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Ask HN: 20% of LinkedIn's recent layoffs were managers

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Re: Ask HN: 20% of LinkedIn's recent layoffs were managers

#41

Post by coffeebeqn »

intelVISA wrote: post #39
pizzafeelsright wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It depends. My manager filters my email. And tells me what the new priority is. Two levels up is a director. Above that is a department head. Out of 100 people there are about six that truly build, ship, accelerate the goal arrival. The rest of us make waves allowing the divers to have a soft landing.

Always makes you wonder what drives those 6 people to carry entire orgs like that when they could be free, and 10x richer.

How? ICs are usually well paid unless they’re clueless. I’m paid more than any manager or sr manager at my company at staff level.

Re: Ask HN: 20% of LinkedIn's recent layoffs were managers

#43

Post by hotstickyballs »

wahnfrieden wrote: post #26
betaby wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting. Parent comment is about 4:1 even. In my career I saw from 5:1 to 20:1 IC to managers on a direct level. However the higher one go the better the ratio, like VP to SVP ratio rarely reaches 10:1 even. Now I'm curious what are the industry 'standard' numbers.

bytedance has 50-200 reports per manager in some teams and are wildly successful my suspicion is lower numbers are more a function of worker power (demand for 1:1s, career growth conversation, offloading more tasks to your manager, etc)

Wildly successful how?

Re: Ask HN: 20% of LinkedIn's recent layoffs were managers

#44

Post by betaby »

bradleyjg wrote: post #37
tiffanyh wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you have 50-200 direct reports, you’re not a “manager”. You’re effectively either a recruiter or procurement.

I’ve heard of companies where hundreds of people officially report to person X but there are “mentors” with 3-5 mentees that seem an awful lot like other company’s mangers. Not sure what the point is exactly.

I mean manager has at least some power, 'mentors' or 'leads' - don't. At current org. we have ~20 ICs in the department and one manager, there are clearly 3, maybe 4 folks who are more senior in experience and more influential, but no, no one perceive them as managers.

Re: Ask HN: 20% of LinkedIn's recent layoffs were managers

#45

Post by kchandra »

gruez wrote: post #31
kuchenbecker wrote: post #15

I'm at LI and my reporting chain is Sr mgr > Sr Director > VP > Sr vp > CEO. A year ago it was mgr > sr mgr > director > sr Director> vp> svp > ceo. No one in my management chain was impacted but the flattening has been happening organically as folks leave. LI has a distinctive lack of chill right now contrary to the company image, but generally things are just moving faster.

>LI has a distinctive lack of chill right now contrary to the company image I don't get it. Did linkedin have an image of being a chill place to work?

Yes, absolutely. I worked there about 7-8 years ago and at the time it was considered a "retirement home" in Silicon Valley.

Re: Ask HN: 20% of LinkedIn's recent layoffs were managers

#46

Post by _dark_matter_ »

coffeebeqn wrote: post #41
intelVISA wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Always makes you wonder what drives those 6 people to carry entire orgs like that when they could be free, and 10x richer.

How? ICs are usually well paid unless they’re clueless. I’m paid more than any manager or sr manager at my company at staff level.

Yeah I report to a director and make more than them at senior staff level

Re: Ask HN: 20% of LinkedIn's recent layoffs were managers

#47

Post by upupupandaway »

I am dying to leave the management track and go back to SDE. Pretty much every company out there bloated their ranks to include more middle managers and it became an unbearable mess. After 12 years in management, though, I can't get interviews for SDE, so I am kind of stuck. Imagine writing code for a living? DREAM.

Re: Ask HN: 20% of LinkedIn's recent layoffs were managers

#48

Post by swader999 »

upupupandaway wrote: post #47

I am dying to leave the management track and go back to SDE. Pretty much every company out there bloated their ranks to include more middle managers and it became an unbearable mess. After 12 years in management, though, I can't get interviews for SDE, so I am kind of stuck. Imagine writing code for a living? DREAM.

Just taylor your experience a bit :)

Re: Ask HN: 20% of LinkedIn's recent layoffs were managers

#49

Post by moneycantbuy »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #38
moneycantbuy wrote: post #32

firing entire levels of middle management seems to be a fashion these days, but from experience in my org it has been counterproductive. my current manager now has >60 direct reports so can’t even find the time to handle each of our basic hr tasks, let alone provide any leadership. in theory i can see the board salivating to pretend they are elon but in practice it’s a dysfunctional nightmare. plus it’s bad for ic mo…

Nothing new. Middle managers are the traditional food for layoffs. Have been, for decades. For me, I was a "first line" manager of a small, rather high-functioning team, for 25 years. I was quite capable of going up the food chain, but didn't want to. I liked getting my hands dirty, and being directly connected to the product. I was a really good manager. I took the job seriously, and did well for the company (see "2…

if you hated it, how and why did you stay for 25 years? i’m at 7 years as an ic at a fortune 500 co and want out. ideally i’d start my own co without taking vc money, but so far i’ve been too afraid of the risk.

Re: Ask HN: 20% of LinkedIn's recent layoffs were managers

#50

Post by sen »

hotstickyballs wrote: post #43
wahnfrieden wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

bytedance has 50-200 reports per manager in some teams and are wildly successful my suspicion is lower numbers are more a function of worker power (demand for 1:1s, career growth conversation, offloading more tasks to your manager, etc)

Wildly successful how?

A little app called TikTok.
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