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The recent tech layoffs have taken out middle managers from Google and Amazon. With companies streamlining their structures, the need to trim management levels to reduce cost and complexity is growing. After many of the layoffs for frontline workers and engineers, the focus has now shifted to mid-level management. This indicates a change in big tech's restructuring strategy—and perhaps a new phase in corporate America. This is what is happening and its implications on the sector.

EY

The other ‘Big Four’ companies are on alert in regard to EY as the latter has begun tirelessly merging layers of management hierarchically. The firm initiated a fundamental change by removing layers of middle management within its geographic divisions – the Americas, EMEIA, and Asia-Pacific.

Sustaining a mid-ranking manager proved to be a one-way street. The reorganisation meant either opting in for a senior position within a consolidated tier or leaving to retire. The change was part of EY’s plan to achieve “the most integrated global professional services organisation”. As put by a company representative, the change aimed to enable integrated and holistic servicing of clients—along with restructuring, fast and easy growth was expected through an improved decision-making system.

Amazon

In the case of Amazon, CEO Andy Jassy changed focus on streamlining the company's bloated managerial ranks. The e-commerce giant was the first to announce crossing its goal of 15% cuts to middle management before the year 2025.

According to Jassy, middle management provides with bottlenecks instead of benefits. “All well-intended, they want to put their fingerprint on everything,” he said during a Bloomberg interview. Primary Objectives under his strategies shifted towards eliminating cumbersome chains of command, granting employees more freedom and ownership of their roles.

Ford  

Ford displayed a unique strategy as a global automotive leader. First, the company cut bonuses for approximately 1,650 middle managers, which is about half of its global managerial staff. This move came as part of CEO Jim Farley’s efforts to trim costs. It was clear that monetary rewards going forward would be closely monitored, particularly for positions deemed redundant or excessive.  

Starbucks  

Also in retail, Starbucks has planned corporate downsizing to improve vertical flow of information and reduce siloed thinking. While the coffee chain highlighted that baristas and store-level personnel would not be affected, the corporate restructure revealed a shift in culture where management layers are reduced.  

Starbucks contemplates having 16,000 corporate employees worldwide, out of which 10,000 are based in the US. The goal is to streamline more agility and alignment within the organization. The complete scope of layoffs was anticipated to be announced by the start of March.  

HSBC  

Changes were more discreet, and perhaps equally merciless, for banking behemoth HSBC. Managers for the new corporate and institutional banking divisions were instructed to reapply for their job.

The organizational restructuring was projected to lead to several hundreds of job cuts, particularly at the levels of managing directors and other more junior positions. The bank also chose to start moving away from the term 'general manager' towards ‘managing director’—indicating that the bank wished to have fewer, more streamlined levels of leadership.

Blue Origin

Even in the private space race, middle managers are being reigned in. Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos’s space company, reduced their employee base by about 10% and merged management levels to gain speed and focus. 

Under David Limp’s leadership, the company admitted to running far too fast in recent years and accruing “more focus and less bureaucracy.” The changes made were throughout the entire engineering, research and development, and project management disciplines and implemented in order to enhance operational control rather than bureaucracy.

Google

While attending an all hands session, Google CEO Sundar Pichai informed everyone that the company had removed 10% of their middle and managerial executive positions. The company's claim that there was ongoing restructuring since 2023 was put forward to cover the obvious intent of boosting efficiency through removal of unnecessary management redundancies.

Bayer

Bayer was perhaps one of the biggest transformations. It’s CEO Bill Anderson announced plans to empower nearly 100,000 employees through a new model called “Dynamic Shared Ownership,” which will almost completely remove middle management.

The change scrapped most of the company’s 1,362-page corporate handbook, Bayer saw cutting bureaucracy as key to overcoming stagnation and starting the innovation cycle.

Meta (Facebook)

At Meta, Mark Zuckerberg communicated that managers could either contribute to core work or be demoted – demoted en masse. The Facebook division was reportedly taking steps to “flatten” its hierarchy and transform former managers to individual users. 

Some teams were in some cases completely removed from supervisor oversight, which demonstrates Meta’s aim to eliminate management and emphasize technical thorough expertise over administrative micromanagement.

Intel

The new CEO of Intel, Lip-Bu Tan, announced to employees structural changes focusing on middle management whom he believed were slowing progress. His predecessor had been too soft, but Tan seems ready to make the necessary cuts to sharpen Intel's competitive edge.

Lloyds  

It has been recounted that Lloyds Bank in the UK is planning to let go of around 2,500 employees as part of a shift to digital services. Most of these downsized positions would be comprisedof middle level managers such as analysts, and product managers, but the bay also plans to create 120 additional positions that more suitably fit with the bank’s digital transformation strategy.  

Morrisons  

Morrisons is cutting 1,500 middle management roles, opting for direct control over customer service. This isn't just a Morrisons thing; many companies are downsizing middle management. AI, agile work styles, and remote work are driving this shift towards flatter structures and self-management. Dropping middle management can save money and streamline operations, but it also raises concerns about potential burnout and lack of oversight if replacements aren't in place. What happens to middle managers? Some might get retrained or move to different roles, but companies definitely need to rethink how they operate without them.

Microsoft
According to the schedule, Microsoft will conduct its next layoff in May 2025, targeting middle management and non-technical positions. The objective of this movement is to streamline functions and engineering headcount in project groups as is done at Google and Amazon. The strategy seeks to reach a 10:1 ratio of engineers to managers, with an emphasis on demoting non-technical employees.
According to recent reports, Microsoft's upcoming restructuring initiative, it is anticipated to not only impact managerial positions, but also employees who have consistently demonstrated subpar performance. Specifically, individuals who have received biennial performance evaluations yielding an "impact score" of 80 or below for a consecutive two-year period are expected to be impacted by the layoffs. Furthermore, these evaluation intervals will also have a bearing on employee compensation and stock awards. At the time of this report's compilation, Microsoft declined to comment on the speculation surrounding the forthcoming layoffs.

That was it guys for this article, keep an eye out on Jagran English for more such updates!

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