘draft’ is the flow of support and direction from the top down. If that flow is reversed… the smoke stays with the team.”

This behavior is rewarded because, from the perspective of the high-level executives, the manager looks like a high-performer. They are responsive. They provide great reports. They never complain. But the cost of this performance is usually hidden in the high turnover rates and the declining mental health of the subordinates. The system is rigged to praise the polisher while the workers are left in the dust. I’ve caught myself doing it too, honestly. Last month, I spent way too much time trying to explain to a wealthy client why their chimney needed a $7,777 repair in a way that made me sound like a genius, instead of just telling the truth to my apprentice about why we were behind schedule. I was managing the client’s perception of my expertise while my own team was confused and frustrated. It’s a seductive trap. It’s easier to please one powerful person than it is to support 7 demanding ones.

The real tragedy of the ‘manage-up’ specialist is that they eventually lose touch with the craft itself. They become so focused on the narrative of the work that they forget how to do the work. They forget the smell of the creosote. They forget the weight of the ladder. In my Pinterest failure, I was so focused on the ‘look’ that I forgot the physics of the screw. When we stop respecting the foundation, the whole structure becomes a liability. This is why many people find themselves looking for an exit strategy, searching for an environment where their work isn’t just a slide in someone else’s career-climbing deck. Often, the best way to navigate these structural failures is to find advocates who understand the reality of the workplace, like the team at Nextpath Career Partners, who see the value in authentic leadership rather than just upward-facing performance.

This creates a culture of defensive work. People stop innovating because they don’t want to provide the manager with anything that isn’t already ‘boss-approved.’ The creative oxygen is sucked out of the room, leaving everyone gasping for air in a space that feels increasingly cramped and soot-stained.

Boarded Up: Ignoring The Mess

That is what a manager does when they ignore their team’s problems to focus on executive optics. They are boarding up the chimney. It looks clean from the outside-just a flat wall with some nice wallpaper-but the potential for a fire is still there, trapped and waiting for a spark. You can’t just ignore the mechanics of your business and expect the results to stay pretty forever.

The True Role: Clearing the Flue

We need to start valuing the ‘downward’ managers-the ones who spend their time unblocking their teams, who take the heat from above so their people can work in peace, and who aren’t afraid to tell their boss that a project is failing. These managers aren’t always the most popular at the executive retreat. They might not have the flashiest slides. They might even be seen as ‘difficult’ because they fight for resources and realistic deadlines.

But these are the people who actually keep the building standing. They are the ones who make sure the flue is clear and the draft is strong. They understand that a manager’s true job isn’t to look good to the person above them, but to make the people below them better.

The corporate world is full of floating shelves that are one heavy load away from a total collapse. I’d rather be the person who checks the studs and ensures the vents are clear. It’s not as glamorous as a 47-page PowerPoint, and I usually end the day covered in dust, but at least I know the house isn’t going to burn down while everyone is sleeping.