4 ms·
Corporations cut managers because they're expensive. Not having enough managers is also expensive though.
by datadrivenangel 2y ago
Corporations cut managers because they're expensive. Not having enough managers is also expensive though.
- lazide 2y agoThat part usually takes a couple quarters to show up though. :(
- datadrivenangel 2y agoThe organizational / social capital starts decreasing and then a few quarters later people see the costs of not having enough organizational capital. Boom/bust.
- marcinzm 2y agoManagement monopolizing organizational / social capital is itself a sign of a fairly unhealthy organization. So you might get a couple quarters of pain but then you'll end up with a better long term organization.
- lazide 2y agoAh, optimism. Not impossible, but rarely actually works out that way.
- jmclnx 2y agoActually my manager was "demoted" back to a programmer, which I think is a good thing. He was forced onto management a few years ago, but that was a waste of talent in my opinion. I also think a lot of stress he suffered as a manager is gone. But yes, a lot of people were let go at the same time (8 months ago). And the article, no useful information from what I can see.
- 98codes 2y agoOne of the big things that keeps me where I'm working now is the org structure that keeps managers & non-managers on separate career tracks until significantly higher in the org chart than most big companies. Moving between manager & not isn't a promotion or demotion; it's a sideways shift.
- commandlinefan 2y agoI hope everybody sees it that way (having been "demoted" to programmer a couple times in my career myself) but I fear that not everybody does.
- Spivak 2y agoAs long as it's a demotion with a pay raise and a more senior sounding title like "staff engineer" then I think most technical managers would jump at the opportunity. The narrative drastically affects the perception.
- marcinzm 2y agoHaving too many also causes endless politics, empire building, meetings, etc, etc. Much more expensive than too few. They need to justify their existence somehow and since they can't directly drive features and you can only optimize a team so much that eventually ends in bureaucratic hell.
- _DeadFred_ 2y agoIn the past maybe. Now that all managers are 'working managers' and treated as a manager and an addition human work unit I'm not so sure. Corporations don't normally replaced the fired manager with an additional human work unit and just expect the team to absorb one more HWU worth of work with the smaller headcount.