When I worked at a small startup, we were moving to a new office and I was asked to help with the buildout. I engaged with the flooring vendor, and he came by one day to drop off a carpet sample. He put it on my desk where my mouse was. It was a rectangle sample of tight knit office carpet, about 18”x22”. When I got back to my desk, I just put my mouse on top of it and started using it as a mouse pad. That was 15 years and 3 companies ago, and I still use it as my mousepad. It’s perfect for the mouse to glide on, soft enough for my wrist to rest on, absorbent of sweat or drink condensation, and large enough I never hit the edge. I will never not use it. It is my mouse carpet, and I love it.

As a middle manager, my purpose is to mange the employees under me, as upper management can’t possibly manage that man individual contributors. My time is primarily used to identify and resolve blockers or challenges that could prevent my team from hitting their goals. And then report on my teams performance all the time. And try to keep people from pestering people on my team so they can get actual work done. But then I have to do other “HR” stuff too, like creating and performing quarterly reviews, hiring and firing, one on ones, etc… I can’t speak for the middle managers at your company, but I am constantly jumping from one thing to the next… It is tiring. I get to deal with all the sh!t and pass all the accolades on to the individual performers on my team that get things done.