As a skeptical corporate peon: This is an attempt to make everyone an "individual contributor." In many ways this is good, even great: people who manage processes are often crazily, even completely out of touch with the work it takes to actually complete their processes. See that lsherwood post. But then again if i didn't have a manager of some sorts I'd really never do anything. 1) I note as a multi-year extremely-intermittent Zappo's shopper that 2-day shipping is no longer standard; instead 4-5 BD shipping is the new "free" and those white kicks I need for my Halloween costume this Friday just got $15 tacked on for 2-day, which of course is all that will do, except it used to be this was a benefit of using Zappo's not a cost; Therefore 2) I wonder as a banker, a corporate peon, a worker, a consumer and therefore as a person who reads "let's get rid of bosses" and concludes "let's get rid of hierarchy", if what Zappo's is really trying to do is just cut their costs and maximimze profits now that they done got caught and their manager needs to answer to another manager
Now, just as an honest corporate peon, maybe even an optimistic one: If I didn't have a manager I'd totally absolutely get nothing done, at all, ever, besides writing and hubski and reddit and every single interesting thing you can think to look up on Wikipedia and then all the summations of all the basic plots and then every single short story of any note you can read free online and then all the interesting lit journals and then their archives and oh did I mention yet I once read the entirety of HPMOOR on work time at a shitty job? In like maybe a month? And did I mention all those pictures of cats? It would be so great, not having a manager. And then it would be boring and then it would be terrible. And then, maybe then, I'd give you more than half-invested work. So no. Don't get rid of the managers. Someone needs to manage me.
A good manager's job is to figure out where the team needs help and push resources in that direction. A great manager keeps the higher ups off the back of the team. Good managers also make doing shit work bearable, if not fun. Steam is a great example of why you need someone in charge. Their Customer Service sucks because there is nobody in charge to force someone ANYONE to step into the crap work of dealing with angry people and fix the end user experiences of their customers. My boss knows when I am frustrated and need a break by the way I pound on the keyboard. She then gives me something to do so that I have to step back for a few. I'm the type of person who gets in a zone and digs a tunnel of focus that I tend to not look around me and forget other duties. Without a good manager, I'd be a bad employee. Nice way of putting it. Bravo.If I didn't have a manager I'd totally absolutely get nothing done
So no. Don't get rid of the managers. Someone needs to manage me.