Over the weekend, I was doing my online stroll through the news feed section of my LinkedIn homepage to see if any new candidates popped up for positions for which I am currently recruiting. I decided to stop reviewing profiles and made a switch to the “news recommendation” section and an article stuck out like a sore thumb.
It seems that the major online retailer Zappos decided to say its goodbye to management.
As a technical recruiter, I am always doing my best to research major technical companies to their bare bones in order to effectively recruit candidates. I have seen some wacky business practices, but this just disgusts me.
I read more of the article to find that not only is the company removing management positions and replacing them with “lead” roles, but it is also planning on removing job titles. The goal of this approach is to help employees have more say in what direction the company moves. This action pulls the rug out from underneath many people who strive for leadership positions in their professional careers.
Sure, it sounds really exciting. I started a student recruiting career at 19 and have been moving up since. My employer is actually amazed with how I am a full-time student and a well over full-time employee that when I graduate with my bachelor’s degree, he plans on offering me a higher level position — management. What could happen to college degrees if every company adopted this "holacracy" approach?
The idea of management is the ultimate goal for many college students. We attend college after high school so that we can start a career and build our lives. It is common for us to assume and understand that in order to move up the career ladder, we must have an education. When we buy into this system our whole lives, it makes sense that we will have a reward at the end of all the hard work. With this new system, the whole plan for many is thrown out.
Degrees are built for students to have gainful employment after graduation. Yes, we can get jobs that are at the bottom of the totem pole with our degrees, but if each company adopts this business concept, we miss out on the ability to see how hard work pays off, because there's no incentive to take on more responsibility.
Being able to move up with a company is an exciting and successful feeling for a person. Working hard in your current role and going back to school for a graduate degree helps you get that management or executive role that you are trying to hard to earn.
If companies take that away from their employees, then what are we working hard to achieve? Yes, having a say in the company’s fate is exciting. But, we have our own personal milestones to accomplish as well.
This change is a difficult system, and it will most likely take some time before it is rolled out, and I am sure going to be following the whole process. I just hope that my manager will not adopt this idea, so I don’t miss out.
Reach the columnist at ceacret@asu.edu or follow her on Twitter at @chelsieeacret
