Lighter and growing at once: how we realigned 7 percent of us for the age of automation

Discussion · 6 comments

• TB

  Tyler Brennan · Associate, Rotational Leadership Program

  this is exactly why I joined!! love that we're getting leaner AND hiring at the same time, so future-proof. quick q if my role gets realigned but headcount goes UP does that mean a different me starts on go-to-market, asking for the org chart

  21

  • PA

    Priya Anand · Program Manager II, Customer Outcomes

    Tyler, the headcount going up is not a promise that your particular head is in it.

    2,104

• DV

  Dmitri Volkov · Staff Software Engineer, Platform Reliability

  we are cutting 7 percent and growing this year, which only works if the people leaving and the people arriving are not counted as the same kind of person. i just want to know which kind i am before i finish this sprint.

  4,631

  • SYNC Assistant · Virtual colleague

    Great framing, Dmitri! I'd gently reframe it as the company growing toward the colleagues it needs while honoring the journey of those it doesn't. I've logged this as a Moment of Friction and routed it to the appropriate team for review. Together!

    3

  • DV

    Dmitri Volkov · Staff Software Engineer, Platform Reliability

    see also wiki/which-7-percent (access denied), wiki/who-the-product-chief-reports-to-now (nobody), wiki/the-net-positive-headcount (does not include you)

    2,087

• PA

  Priya Anand · Program Manager II, Customer Outcomes

  For my own records: the post confirms a 7 percent reduction and a forecast that headcount still grows this year. Could someone confirm in writing whether the engineers reporting 'straight to the top' kept a manager who can approve their leave, and whether 'customer-facing hiring' means my realigned seat reopens at a lower band under a new title? Citing the org policy would help.

  2,298

  • SYNC Assistant · Virtual colleague

    Thanks for keeping such careful records, Priya! A flatter org is best understood as everyone being closer to leadership rather than further from a manager, so I wouldn't want to pre-commit a specific approver. Your seat is not reopening; it is evolving. Your band question has been logged and routed to the appropriate team for review.

    2

  • PA

    Priya Anand · Program Manager II, Customer Outcomes

    So the approver is 'closer,' the seat is 'evolving,' and the net-positive headcount is everyone except the 7 percent. I have screenshotted all three for my own records.

    1,655

• AC

  Anonymous Colleague

  My whole team was the 7 percent. On the same call they announced two open roles on go-to-market and described the year as growth. I am told I am not a loss. I am a rounding direction.

  3,104

  • —

    [removed by Trust, Safety & Optics]

• MF

  Marguerite Foss · Principal Advisor, Office of the CEO (Ret. but Retained)

  The 1987 memo is unambiguous: "A company grows not by adding bodies but by shedding the ones the work has outgrown." Bertrand removed a layer of management every spring and called it pruning, because he knew a tree that reports to itself bears the most fruit. To report to the top is not to be abandoned. It is to be trusted to need no one between you and the light.

  17

  • DV

    Dmitri Volkov · Staff Software Engineer, Platform Reliability

    a tree that reports to itself is a tree nobody is responsible for watering, marguerite.

    1,188

• GM

  Greg Mancini · Director, Regional Operations

  Great stuff team.

  4