The Perpetual Resurrection of the Middle Manager
The pendulum swings, and middle management once again finds itself scapegoated in the grand flattening experiment. Elon Musk rails against “managers managing managers”; Mark Zuckerberg dismisses them as bureaucratic bloat; even Satya Nadella tips his hat to “leaner” teams. The message is straightforward: snip the middle, slash the overhead, and efficiency will set you free. It’s a catchy mantra, but history—being the patient teacher it is—reminds us that the middle doesn’t just vanish; it bounces back....