Logic of downsizing

[Voyager]

@lazybratsche

How do you figure? If there are sixteen layers, and starting with the CEO each layer down is twice as large, there would only be (2^0 + 2^1 + … 2^15) = 2^16 - 1 = 65535 employees (half middle management).

Of course, that is also a pretty ridiculous structure. But in the quoted example, I’m guessing that there’s some mixture of exaggeration, “layers” consisting of a single people, and an unusually long chain of command within that company. E.g., think of an organization chart where the top has a VP, assistant VP, deputy assistant VP – that’s three “layers” on paper, without exponential growth. That makes room for organizational units with five or twenty employees at the same level.

I started out in the Bell System which also had lots of levels. However, not all individual contributors were at the same distance from the CEO. MTS types like me were seven or 8 away from the top, but I knew people in factories or distribution centers at my more or less level who had three or four levels below them. And I knew nothing about the management chain of operators and people who worked in the retail stores.