Middle managers are actually the ones who make large organizations work

Middle managers are actually the ones who make large organizations work. Studies suggest they move the needle on a company's overall performance far more than senior executives do — and also make a bigger difference to the bottom line than the teams they supervise. By eliminating middle managers now, in the midst of an unprecedented shift to hybrid work, businesses are cutting the very people they need most to weather all the economic uncertainty. They're making it harder for the remaining managers to succeed. And they're sending a powerful message to talented would-be supervisors: Don't become one.

Team size:

Gallup found there's an upper limit to the number of direct reports most managers can effectively oversee: 10. Any more than that, Harter says, and it becomes hard to have meaningful conversations with employees on a weekly basis.

And on the technical ladder:

Studies have shown that a top programmer can produce as much work as 20 average ones — a statistic that's often used to justify paying astronomical salaries to attract the best engineers. That's why the tech industry created a separate advancement track for programmers: to give superstars a way to win raises and promotions without having to become managers.

https://www.businessinsider.in/policy/economy/news/the-hardest-job-in-america-right-now-middle-management-/amp_articleshow/98607089.cms

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@OP - what a load of BS. In EM, middle managers are too busy planning their next career move, making up numbers to make themselves look good, whilst figuring out the next fall guy they’re going to blame and out in the NSI category

Middle managers are actually the ones who make select the people to be NSI, PIP and layoff.

@ @oqg+1lC6LYyr.

Are you at brcp? Sound exactly like my boss. She’s the bo-b and not in a good way

@1rmu

Good point.

More often than not managers even “delegate” sending emails. If they could find a way to delegate doing absolutely phucking nothing (which is the case 99% of the time), I’m sure they’d find a way to do so.

Rule of thumb: if you’re a manager with fewer than 15 people under you then your job can probably be done by software at zero labor cost.

@rav+1lC6LYyr If you think management involves texting and sending emails you probably won't make a very good manager.

Middle management is there to administer WebCAT's, LPO's, filing of NI/NLI, conflict resolution (if they actually do this one, they are one of the useful ones), last but not least PDS's.

@rav What about the people with the word “manager” in their title who have zero direct reports? They’re somehow even more useless than the managers with 3-10 people under them.

Corporate America’s cop-out answer for why there are so many managers with no direct reports on their payroll is “they manage processes, not people”. What an insufferable crock of sht.

“Middle managers are actually the ones who make large organizations work”

No, they really don’t.

When they aren’t interrupting my workflow, calling pointless meetings, adding steps to processes, or kissing-up to their boss’s boss, they’re doing everything they can to deny me higher pay and better work/life balance.

I never thought I’d say this, but Mark Zuckerberg is right. We don’t need managers managing managers who manage other managers. Send them all back to contributor roles or show them the door.

Is this a joke? If you mean middle managers move the needle TO ZERO, then you are spot-on.

The people that make forward progress for the company are a few brilliant and visionary hard workers (est. 10% max) that may or may not be recognized….and may or may not be management. When you recognize them, you start to realize that they hold up their team. Managers often draft in the wake of their successes…..recasting those successes to meet management’s needs.

On the other hand: The average ExxonMobil middle manager spends his/her day in internal discussions that never lead to a decision or bottom-line result. They spend too much energy trying to impress their higher-ups. They cannot mentor their employees, because they rarely know how to do the work. Most are terrified of making a decision, so send their employees on endless recycles….and still struggle to make a decision. They often make sht up. Not important sht, but commentaries on how you need to be more visible or you’ve improved so much…..but you are pretty certain you’ve done the same consistently good job the whole time. You smile and nod, because they feel like it’s time to tell you these things. You can push them a little, but don’t push too much. They all say they are open to feedback, but it is like Russian Roulette. There is a 20% chance that your manager throws people under the bus when they feel threatened. If you did your homework already, you probably know this already. But you need to be one step ahead, because stumble upon that 20% and you will be picking up the pieces of your noggin for years to come.

Driving the organization? Huh! Maybe driving the organization nuts! There are too many of them. Many are as I described and need to be moved to independent contributor roles or retired. A few are varying degrees of better.

Middle managers should be able to manage twenty to thirty employees. Ten employees were circa 1990 before Office 365, laptops, and cell phones existed.

Bottom line is that middle management needs to shrink by 50% if they only have ten direct reports.

Good ones do. Toxic ones crush departments and morale

EM does not care about what studies or polls say. We make our own rules.

Thread regarding ExxonMobil Corp. layoffs

Middle managers are actually the ones who make large organizations work

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