Job cuts in management: When well-paid managers lose their jobs

From the Handelsblatt archive: Companies all over the country are dismantling established structures. This is increasingly affecting well-paid managers. Experts warn: “The real earthquake is yet to come.”

More and more companies are cutting management positions: Volkswagen, Deutsche Bahn, BMW and Bayer are cutting thousands of management positions in order to streamline hierarchies and reduce costs.

The renovation did not begin because of artificial intelligence. Companies have been pushing forward with the dismantling of historically grown structures for some time - but AI is increasing the pressure and accelerating this development.

In the future, managers will be needed above all if they can control and implement the use of AI in the company. Middle management in particular could play a central role in this.

Psychologist Christine Altstötter-Gleich explains in an exclusive interview how managers can deal with job loss and professional setbacks and why terminations often damage self-esteem.

Berlin, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt. September 3rd will go down in Volkswagen history. On that day, the car manufacturer's supervisory board approved the board's restructuring plan. The control committee only narrowly averted an already threatening escalation: an extraordinary general meeting had been planned.

Instead, it's official: Volkswagen wants to cut more than 5,500 management positions across the group by the end of the decade. The company currently employs around 21,500 managers worldwide. That means: almost every fourth position could be eliminated.

For decades, careers at Volkswagen followed a fairly predictable pattern: those who performed well were promoted, those who didn't remained largely unscathed. “Too many people have made themselves comfortable,” says a decision-maker from Wolfsburg. Blume therefore wants to slim down the previous hierarchy at the top and replace the previous management circles with a new level system in which downgrades are also possible.

At the same time, management levels are being eliminated and responsibilities are being redistributed. For those who stay, the pressure increases. Fewer managers should be responsible for more employees. Responsibility increases, the number of superiors decreases. It's getting lonelier at the top at VW.

VW is not an isolated case. Other German companies are also cutting jobs extensively - especially in middle management.