The great flattening

US managerial positions fell 6.1 percent between May 2022 and May 2025 on Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Gallup reports average direct reports per manager rising from 10.9 in 2024 to 12.1 in 2025, close to a 50 percent increase in team size since it began measuring in 2013. Manager engagement fell from 31 percent in 2022 to 22 percent in 2025 while individual contributor engagement moved only from 20 to 19, and Gallup attributes the manager decline to flattening, wider spans, and unsupported technology rollouts.

The overshoot shows in Korn Ferry's survey of 15,000 professionals: 41 percent said layers had been cut, 43 percent said leaders were not aligned, and 37 percent said the absence of managers left them feeling directionless. Removing the layer did not remove the work. That is the Coordination cell in one paragraph, and the anti-pattern of the same name.