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In today's big story, we're looking at the thinning of Corporate America's middle management, which is putting millennials and Gen Z at risk.
What's on deck:
But first, who's your manager?
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Hate your boss? Don't worry. They might not be around much longer.
Middle managers are becoming an endangered species in Corporate America, with some companies viewing the role as obsolete, writes Business Insider's Lindsay Dodgson. Remote work, tech efficiencies, and a general push to cut costs have contributed to middle managers' demise.
The immediate impact is being felt by millennials entering their middle-management era. It's another gut punch for a generation that seems to keep getting the short end of the stick.
Having trouble buying a house? Try doing it without a job!
But in the long term, the death of middle management will be felt beyond millennials.
Gen Zers haven't hid their disdain for middle managers. But successfully canceling their bosses means killing a primary source of mentorship and workplace guidance.
That's a big gamble coming from a generation that needed to take classes on making small talk and writing work emails.
Middle managers have always been a bit of an easy target.
We all know that person — or persons — at work whose job isn't abundantly clear. They seem busy, but you're never sure what they're actually doing. If your company were to make cuts, why not start there?
It's a strategy Corporate America, particularly Big Tech, deployed in 2023. The "year of efficiency," as Mark Zuckerberg dubbed it, was all about flattening organizations, and middle managers were the ones getting squished.
But dismissing the much-maligned middle managers as busybodies is misunderstanding their value to a company.
A buffer between employees and executives ensures the former meets the latter's expectations. That point is especially relevant when so many things are changing in the workplace, from the departure of boomers and the arrival of Gen Z to navigating return-to-office mandates.
The death of middle managers could also fuel the current dismantling of another cohort: the middle class.
Eliminating an entire management level means fewer earning opportunities for those looking to climb the economic ladder, which is already becoming increasingly difficult to do.
The Insider Today team: Dan DeFrancesco, deputy editor and anchor, in New York. Jordan Parker Erb, editor, in New York. Hallam Bullock, senior editor, in London. George Glover, reporter, in London.