Uber is cutting many of its 'micro-teams' and giving some middle managers more reports

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi announced plans to reduce the number of 'micro-teams.' Bloomberg/Getty Images Uber announced plans to lay off some managers and eliminate nearly half of its "micro-teams." It's part of the Great Flattening, as companies look to cut costs and trim managerial layers.

Eliminating middle managers can result in fewer career development opportunities for employees.

As Uber cuts jobs, it's targeting some of the smallest teams in its org chart.

In a memo announcing layoffs affecting about 10% of staffers on Wednesday, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said the ride-hailing giant would trim management layers and cut the number of "micro-teams" — those with only one or two direct reports — by nearly half.

"The outcome is a simpler org chart geared toward building versus managing," Khosrowshahi wrote.

Uber's focus isn't simply on small groups of workers.

It's groups that come with their own management layer.

The move comes at a time when many tech companies are looking to reconstruct org charts with fewer layers and more managers acting as "player-coaches," not merely supervisors.

In some cases, it's meant CEOs like Meta's Mark Zuckerberg have touted the value of the "tiny team," where elite employees do the work that once took legions.

Coinbase announced in May that it would have "no pure managers" as it shifted toward AI-native pods, including "one-person teams" in which a single employee takes on the work of an engineer, designer, and product manager.

For others, it's meant asking fewer middle managers to oversee bigger teams — and sometimes take on more hands-on work as well.

How AI is reshaping teams These days, managers can often oversee larger teams because AI is changing what they do, said David McJannet, cofounder of Dome Systems, a platform for controlling AI agents.

Instead of turning to a supervisor for guidance on every task, workers can use AI for help, he said.

Managers can then focus more on setting goals and checking that employees are on track to meet them.