Senior leaders are feeling the burden of cuts to middle management

Good morning. Lily Mae Lazarus here, filling in for Ruth Umoh.

In the pursuit of speed and efficiency, many companies have aggressively trimmed layers of middle management. Chief executives like Amazon’s Andy Jassy and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg have championed flatter organizational structures in an effort to reduce bureaucracy and spark innovation. But what looks lean on paper is proving increasingly costly at the top.

Senior executives are now shouldering more direct reports...