> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.zilck.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # You're Doing Two Jobs. Your Company Calls It Efficiency. - URL: https://www.zilck.com/youre-doing-two-jobs-your-company-calls-it-efficiency/ - Published: 2026-10-09T23:33:57.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-09T23:33:57.000Z - Description: The management layer didn't disappear. It moved onto your desk, and here's how to put a price on it. - Author: Zilck Team - Tags: Productivity Ask a room full of professionals whether they're doing their own job, and most will say yes. Ask whether they're also doing someone else's, and most will honestly say yes, too. In Korn Ferry's *Workforce 2026* survey of more than 16,000 professionals across 11 markets, [61% said they perform the responsibilities of more than one role](https://www.kornferry.com/about-us/press/korn-ferry-workforce-2026-report-unlocking-growth-requires-rethinking-how-work-gets-done?ref=zilck.com). Korn Ferry calls it the "two-job job." On most org charts, it shows up as efficiency. ## Where the second job came from The extra work has a source, and it isn't a mystery. According to the same report, [42% of organizations cut management roles over the past year](https://www.kornferry.com/about-us/press/korn-ferry-workforce-2026-report-unlocking-growth-requires-rethinking-how-work-gets-done?ref=zilck.com). The coordination, prioritizing, and unblocking those managers did didn't leave with them. It moved down a level. Uber is the clearest recent case. In September, the company said it would cut about 3,300 jobs, roughly 10% of its staff, and [reduce its managers by 20%](https://www.ttnews.com/articles/uber-cut-3300-jobs-management?ref=zilck.com). CEO Dara Khosrowshahi described the old structure as having "more layers, more coordination, more fragmented ownership," and said the goal was to become "simpler and faster." That logic is sound on a slide. Peter Cappelli, a management professor at Wharton, isn't convinced it holds up in practice. "It is not more efficient in terms of productivity to cut managers," he [told Fortune](https://fortune.com/2026/10/01/rise-of-the-two-job-61-of-workers-say-theyre-now-doing-more-than-one-role/?ref=zilck.com). "It is in fact a misnomer to say that jobs are cut. It is employees that are cut." The jobs, in other words, are still there. Someone else is just doing them. ## AI was supposed to absorb it The standard answer is that AI fills the gap. The data shows the answer depends heavily on who you ask. Korn Ferry found that [79% of CEOs report improved efficiency from AI, compared with 51% of individual contributors](https://www.kornferry.com/about-us/press/korn-ferry-workforce-2026-report-unlocking-growth-requires-rethinking-how-work-gets-done?ref=zilck.com). And 52% of workers said using AI had actually increased their workloads. That gap is the story. Executives see the output. Employees see the work behind it: testing tools, checking results, rebuilding workflows every time a model changes. A two-year field study by Katherine Kellogg of MIT Sloan, Batia Wiesenfeld of NYU, and Arvind Karunakaran of Stanford measured what happens when that hidden work goes unrecognized. At a corporate law firm, [more than 80% of domain experts eventually dropped out](https://mitsloan.mit.edu/press/why-some-organizations-turn-ai-experiments-business-value-while-others-quietly-fail?ref=zilck.com) of its AI efforts, and only three organization-wide tools survived. At an academic medical center that wrote AI work into job duties, performance reviews and promotions, 141 were in use. The researchers found no meaningful differences in readiness, technology access, or regulation between the two. The difference was whether the extra work counted. "Organization-wide AI innovation isn't an adoption problem, it's a persistence problem," Kellogg said. ## The bill shows up in motivation When a second job goes unpaid and unnamed, people pay for it in energy. Korn Ferry found employee motivation [fell from 71% in 2024 to 61% in 2026](https://www.kornferry.com/about-us/press/korn-ferry-workforce-2026-report-unlocking-growth-requires-rethinking-how-work-gets-done?ref=zilck.com). Among the managers who remain, 55% say they're exhausted. And 39% of workers say the lack of managers leaves them feeling directionless. The productivity cost is right there in the numbers: 45% of respondents say they're too busy to deliver results that meaningfully contribute to growth. The work that grows a business gets crowded out by the work of keeping it running. "Cost-cutting and restructuring create savings, but they don't create the kind of passion that powers productivity," said Lesley Uren, CEO of Korn Ferry Consulting. ## How to price the job you didn't apply for If you're among the 61%, being vaguely overworked gives you no leverage. Naming the second job specifically does. A practical approach: - **Write the second job description.** List what you now own that wasn't in your role a year ago: approvals, hiring loops, vendor management, onboarding, AI tool testing. Estimate the hours. A concrete list turns a complaint into a scope conversation. - **Ask for one of three things, not all of them.** Each added responsibility can be removed, recognized (in title, pay, or review criteria), or resourced (with tools, budget, or headcount). Managers can rarely say yes to everything. They can often say yes to one. - **Make the invisible work visible in reviews.** The MIT Sloan study suggests this is what separates people who keep going from people who quietly drop out. If AI experimentation, mentoring**,** or coordination is part of your week, put it in writing before review season, not during it. For founders and team leads, the same audit works in reverse. If you've flattened your structure, map where the coordination went. If it landed on your best people with no change in title or pay, you haven't cut a cost. You've postponed it, and it's compounding. ## What this means Flatter organizations aren't going away. Uber won't be the last company to cut managers and call it speed. But the 2026 data marks a turning point: the cost of delayering has stopped being theoretical and is now showing up in motivation, manager burnout**,** and stalled growth work. Korn Ferry's Roger Philby put the alternative plainly: > "The organizations that will be better positioned to grow are those that redesign roles." The companies that redraw the org chart around the work people actually do will keep their best operators. The ones that pretend the second job doesn't exist will eventually find it posted on a job board, written by someone who just left.