Skip-Level Meetings: Benefits, Risks, and Design Considerations Informed by Bypassed Managers’ Experiences

Samuel Blacher

IEEE Engineering Management Review · Early Access published October 2, 2026
DOI: 10.1109/EMR.2026.3740096

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Abstract

Skip-level meetings (SLMs), bidirectional, relationship-oriented meetings between employees and managers two or more levels above, are common but not universal, and often recommended in professional outlets. They entail benefits and risks for employees, direct and skip-level managers, and organizations, with multiple factors related to shaping the value-risk balance and appropriate approach. However, SLMs have received limited scholarly attention, particularly regarding bypassed managers’ views of that managerial practice. This exploratory qualitative study examined the experiences and perspectives of 25 first-tier software engineering managers from diverse personal and organizational contexts in the multicultural, dynamic, innovation-driven, and high-turnover U.S. tech sector as bypassed managers in SLMs between their direct reports and these reports’ second-tier managers. Their accounts, integrated with directly related literature, as well as on intersecting topics such as employee voice, psychological safety, and cultural and generational differences, revealed broad support and preference for exclusion from SLMs, contrary to concerns in prior literature, broad implementation, and high sensitivity to design and contextual factors, such as the significance of follow-up involvement and of individual backgrounds. Findings position SLMs not as a universally beneficial managerial practice, but as context-dependent, requiring deliberate design and implementation, or avoidance. The study extends limited research on SLMs and hierarchy-bypassing interactions, recommends directions for further research, and offers evidence-informed guidance for deciding whether and how to use SLMs to maximize value while mitigating risks.

Citation: S. Blacher, “Skip-level meetings: Benefits, risks, and design considerations informed by bypassed managers’ experiences,” IEEE Eng. Manag. Rev., early access, Oct. 2, 2026, doi: 10.1109/EMR.2026.3740096.