Why direct managers are now the critical link between leadership and employees—and how to support them
Organizations are streamlining middle management at an unprecedented rate: Gartner predicts 20% of organizations will use AI to flatten organizational structure by 2026, removing over half of current middle managers. U.S. employers were advertising 42% fewer middle management positions at the end of 2024 than at the start of 2022.
But in doing so, they’re also removing a crucial communication layer between senior leadership and frontline employees. The result? Critical information gaps, weakening trust, and threatened organization-wide performance. As middle managers vanish, direct managers are left to absorb their workloads—despite having fewer resources and less time.
Download the complete Firstup research report to understand how the loss of middle management impacts your organization, including:
- Survey findings from 1,000 U.S. workers whose organizations experienced recent layoffs
- How employees rely on managers as their primary source of company information (69% rely on managers for important updates)
- Why managers are irreplaceable – 51% call their manager their most trusted information source
- The communication gaps being created as direct managers become stretched too thin
- Business risks of unsupported managers, including project failures and turnover costs
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