It’s a tough time to be a manager in tech
Middle managers may just have the toughest job in tech right now.
Managers may just have the toughest job in tech right now.
In the latest blow to middle managers, Amazon announced it planned to reduce the number of supervisors within its organization.
In a message to employees posted online, CEO Andy Jassy said the company plans to flatten departments and ask senior leadership teams to increase the ratio of individual contributors to managers by at least 15% by the end of the first quarter of 2025.
Jassy said the move was part of an effort to get the company operating “like the world’s largest startup,” allowing employees to “move fast” and preventing them from wasting time with “unnecessary processes.”
According to a copy of an internal document obtained by B-17, the new plan could result in role eliminations as “organizations may identify roles that are no longer required.”
It’s the latest hit to tech’s wearied middle managers amid a rough few years.
Many have found themselves in the firing line for sweeping layoffs as Big Tech companies scramble to cut costs. Those who kept their jobs have complained of being left with more work amid hiring slowdowns.
Lynda Gratton, a professor of management practice at London Business School, told B-17 that middle managers had steadily been asked to do more post-pandemic.
“Manager overwork and burnout is a real issue,” she said. “The pandemic meant that many are also managing complex hybrid teams.”
Tech has turned on managers
Amazon is not the first tech company to balk at its own corporate structure.
At Meta, Mark Zuckerberg has been gradually eliminating layers of middle management. The tech boss has said he doesn’t like seeing “managers managing managers” and has been “flattening” his company ever since. The reorg has seen many Meta supervisors demoted with the aim of having more people on the ground doing things like coding, designing, or selling.
Shopify has also been “flattening” its structure to have fewer managers. At X, formerly Twitter, Elon Musk has ordered engineering managers to get back into the coding trenches with their direct reports.
The reduction of middle managers is, in part, a reaction to overhiring during the pandemic and a backlash against so-called “fake work” within the tech sector.
But significantly reducing the amount of managers could also backfire on companies.
“Tech firms have worked out that the most productive technologists are well managed, feel secure, are mentored and supported and feel listened to,” Gratton said. “That’s one of the reasons why they have invested more in managers — when management is done well — they are the golden thread.”
Representatives for Amazon referred B-17 back to its blog post.
