About four years ago, managers at the London-based consulting firm where Dani works decided to flatten the company’s traditional hierarchy. The goal was to simplify the corporate structure and make the office less bureaucratic – reduce a rush-to-the-top competitiveness that drives employees to relentlessly chase the next promotion and title.

Dani says managers thought it would improve company culture. It achieved the opposite.

“They completely collapsed the seniority rankings and titles for our consultants and just retained a few very broad bands to signal how advanced someone was in their career,” explains Dani, now 39. “A real sense of chaos ensued.” 

She remembers an employee “backlash” to the changes. “Some felt like they’d been demoted,” she says. “Instead of creating a less competitive environment, it actually created a more competitive environment, because people were desperate to prove their worth.” Many of her colleagues – especially younger employees who couldn’t see a clear path to seniority – quit.

Other colleagues, says Dani, lost motivation to perform their jobs well because they couldn’t see how they would be rewarded in a meaningful way. “Many seemed to be saying, ‘if I can’t see my progress reflected in an explicit job title, then what’s the point in even trying?’”

For most workers, the default corporate structure has always been hierarchical – akin to a pyramid with a broad base made up of most of the workforce, which gradually tapers to a narrow peak of top managers and C-suite executives. 

Throughout the past several years, however, some organisations have experimented with flatter arrangements – fewer levels of seniority, and therefore fewer lines of reporting from the most junior employee to the most senior. These approaches are based around a less rigid hierarchy, with elements of self-management and autonomous departments and teams.  

In some cases, employees have pushed hard for these changes, hopeful that a flatter organisation will equate to more responsibility, autonomy and control over how they structure their workdays and careers more broadly. The pandemic has had no small effect on these efforts, as workers have challenged traditional workplace norms, small and large. Many employees have also been eager to explore a way of working that departs from the command-and-control arrangement that many feel is antiquated and leaves workers feeling stressed out and disengaged.