We talk about externalities. A chemical company pours toxins into a
river, an automaker knows its products kill X people per year. These
are tangible, understandable.
But we don't yet think of the effects on the workforce as social
externalities. Industrial safety has made the workplace a much safer
space physically, but not mentally.
The reality is, a great many jobs make us sick. Depression, anxiety,
heightened aggression, sedentary atrophy, getting overweight because
there's no time for the gym... the modern office workplace is no
heath-farm. And Google throwing a few coloured bean bags around,
or providing healthy food and gym equipment is only a sticking plaster
if the foundational culture is toxic.
What is the cost to society? I have no idea, or how to even measure it.
But I have a few observations.
I meet lots of people who "got out of tech". People with PhDs who
became landscape gardeners or opened a juice bar. I meet smart and
engaging people in their 30s who dropped out of games or media careers.
The cost (to society) of educating a graduate is, what, $100,000?
Average post-grad education is another 4 years. Then it costs
approximately 20% of someones salary to hire and onboard them.
For what? So they can drop out after 5 years and go open a
wind-surfing school?
In a way, these people, the workforce/pool are a national asset, and
it could regarded a tragedy of the commons that harming them is
inflicting an externality on the whole industry. By culturing
inhospitable, mentally harmful environments the tech industry is
pissing in its own drinking water.
But we don't yet think of the effects on the workforce as social externalities. Industrial safety has made the workplace a much safer space physically, but not mentally.
The reality is, a great many jobs make us sick. Depression, anxiety, heightened aggression, sedentary atrophy, getting overweight because there's no time for the gym... the modern office workplace is no heath-farm. And Google throwing a few coloured bean bags around, or providing healthy food and gym equipment is only a sticking plaster if the foundational culture is toxic.
What is the cost to society? I have no idea, or how to even measure it.
But I have a few observations.
I meet lots of people who "got out of tech". People with PhDs who became landscape gardeners or opened a juice bar. I meet smart and engaging people in their 30s who dropped out of games or media careers.
The cost (to society) of educating a graduate is, what, $100,000? Average post-grad education is another 4 years. Then it costs approximately 20% of someones salary to hire and onboard them.
For what? So they can drop out after 5 years and go open a wind-surfing school?
In a way, these people, the workforce/pool are a national asset, and it could regarded a tragedy of the commons that harming them is inflicting an externality on the whole industry. By culturing inhospitable, mentally harmful environments the tech industry is pissing in its own drinking water.