The Growing Cost of Retaining Employee Attention

There has been a lot of change in my life over the last decade, and the last six months have seen some pretty large events take place that have fundamentally changed the course of my future. It is strange, because I already know this, though I do not know what the future holds - just like everyone else.

It has been hard at times to come to terms with it all, but I think that considering the scope and impact, I am handling it pretty well all told, though recently the salience of how much my life will be affected has been weighing on me a little. The days haven't changed much, but my outlook on the future has, and it isn't as positive for myself as it once was.

One of the things that I have become very bearish on are my job prospects, as while I don't think I will struggle to find some kind of work, the path I was on has been narrowed quite a lot. Part of this is self-imposed as I don't feel as confident in taking "risks" with positions now, but I am wondering if I should just say "fuck it" and throw caution to the wind.

due to the way I interact with people, my general work ethic and track record, I have managed to build up a bit of personal and social capital in my organization. With so many changes happening internally and so much expansion in the market, there might be opportunities to explore going forward. I don't know what these might be yet, but I don't think being a software product trainer (which I enjoy) is all I am able to do there and perhaps there are other places my skills can be better utilized.

I have never been a ladder climber, nor had that corporate desire to "be someone" in the organizational hierarchy, so have always avoided the spotlight. As I was saying to my wife today, I like to just do my job and get onto the next one with minimal fanfare and fuss. I don't need titles or pats on the back for reward, just give me adequate remuneration for the job I do, and I will get the next task done too.

Over coffee, I had a discussion with colleagues about the value of our attention and what they think it is worth and to frame it I said how they give 40 or so hours of their attention to the company and in return, they earn a salary - a good salary in their case. But, I asked when they are not at work, what is their attention worth? This was driven by my post on how much our attention earns and I said that money is made on our attention, but we don't get anything in return.

My colleague said however, that for example when he is not at work, he doesn't need to earn on his attention and he doesn't want to think about it. So, when he sits down to play his drug of choice (Civilization), he can happily waste those hours in entertainment and distraction from work. That is fair enough and I think this is common for most people in this world.

However for me, my "free-time attention" earns me more than my professional attention, like many people who got into different aspects of yield earning in crypto have found. This means that my employed work is actually the distraction, which means that my employers have to keep me entertained, if they want to keep me. They are not competing with Netflix or other employers who might be courting me, they are competing with my ability to generate income for myself.

I think that this is quite a rare set of conditions in the world today, but it is increasingly going to get more common as the creator economy and play-to-earn gaming models start to generate significant personal income for more people around the world. Not only this, it isn't the pure gamers or artists who can earn, it is people running side-hustles in their spare time and these people can very well be the most desired as employees at the moment.

While not many and generally only certain kinds of people are able to earn from the centralized content platforms and the monetized internet, crypto breaks it wide open for all kinds of people to earn, including highly skilled professionals. This means that they will also be looking at the profile of how much their attention is worth and possibly cutting back on their employed work or quitting altogether. This will force the hand of employers who want the best and brightest, because they have options.

A lot of people are seemingly wanting to get out of work, but I actually think that a lot of people enjoy their work (a lot of it anyway) and get a lot of personal value from being employed. However, many people are not necessarily happy with the remuneration packages, whether it be money, perks or flexibility. Once these people are earning extra income streams (many of which are passive) on the side though, they can negotiate from a far stronger position, especially if they are considered desirable as an employee.

The companies that aren't able to attract great workers and retain them, are going to find themselves increasingly losing market share, as their business model that has essentially relied on underpaying employees, crumbles. Underpaying? Yes. Businesses operate for profit and in order to make a profit, they have to generate a greater income than all of the expenditures, including running costs and salaries. This means that all that the staff do to generate the value, isn't returned to the staff in form of salaries, as portions go to owners and investors. This is business.

This was business.

The new business models that are forming based on decentralization and crypto now, are returning far more to the people who generate the value, because they are the employees and the owners. This means that the organizations are far lighter, giver are much higher ROI on the attention the "employee" pays to generate the income. Ironically though, these businesses will increasingly compete with traditional models and the traditional will have to pay far more to keep their model running, as their best employees migrate to the new models. This will lower the ROI for many corporations, which will then result in investment capital moving to where it can earn more too, which is again, to where the best employees went, because they were rewarded more for their attention.

Very quickly, the entire economy is disrupted in such a way that while one part of it is crumbling, it is being simultaneously replaced by the part that has forced the disruption in such a way, that more value is generated for the average person, but less for the average billionaire.

I find it fascinating.

Which is why I am also considering seeing what other opportunities exist within the current organization, so that I may be able to position myself to more effective use the skills built and knowledge obtained by my attention spent in my free-time, to benefit both me and the organization I work for, as they are prime to make a transition into the new economy - which is something I identified from their product, before I even went to the first interview and, the main reason I took this position in this particular company.

While my life has been upturned a couple of times this year personally, the entire world as we know it is changing for all of us rapidly, even if we aren't paying attention to it. One of the things I have been very good at in the past is seeing how seemingly unrelated events come together in the future and I am definitely seeing many of my predictions and the bets on risk aligning. If I can use this skill to help reposition parts of the organization's business model, I can compound the value of my skills.

Can the organization pivot their mindset and culture? Can they attract the best into their ranks to build into that highly lucrative future? Can the company retain the best? Will they be willing to pay the costs to make the trade on my attention worth it?

I might not be too positive on my own future outcomes, but for those who are willing to build skills and appropriately value their attention, the world has more possibility and opportunity than ever.

Taraz [ Gen1: Hive ]