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Google has eliminated 35% of managers overseeing small teams in past year

(www.cnbc.com)
574 points frays | 5 comments | 27 Aug 25 21:16 UTC | HN request time: 0.241s | source
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mikestew ◴[27 Aug 25 21:52 UTC] No.45045782[source]▶
The 35% reduction refers to the number of managers who oversee fewer than three people, according to a person familiar with the matter.

If you oversee 0-2 people, in most cases that’s probably not an efficient ratio. How did Google get so many folks in that position in the first place? And I assume the other 65% take up the slack to fluff their teams? Or what? Leave the other 65% managing 0-2 people?

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1. TheBigSalad ◴[27 Aug 25 21:54 UTC] No.45045800[source]▶
How is it not efficient?
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2. n1b0m ◴[27 Aug 25 22:00 UTC] No.45045873[source]▶
I guess it depends on what other responsibilities the manager has. If a manager has too little to do, they might over-manage their small team, constantly checking in on their work, which is inefficient and demoralising.
3. Etheryte ◴[27 Aug 25 22:01 UTC] No.45045880[source]▶
If managers oversee 0-2 people in a company, that means it's roughly just one person managing one person managing one etc.
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4. michaelt ◴[27 Aug 25 22:33 UTC] No.45046167[source]▶
In certain types of company, it's workers without management responsibilities who do the work that brings in the money.

Think of a delivery company, for example, where drivers make deliveries, which is what the company gets paid for. Too many managers - AKA too few employees per manager - will sink the company, because managers draw a salary but don't make deliveries.

Of course, this analysis might not work as well for a company like Google. I'm pretty sure I can publish an ad without any human intervention on Google's end, so maybe they have no equivalent to the drivers, making the ratio incalculable.

5. LudwigNagasena ◴[28 Aug 25 09:25 UTC] No.45050153[source]▶
Imagine you have a cohesive system that has 10 services, each service requires 1-3 people. The head of the system can assign 10 tech leads responsible for the overall quality of the services or they may have over 20 direct reports, most of whom have nothing of interest to report to the higher-up.