The IT industry has undergone huge advancements in the last 20 years since I joined it. I would say, conservatively, that a programmer today, with all of the modern tools and frameworks available to them, is probably 5x times as productive as they were in 2020. I also know that these tools and platforms aren’t specific to the IT industry, that sales, marketing, HR, finance, etc. have all undergone similar productivity revolutions.
Imagine that in 2020 we all spent 40 hours a week producing 40 units of value for our employers. Here we are 20 years later, and that same 40 hours now produces 200 units of value. Where has all of this additional value gone? We’re all making mostly the same salaries as we did 20 years ago adjusted for inflation, and free lunches don’t cost that much.
The answer is that companies have captured almost all of this additional value at no additional cost.
Taking a Step Back
I’ve read economists who believe that the pandemic caused people to reflect on their lives without the commute or the requirement to be in a desk for 40 hours a week between the hours of 9am and 5pm, and we’ve realized that, from a work perspective at least, things are so much better now and we don’t want them to go back to the way they were.
We’ve realized that being in the office wasn’t about productivity but about control, not about culture but about a lack of trust, not about doing what’s best for employees but what’s easiest for employers. Let’s face it, organizing a functional remote workplace is challenging. The last year has shown us that maintaining the culture, organizing geographically dispersed teams, and remotely delivering a high-quality product are all possible, they just take a lot of thought and effort. Effort that companies were unwilling to put in before, because they didn’t have to and the outcome was uncertain.
Now we know that it can be done, and that knowledge changes everything.
The Great Renegotiation
One of the reasons that companies didn’t provide the kind of flexibility that we’ve enjoyed during the pandemic is because they were in a stronger negotiating position. An individual negotiating with a company has very little leverage, and the result has been a race to the bottom of wages, benefits, and flexibility. Even the companies famed for their worker-friendly culture: providing massages, free meals, entertainment, and a gym in exchange for your presence in the office for a specific 40 hours a week, doesn’t sound like a bargain to me anymore. And those are the best in the industry!
What we’ve realized in the last 2 years is that the things that really matter to us, the things that bring more meaning and enjoyment to our lives: more time with our families, more time for ourselves, less pressure to respond in the evening and on weekends, and less time commuting, are all very reasonable demands. They are things that would cost our employers so little, but benefit us so much. Companies didn’t create the tools that have made us all so much more productive in the last 20 years on their own. We all did it together, employees and employers, and we should all benefit from these advancements in a way that has the most meaning to us.
Companies are slowly, so slowly, starting to respond not because it’s the right thing to do, but because our global society, in the face of the pandemic, has started to spontaneously behave like a union in a collective bargaining negotiation. We’ve all realized that the old deal was a bad one, negotiated in a different time in a different context that no longer applies, and collectively decided that this deal needs to be remade taking into account the world in which we now live. I think of this not as The Great Resignation, but as The Great Renegotiation.
A New Bargain
In this new world, we are willing to accept:
- our current, market-based salaries
- our current benefits packages
- being available during some core hours for necessary, synchronous work
- that companies can keep the extra 160 units of value that we’ve been producing each week since the start of the millennium thanks to automation and productivity improvements
- our current 40 hour work week (you should know that this is the next thing we’re coming for #fourdayworkweek)
… in return for:
- no more sitting in traffic for 2 hours a day (does anything seem more stupid and infuriating than this senseless loss of hours of our lives?!)
- no more sitting at a desk just so you can feel good that we’re working
- no more attending meetings that only exist because some people don’t seem to know how to communicate in any other way
- the flexibility to do asynchronous work whenever and wherever we choose
- the right to sit on the couch and rest when we’re actually sick
- the right to attend important family events without the worry that we’ll be seen as uncommitted and receive negative reviews
Companies that are unwilling to accept these terms should be prepared for employees to take their 200 units of value per week to an employer who will, and then be wiling to take their chances in the job market finding someone who is willing to accept turn-of-the-millennium working conditions. People are saying that there’s a labor shortage, but what this really is is the inability of companies to find people willing to accept their old deal.
I’m experiencing this first-hand as I left my job in June, and have been looking for a new one for a couple of months now. I will not even entertain a position at a company that doesn’t meet the above criteria, no matter what other benefits or salary they’re offering. I’ve realized what’s important to me, and will not consider anything that does not provide it. The good news is that while most companies are still catching up to this new reality, there are a lot more opportunities out there than I had hoped. I’m currently talking to a few companies who really get it, and sound like they’d be great partners in my pursuit of a meaningful job that benefits me professionally and personally.
We’re currently living through a very exciting time that I’m sure will be talked about in history books in the decades to come as the time when workers forced a permanent change in their relationship with work. I’m happy to be playing a small part in it, and am very energized by the future that we’re making together. Welcome to your seat at the Great Renegotiation.
