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Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:
Some Microsoft organizations are looking to increase their span of control, defined as the number of direct reports or subordinates a manager or supervisor oversees. It also wants to increase the number of coders compared to non-coders on projects,
According to anonymous people familiar with the matter who spoke to Business Insider, Microsoft has yet to decide how many jobs will be cut, though one person said it could be a significant portion of their team.
Other companies such as Amazon and Google are also reducing the number of managers and executives in their drive for efficiency.
Microsoft wants to decrease the ratio of product/program managers (PMs) to engineers. Microsoft security boss Charlie Bell's division has a ratio of around 5.5 engineers to one PM, but he wants that to reach 10:1.
News that Microsoft is targeting non-coders in these cuts is in contrast to the many stories about generative AI replacing the need for programmers. Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott made the startling prediction last week that 95% of all code will be generated by AI by 2030. He added that humans would still be involved in the process, though it's easy to imagine that there will be fewer of them.
At the start of the year, Microsoft confirmed it was implementing performance-based layoffs, though it said those let go would be replaced with new hires. Microsoft rates employees on a scale of 0 to 200 and bases their stock awards and bonuses on this rating. Anyone in the 60 to 80 range – 100 is average – is rated as a low performer.
Soon after those performance cuts were revealed, the company said it was making more job cuts across its business, impacting employees in the gaming, experience & devices, sales, and security divisions.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Unixnut on Tuesday April 15, @07:39AM
And here I thought it was just my company that had that. We on average have 3 managers per employee (i.e. someone who actually does the work), I beat the average by being blessed with 4 of them, most of which give me contradicting instructions as part of some internal power struggle.
Needless to say getting anything done is a very long/slow process, with lots of re-doing and re-starting of projects depending on which manager temporarily gets the upper hand and insists on things being done "their way".
Not to mention 4 sets of 1-1's and performance reviews, and of course I am marked as an average to poor performer for "not listening to instructions" and "not finishing projects within given ETAs". which of course is impossible to do with you have four sets of instruction, the requirements keep changing and you have four sets of admin/meetings/report writing, for each manager.
I don't understand how a company can be so management heavy yet not go bankrupt, it is basically impossible to get anything done yet the company carries on existing and getting income. It is like its being levitated against the gravity of dysfunction somehow.