We all know that person — or persons — at work whose job isn’t abundantly clear. They seem busy, but you’re never sure what they’re actually doing. If your company were to make cuts, why not start there?

It’s a strategy Corporate America, particularly Big Tech, deployed in 2023. The “year of efficiency,” as Mark Zuckerberg dubbed it, was all about flattening organizations, and middle managers were the ones getting squished.

But dismissing the much-maligned middle managers as busybodies is misunderstanding their value to a company.

A buffer between employees and executives ensures the former meets the latter’s expectations. That point is especially relevant when so many things are changing in the workplace, from the departure of boomers and the arrival of Gen Z to navigating return-to-office mandates.

The death of middle managers could also fuel the current dismantling of another cohort: the middle class.

Eliminating an entire management level means fewer earning opportunities for those looking to climb the economic ladder, which is already becoming increasingly difficult to do.