The Disconnected Worker
I read an article recently about layoffs in the tech sector. In it, one worker shared her story of being laid off by 3 companies in less than a year. The first was a startup where she had worked for several years. She questioned why she had been selected – it clearly felt personal. The next 2 employments were each of short duration, the last being merely a month long. In the end, she was left questioning whether she wanted to continue working in tech. The tech sector, especially the startup segment of the tech sector, has never been a great place to seek job security because of its inherent volatility. Yet it has long been a place in which employers seek to espouse winning and attractive cultures that are all about “the people”. This got me thinking about job security in the post-pandemic workplace. Has employment in the information economy become more unstable because there is less connection between employer and employee? Is the relationship between employer and employee becoming more transactional?
These days all the headlines are about the battle over return to office. Workers have voted with their feet, it’s clear they prefer to work remotely. But a more permanent state of remote work seems destined to bring a “gig-economy” effect to many jobs. Gig workers are independent. They have a narrowly defined and fully aligned relationship between their work and compensation. I don’t think your average Uber driver is there for the company culture. Many workers seem to want this type of relationship with their employer, one in which the production expectations are clearly defined, and they have the flexibility to meet these expectations on their own schedule. Yet workers may be unaware how this shift will impact their value to the organization.
This is, fundamentally, a transition from people-centric to data-centric. Specifically, data that defines what is (and is not) productive. Certain industries, like ours (commercial real estate brokerage) have long been about production. Brokers are the original gig workers. We come to our industry accepting, even desiring, a construct in which our compensation is 100% aligned with our effort. It’s not a comfortable place. There is a constant pressure to perform against the backdrop of a pervasive awareness of your value. Is the average employee ready for this? Will they thrive in a transactional workplace in which one’s value is narrowly defined by specific production targets? I’m not sure. I think people mostly want the best of both worlds. They want their employer to value soft qualities that make the workplace feel safe and comfortable, more like a family. A place in which, yes, production matters but so does the person. They want the freedom that is normally associated with total accountability for one’s income (e.g., the entrepreneur) without being totally accountable for their income. We get it. But is this a realistic outcome?
This is not a prediction of a dystopian future. It’s a commentary on the possible impact of decreasing the human connection between employer and employee. As companies struggle to figure out what to do about the office, how much to force employees back, etc., it's possible the worst outcome for employees is the one they seemingly want the most: fully remote work, largely disconnected from people and physical places that embody corporate culture. The disconnected worker.