In the tech industry the word “manager” is rather unpopular. Companies go to extreme lengths to say they’re “flat” or that they have “no managers”. If they have managers, they go to extreme lengths to hide this behind many euphemisms - “performance partners”, “success catalysts” and whatnot. This doesn’t lead to good leadership. The state of denial causes confusion. Since the company doesn’t acknowledge that they have bosses, there’s no obligation on anyone to be a good boss. At scale, the complete model breaks down, because employees don’t have anyone to talk to who shows a personal interest in them, their work and their careers.

I think our industry has over-corrected for the phenomenon of poor managers, a.k.a “bosses”. Instead of training people to be good bosses, we’ve propagated the myth of flatness. Anyone who’s worked in a largish company knows that beyond a certain point there’s always a hierarchy. I wish companies fessed up to it instead of tip-toeing around this obvious reality. It’s ok. The world will not descend into a black hole if we accept that our “flat culture” has managers. We won’t become a worse place to work overnight if we use that word. It’ll just make responsibilities clearer.