Fears surrounding automation and job replacement have plagued workers all over the world for decades. Some of these fears were valid—for example, millions of manufacturing jobs have already been lost to automation and many more factory workers are predicted to be replaced in the near future. Other sectors, however, haven’t fared as poorly as experts once predicted.

That is—until recently.

Middle managers and higher ups have widely avoided being replaced by automation due to the fact that these jobs tend to be multifaceted, and managers are seen as by some “the heart of your company”.

But with the economy still recovering from a variety of unpredictable ups and downs, and technology advancing by the second, the job security that middle managers once held is at risk. According to research from Live Data Technologies, “manager or executive-level layoffs made up more than 50% of all observed layoffs last year.” That’s up from a 30% average between 2018 and 2022.

This trend is being labeled “The Great Unbossing” and it’s already having a significant effect on  major global employers, but before we get into industry specifics, let’s take a closer look at what led to this shift in the first place.

Why Now?

When researching which tasks are most commonly associated with the position of ‘middle manager’, the following keywords come up a lot:

-        Communication

-        Recruitment

-        Scheduling

-        Budgeting

-        Data Collection/Entry

Now, take a look at those top three tasks—do you notice anything?

Those are three areas in which AI and other tech have advanced exponentially over the last decade or so. Communication especially.

During the pandemic, when workers were sent home by the thousands, many had to rely on alternate forms of communication in order to do their jobs. Now, four years later, it’s estimated that nearly 12.7% of full-time employees still work from home and nearly 30% are on a hybrid schedule. These individuals have become so adept at communicating via computer software, that there’s really no reason for them to send their correspondence through a middle manager.

Applicant tracking systems, advanced scheduling software, budgeting apps, and data tracking technology have also come a long way in the last few years. This is why it’s no surprise that some are predicting that by 2030, “80 percent of the work of today’s project management discipline will be eliminated as artificial intelligence takes on traditional PM functions.”

What Sectors Are Likely to Be Most Affected?

As of right now, the sectors that are most likely to be affected by ‘the great unbossing’ are larger companies that have the resources to automate these tasks as well as companies that already experienced a lot of upheaval during the pandemic.

Businesses that have shifted over to a workforce that now predominantly uses AI for things like communication, scheduling, and customer service, can save a lot of money by letting go much of their middle management staff.

For example, pharmaceutical giant Bayer recently eliminated 1,500 roles, with about two-thirds of those being qualified as ‘managerial positions’. Similarly, just last month, Amazon cut “more than 100 customer service managers working in level 5 and level 6 middle management positions.”

Tips for Middle Managers

If you’re a middle manager and sweat is beginning to collect on your brow, don’t freak out. Not everyone is on-board with the great ‘unbossing’ trend.

Experts from Harvard Business Review compared all sorts of data last year and found that “companies whose managers excelled on human capital metrics had high returns on investment capital (28%), were four times as likely as their peers were to have superior long-term financial performance, and experienced more sustained revenue growth during the pandemic.”

Want another reason not to worry? How about the fact that a lot of the skills you may have developed over the years working as a middle manager, make you a very competitive candidate. Leadership, creativity, and problem-solving skills are some of the most sought-after expertise in the modern-day labor market.

Starting Fresh, Not Starting Over

Nobody likes job hunting, and it’s especially frustrating to go looking for new employment after being let go for reasons entirely outside of your control. No amount of sugar-coating from us here at CyberCoders is going to make getting replaced by AI any easier to accept.

But there are ways we can help!

Let us help you find the most rewarding open positions and land you that interview! Our recruiters are not only experts in making you, as the candidate, shine bright, but they can also give you access to potential employers you would’ve never been able to find on your own. We can open doors so that you don’t feel like you have to start over, but instead, that you get to start fresh.