August 05, 2025
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
When Google cofounder Sergey Brin recently said that managers’ duties are the “easiest thing” to automate with AI, he made it clear that tech’s recent push to cut middle management isn’t slowing down.
But new studies suggest this shift may be causing problems. Across industries, a leadership vacuum is starting to emerge, with fewer young workers volunteering to pick up the reins. A lack of middle managers is at least partly to blame.
Software teams are no exception to the trend. And as several industry insiders tell LeadDev, staff engineers are especially feeling the strain.
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August 05, 2025
