双语正文
⭕️Bonfire of the middle managers
中层管理者的篝火（Bonfire），此处比喻大规模裁员
⭕️Why firms are "delayering"
为何企业正在"削减层级（delayering）"
【1】Middle managers never have it easy. Subordinates resent them for climbing the corporate ladder. The top brass blame them when company strategy fails. In the popular mind they personify corporate bloat; they are the stuff of satire rather than respect. Stress and burn-out are their lot.
中层管理者（Middle managers）的日子从来都不好过。下属因他们攀登企业晋升阶梯（corporate ladder）而怨恨（resent）他们。高层领导（top brass）在公司战略失败时指责他们。在公众心目中，他们体现了（personify）企业臃肿（corporate bloat）；他们是讽刺（satire）的对象而非尊重。压力和倦怠（burn-out）是他们的命运。
【2】But lately they have had an especially hard time. Lots of them are losing their jobs. In August Google said it had cut 35% of its managers overseeing teams of fewer than three. In September Fiverr, a freelancing marketplace, said it would shed managers to focus more on artificial intelligence (AI). Amazon has been trimming all year in its effort to improve efficiency—most recently in July, at its cloud-computing arm. Meta's Mark Zuckerberg has been complaining about "managers managing managers" since 2023.
但最近他们的日子尤其艰难。许多人正在失去工作。8月，谷歌表示已裁减（cut）35%负责监督少于三人团队的管理者。9月，自由职业平台（freelancing marketplace）Fiverr表示将裁减（shed）管理者以更专注于人工智能。亚马逊全年都在精简（trimming）以提高效率——最近一次是在7月，其云计算部门。Meta的马克·扎克伯格自2023年以来一直在抱怨"管理者管理管理者"。
【3】And that's just in tech. So far this year phrases relating to "reducing management layers" have been mentioned 98 times on the earning calls of companies in S&P's global stockmarket index, twice as often as in the whole of 2022. The list includes UBS, a Swiss bank; Reckitt Benckiser, a British consumer-goods company; and Air Liquide, a French maker of industrial gases. What is behind this bout of "unbossing"?
而这还只是在科技行业。今年以来，在标普全球股市指数（S&P's global stockmarket index）成分股公司的财报电话会议（earning calls）中，"减少管理层级（reducing management layers）"相关表述已被提及98次，是2022年全年的两倍。名单包括瑞士银行瑞银（UBS）、英国消费品公司利洁时（Reckitt Benckiser）以及法国工业气体制造商液化空气（Air Liquide）。这轮"解除管理层（unbossing）"背后是什么原因？
【4】One explanation is simply that in an uncertain economic environment, companies are cutting costs. Surveys of executives (for example, by the Atlanta Fed and the Bank of England) suggest that many of them plan to lower hiring overall and invest less. Among other causes, they are struggling to fathom President Donald Trump's ever-changing tariff regime.
一种解释是，在不确定的经济环境中，公司只是在削减成本。对高管（executives）的调查（例如由亚特兰大联储和英格兰银行进行）表明，许多人计划整体减少招聘并降低投资。除其他原因外，他们正在努力理解（fathom）特朗普总统不断变化的关税制度（tariff regime）。
【5】Another reason has its roots in the pandemic. When covid-19 first struck, companies furloughed staff. That was followed by a hiring spree as firms, particularly in tech, raced to meet demand for e-commerce and digital services. New managers were needed to supervise the new staff. At the same time, firms were overpromoting people. In a bid to hold on to good employees, companies gave them management positions, even if they were in charge of only one or two subordinates, notes Bryan Hancock of McKinsey, a consultancy. Managers' ranks swelled. America's Bureau of Labour Statistics tracks 425 broad categories of occupation. Between 2019 and 2024 five of the ten fastest-growing were management roles.
另一个原因源于疫情。当新冠首次袭击时，公司让员工暂时休假（furloughed）。随后出现了招聘狂潮（hiring spree），因为公司，特别是科技公司，竞相满足电子商务和数字服务的需求。需要新的管理者来监督新员工。与此同时，公司过度提拔（overpromoting）人员。咨询公司麦肯锡的Bryan Hancock指出，为了留住优秀员工，公司给了他们管理职位，即使他们只负责一两个下属。管理者队伍膨胀（swelled）了。美国劳工统计局跟踪425个广泛的职业类别。在2019年至2024年间，十个增长最快的职业中有五个是管理角色。
【6】Now companies are shedding the excess. Figures from Live Data Technologies, a research firm, show that since November 2022, when the covid hiring-binge peaked, listed American firms have cut middle-management positions by around 3% on average. Numbers of non-managerial staff have fallen similarly. But tech and health-care companies, which stepped up hiring during the pandemic, have cut middle managers faster than they have cut other staff. Other sectors struck hard by covid, such as retail, have shed a large share of the rank and file as well as their supervisors.
现在公司正在裁减（shedding）多余人员。研究公司Live Data Technologies的数据显示，自2022年11月新冠疫情招聘热潮（hiring-binge）达到顶峰以来，美国上市公司平均裁减了约3%的中层管理职位。非管理人员的数量也类似下降。但在疫情期间加大招聘力度的科技和医疗保健公司，裁减中层管理者的速度比裁减其他员工更快。其他受新冠疫情重创的行业，如零售业，已经裁减了大量普通员工（rank and file）及其主管。
【7】What about the supposed new job-eater, AI? Plenty of firms, including Amazon and Walmart, are both talking up their use of the technology and firing managers. But the cull seems to have little connection to ChatGPT. The Economist compared Live Data Technologies' headcount figures by sector with data from the Business Trends and Outlook Survey, a poll by the Census Bureau, an American government agency. The poll asks firms, among other things, whether they have used AI in the past two weeks. The analysis did not reveal any relationship between AI use and delayering.
那么所谓的新工作吞噬者（job-eater）AI呢？许多公司，包括亚马逊和沃尔玛，都在吹捧（talking up）他们使用该技术，同时解雇管理者。但这次裁员（cull）似乎与ChatGPT关系不大。《经济学人》将Live Data Technologies按行业划分的员工人数（headcount）数据与美国政府机构人口普查局的商业趋势与展望调查（Business Trends and Outlook Survey）数据进行了比较。该调查询问公司是否在过去两周内使用过AI等问题。分析未揭示AI使用与削减层级之间的任何关系。
【8】That may eventually change. For a long time technology has been taking over some management tasks, from disseminating information to monitoring workers. According to a survey by McKinsey, managers spend about a quarter of their time on administrative tasks. These too seem open to disruption.
这种情况最终可能会改变。长期以来，技术一直在接管一些管理任务，从传播（disseminating）信息到监控员工。根据麦肯锡的一项调查，管理者花费约四分之一的时间在行政任务（administrative tasks）上。这些似乎也容易受到颠覆（disruption）。
【9】But in the interim AI may be the middle manager's friend. Raffaella Sadun of Harvard Business School notes that effective middle managers can boost the uptake of corporate training, notably at companies trying to persuade staff to use the new technology. If companies want workers to swot up on AI, they may be well advised to hold on to their middle managers for just a little longer.■
但在此期间，AI可能是中层管理者的朋友。哈佛商学院的Raffaella Sadun指出，有效的中层管理者可以促进企业培训的吸收（uptake），尤其是在试图说服员工使用新技术的公司。如果公司希望员工刻苦学习（swot up on）AI，那么建议他们再保留中层管理者一段时间可能是明智的。
生词短语
1. bonfire /ˈbɒnfaɪə/ n. 篝火
2. delayering /diːˈleɪərɪŋ/ n. 削减层级
3. corporate ladder 企业晋升阶梯
4. resent /rɪˈzent/ v. 怨恨
5. top brass 高层领导
6. personify /pəˈsɒnɪfaɪ/ v. 体现，象征
7. corporate bloat 企业臃肿
8. satire /ˈsætaɪə/ n. 讽刺
9. burn-out /ˈbɜːnaʊt/ n. 倦怠
10. shed /ʃed/ v. 裁减
11. trimming /ˈtrɪmɪŋ/ n. 精简
12. earning calls 财报电话会议
13. fathom /ˈfæðəm/ v. 理解，弄清
14. tariff regime 关税制度
15. furlough /ˈfɜːləʊ/ v. 暂时休假
16. hiring spree 招聘狂潮
17. overpromoting /ˌəʊvəprəˈməʊtɪŋ/ n. 过度提拔
18. swell /swel/ v. 膨胀
19. hiring-binge /ˈhaɪərɪŋ bɪndʒ/ n. 招聘热潮
20. rank and file 普通员工
21. job-eater /dʒɒb ˈiːtə/ n. 工作吞噬者
22. talk up 吹捧
23. cull /kʌl/ n. 裁员，淘汰
24. headcount /ˈhedkaʊnt/ n. 员工人数
25. disseminate /dɪˈsemɪneɪt/ v. 传播
26. administrative tasks 行政任务
27. disruption /dɪsˈrʌpʃən/ n. 颠覆
28. uptake /ˈʌpteɪk/ n. 吸收，接受
29. swot up on 刻苦学习
30. unbossing /ʌnˈbɒsɪŋ/ n. 解除管理层
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