I like to bring up the Theory of the Firm - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_the_firm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_the_firm It makes no sense

I like to bring up the Theory of the Firm - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_the_firm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_the_firm It makes no sense that employees exist, right? Why not just pay everyone as consultants, gig workers, piece-work, etc? But employees do exist, possibly because the best way to manage most people is to pay them to be in a room where all they can do is work. Do you have a great idea to save time? Well you tell your boss, and you're pretty confident that this won't result in you losing billable hours, because you're an employee. Are the requirements kind of bullshit? Not a problem, figure it out, you're paid to be here. Do you need a break? Have a break. Maybe chat to some colleagues, that might even add some value. All the anti-office folk seem very set on believing that they should be paid for the value they add, not the hours they are in the office. This is fine if you're delivering pizza, but for a lot of jobs this just isn't easy to measure. Yes, there's some consultants and B2B, not everything needs to be employees, but for a lot of work and a lot of workers and managers it's paid salary that ends up being fairer and easier. A lot of employees became more productive in lockdown, but I suspect this is partly due to novelty (change often has short-term benefits), partly due to there being nothing else to do, and partly due to all the uncertainty that the business might have mass layoffs.