David Cooper

So when you heard companies like Meta and Block are trying to retire the phrase middle manager, what problem are they trying to solve?

Is this innovation or is this just cost cutting with fun branding?

I want to make a quick disclaimer and apologize to anyone I used to work with in advance.

I used to be a middle manager at a big tech company.

Well, is a line manager someone who manages like engineers directly at a tech company?

Is that considered middle management?

The biggest part of my job, I had seven reports, was just dealing with their BS, like listening to them, sitting there in meetings and having them vent and then going and talking to the people they're having conflict with.

It was all social stuff.

And yes, it was annoying, but I feel like that stuff was needed for these people's sanity.

What are people going to do if they have problems at work and they have like a manager with 20 reports who also has other tasks to do than manage them?

And when I was in the tech market, you know, it was so good for employees back in like 2019, 2018, you could afford to hire sort of like adult children who needed a lot of emotional, I don't know, labor.

Not that the people who reported to me were that way, no comment.

I guess nowadays with the market being a little rough, they can afford to get rid of people that really need a therapist manager.

Okay, so let's talk about these titles, org lead, player coach, AI builder.

What do these even mean?

If this is my title at a company these days, what am I doing?

Are these companies saying a lot of hierarchy slows innovation?

Is that the claim they're making?

Absolutely.

But don't people also need clarity about who's responsible for what?