“Vice President” (VP) is a Bad Position Title in Software Companies
Advice to IT Founders: Avoid Status Job Titles.
I read a news report today that Meta (Facebook) is planning to slash 50 Vice President (VP) positions.
The №1 objective, according to this article, is “to streamline operations and reduce costs”. In other words, Mark Zuckerberg, like many CEOs, thinks a fair percentage of VPs are “slowing operations and a waste”.
We often hear about “flattening organizational structures” and “reducing layers of management.” It’s clear that having too many middle and senior management positions is NOT beneficial—this is common sense.
“we plan to have fewer layers of management, both top down and sideways, to accelerate the flow of information and decision making. This includes flattening organizations and increasing the span of control of people managers.”
— Microsoft News Center, “Starting to evolve our organization and culture”, 2014–07–17
