At one point I had a boss with (roughly) 50 direct reports. To paraphrase him describing how he did it: "badly". The company later was able to hire more manage

At one point I had a boss with (roughly) 50 direct reports. To paraphrase him describing how he did it: "badly". The company later was able to hire more managers and take the load off of him (and in fact he went back to being an IC eventually). But these things happen in periods of rapid growth, despite everyone knowing they're a bad idea.