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by proc0 1096 days ago
The real value prop of having a full time employee, is you own their full time focus five days a week. It's not about practicing a trained skillset, or providing expertise ONLY, it's also about owning part of the business, managing other employees, and deep understanding of the product and how to market and deliver it to the user.

I'm not saying that's good or bad, however it is definitely not clearly stated-- not in schools, universities or in job descriptions. Society tells your for decades you're supposed to specialize and then get paid for that skill, yet most companies are expecting so much more.
1 comments
pdonis 1096 days ago
> you own their full time focus five days a week

That is the kind of "ownership" that the article is describing, but I don't think it's actually true. Even employees sitting in a office aren't focusing full time on the business for every single minute they are in the office.

That's why I phrased it instead in terms of assignments and how specific the definition of the job is, as compared with an independent contractor. You might not be focused on the business every single minute of your nominal working hours--but your boss can come to you in any one of those minutes and basically redefine what your job is. That's what the company "owns" if you are an employee. And that can happen just as easily if you're remote.

> it's also about owning part of the business

But employees, unless they are also stockholders, don't own any part of the business. And even in cases where employees do own stock on paper, their ownership share is so tiny that it arguably does not provide any meaningful motivation.

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proc0 1096 days ago
Yeah I agree with that. It's about owning your "main" focus. Being late one day and having the excuse that you had to do another job would not be ok, yet you can give many other typical excuses regarding family or dealing with life in general.

> But employees, unless they are also stockholders, don't own any part of the business. And even in cases where employees do own stock on paper, their ownership share is so tiny that it arguably does not provide any meaningful motivation.

Right, even though you don't own the business, it seems the expectation is still to behave in a way that you do. That is at least rewarded, if not punished by not promoting and/or having a negative review because you don't have the "soft skills".

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neon_electro 1096 days ago
Don't forget equity agreements that effectively prevent you from owning anything unless a "liquidity event" happens.
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