Word comes today that Macy’s (M) is going to focus more on its local operations, whatever that means, and in so doing will probably be cutting some 2300 management-level jobs.
We’re seeing a lot more of this lately. In the old days, when I was a kid, management moved swiftly and decisively to cut mostly low-level and support jobs in its periodic effort to cut costs. Many is the cutback season I recall in which the executive class received its bonuses and continued to dine on fine silver while the tuna-in-a-baggie set was shown the door. Since it often took more than ten such workers to equal the cost of one mid-level vice president, this was a bloody process indeed.
Today, things may be moving in the area of increasing efficiency. While a decline in management will perforce entail a reduction in its support staff as well, the overall decruitment of those who cost the corporation more will, in the end, I think, mean a lower body count with increased bottom-line impact.
Still, this is extremely bad news for middle management. It’s clear that the human shield of low-cost employees has been all-but expended, and ultra-senior management has discovered that the middle layer may be expendable.
This requires all people in that middle tier — which includes most of us — to ponder the question of fungibility. Those who are fungible may be replaced by others who are also fungible. It is therefore advisable for those who do not wish to be expendable to maximize their unique value to the enterprise, thus minimizing the fungibility inherent in all organizational jobs. If you cannot be replaced by another similar moving part, you are less likely to join that doomed 2300.
Some brief concepts:
1. Establish a matrix of reporting relationships, so that any one senior officer in need of a cost savings cannot take you out;
2. Get involved in multiple, time-sensitive projects that require your work/presence for a period not less than the time in which cutbacks are being contemplated;
3. Plunge into a host of remote activities so that you are difficult to find. I have personally known at least half a dozen people who were not terminated because they were not around to be fired.
These are just a few introductory ideas on the subject. I wish I had more time to talk about it, but I have to catch a plane on the way to a remote location at which I will be attending a large number of meetings so my boss doesn’t have to.