[imh]

Work effort seems like a collective action problem. It's a race to the bottom, trying to beat (or not be the worst of) your team. Unions are one way to solve this (collective bargaining).

Another is just competing over workers. As the economy specializes and jobs require more and more training, I wonder if this competition is getting more limited. Industry X is treating workers better than industry Y? Too bad you can't switch because you've invested years of training (and student debt) into Y and you'd have to go back to school to get into X.

Side note: I also wonder whether that contributes to software engineers having it so good. As software eats the world, every industry needs software, so switching from the entertainment industry (netflix) to web search to social media isn't that hard.