Your manager isn't your best friend, but they don't have to be your enemy, either. People like to go "oh managers are faceless executors of company policy" and

Your manager isn't your best friend, but they don't have to be your enemy, either. People like to go "oh managers are faceless executors of company policy" and that is true in certain situations but not all of them. You can still provide value to your reports (and as a report, value to your manager) by explaining your grievances with what's going on. I don't think the article is saying that people should completely shut up, but I actually think the filter doesn't have to be anywhere near where they say it is. Another team is slow to deliver? It's fine to discuss that. As a manager your job, of course, is to make sure that your report isn't denigrating their coworkers. But it's fairly useful to decide how you want to prioritize your work, or whether you want to depend on that team in the future. Layoffs? There is zero reason to shut up about how dumb your CEO is and how they're doing it for Wall Street. They're coming for you just as they're coming for your reports. Better you talk about it than both people silently bottling up their feelings to please someone way up in their leadership chain.