—By Seth Setevenson
SLATE Magazine
The bossless office: How well do workplaces without managers function? #business http://entrepidinc.news/bossless-office
You might wonder sometimes, perhaps after an especially inane quarterly job review, what it would be like not to have a boss. Or, after that same job review, not to be a boss. What if we were all workplace equals, with everyone possessing the same privileges and the same authority?
The truth is, there are all sorts of drawbacks to employing managers. (Note to my editor: Not you! You’re perfect! Never change!) More layers of management means paying more workers, and generally at higher salaries.
It means introducing inefficiency, as each decision gets slowly passed up the chain for approval.
In a hierarchical organization, decisions get made at the top of that chain by the people with the least connection to the facts on the ground.
Meanwhile, the folks at the bottom, in the heart of the action, feel no agency over their work. In short: mo’ bosses, mo’ problems. So why not get rid of the management structure altogether?
A few workplaces have done exactly that.
cnbc
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