- Recently, companies have been reducing their management ranks through various layoff rounds.
- Match Group, Amazon, Google, and Meta are reducing their mid-level management roles and simplifying organizational structures.
-
Mark Zuckerberg was an initial supporter of the
“Great Flattening”
trend, calling it a readjustment from excessive hiring and stating his desire to avoid “supervisors overseeing supervisors.”
“How many managers to have — what are the pros and cons of managers?” The question was posed to
Mark Zuckerberg
About two years ago, during an interview with podcast host Lex Fridman.
Back then, the Meta CEO — who was still wearing his shorter “Caesar” hairstyle — initiated the “Great Flattening” trend.
culling middle managers
During his “efficiency year” aimed at correcting the over-hiring from the pandemic era.
However, as corporations outside of Big Tech—including the recent example of Match Group, which owns Tinder—reduce their supervisory positions, Zuckerberg’s response to the podcast host’s inquiry in June 2023 stays pertinent now. This also clarifies why chief executives persistently decrease the number of managers within their organizations.
The founder of Facebook started by recognizing that managers play a crucial role within a company such as Meta.
“I place great importance on effective management,” he stated. “There are individuals who might not consider it as crucial, but take into account that our firm has many junior employees; for these newcomers, this serves as their initial professional experience, so fostering growth and learning within their careers is essential.”
Zuckerberg said there was “a mathematical way” he thought about the ratio of employees to managers and making cuts.
Before Meta’s layoffs, Zuckerberg said he had asked about the average number of direct reports each manager had at the company and learned it was around three to four. He felt it should be more like seven to eight. The lower numbers made sense at the time, Zuckerberg said, as Meta was hiring a ton and helping newcomers ramp up.
“So, in a world where we’re not adding so many people as quickly, is it as valuable to have a lot of managers who have extra capacity waiting for new people? No, right?” Zuckerberg said.
Zuckerberg mentioned that he opted to “streamline the organization” by reducing the number of layers in middle management. This move “lowers the delay in communication moving through the hierarchy and, as a result, enhances empowerment for individuals.”
All of this resulted in a more streamlined organization which he believed would be quicker at making decisions as well as implementing them.
In another part of the interview, Zuckerberg stated that these reductions occurred during a period marked by global uncertainties. As businesses grapple with geopolitical strains and the impacts of Trump’s trade policies, his statements from 2023 may resonate strongly with numerous chief executives nowadays.
“I simply get the sense that the outside world is rather unstable at present,” Zuckerberg stated during the interview. “I wanted to ensure we maintained a solid footing.”
In recent years, middle managers have increasingly become the focus of growing criticism. Over the past year, major corporations like Amazon and Google have followed in Meta’s footsteps by implementing similar changes.
flatten their org charts
in light of a fresh emphasis on improved efficiency.
Their CEOs have likewise explained their rationale for doing so.
At Amazon, Chief Executive Officer Andy Jassy leads the company.
said in September
the firm aims to boost the proportion of individual contributors compared to managers by at least 15% by the conclusion of March.
“Having less management will eliminate tiers and make organizations flatter compared to how they stand now,” he stated back then. To put it briefly, as he communicated to staff during an all-hands meeting in November.
“I hate bureaucracy.”
Google is eliminating managerial, directorial, and vice-presidential positions.
By 10%, CEO Sundar Pichai informed his staff in December.
Pichai mentioned that Google implemented modifications aimed at streamlining the organization and enhancing its productivity, according to two employees who were privy to the CEO’s remarks shared with Business Insider earlier. Back in September 2022, he expressed his desire for Google to achieve a 20% increase in efficiency; subsequently, the firm observed improvements.
historic round of layoffs
that eliminated 12,000 jobs.
In the last couple of years, we experienced times of significant expansion,” Pichai stated in an email to employees regarding the layoffs. “We expanded our workforce with expectations of a differing economic climate than what we’re dealing with now.
Salesforce in 2023
eliminated several levels of management
And transformed certain managers into individual contributors, aiming to decrease the “span” and “levels of control” throughout the organization, as BI had earlier reported. This change occurred earlier in that same year.
The Salesforce CEO, Marc Benioff, has declared that they will be cutting 10% of their workforce.
part of an effort to reduce costs through organizational changes. In his communication with employees, he mentioned excessive hiring during the pandemic and a difficult economic climate as justifications for these reductions.
Middle managers made up
nearly one-third of layoffs
amidst white-collar employees in 2023, as per
a data analysis
by Live Data Technologies for Bloomberg.
This week, Match Group, which owns popular dating applications such as Tinder and Hinge, declared a 13% cut in their staff, impacting approximately one out of every five supervisors.
Apart from technology, the emphasis on standardizing processes has also reached giants in various other sectors.
In 2023, Citi revealed plans to reduce its hierarchical structure from 13 levels to eight. The company subsequently declared layoffs impacting approximately 1,500 managerial positions. Early in 2024, UPS stated they were letting go of 12,000 out of their 85,000 managers.
Certain workplace specialists have warned about what is referred to as
The ‘Great Flattening’ aimed at middle managers might adversely affect workforces.
, as middle managers frequently undertake crucial tasks such as implementing senior leadership’s objectives and enhancing employees’ motivation and productivity.
This trend persists as firms determine that reducing managerial levels through restructuring aligns with investor priorities focused on enhancing efficiency, particularly following the post-pandemic surge in technology sector hiring.
As Zuckerberg once put it:
I don’t believe you’d want a management hierarchy where managers only manage other managers, who then go on to manage more managers before finally reaching those actually doing the job.
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