We make the rules now.

The power in our economy has been shifting to the masses lately. You can hear many business leaders struggling with it. "Your little trip through the pandemic and remote work was fine and all, but get your asses back under my thumb and do things my way. I need my power back."

Case in point. In a letter to employees recently on the growing challenges of our current market, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi wrote "Hiring will now be a privilege." Read it if you have a moment. It sounds, well, desperate. I wouldn't know how to interpret that message any other way than to mean buckle up and work with what you have, suckas, because you're not getting any more. It bears mentioning that the same company that is signaling "work harder folks" is the very one that laid off nearly 30% of its workforce in 2020. Tough times can fall down on the masses but damned if they are going to fall up.

Geez Dara, read the room.

The new reality that many at the top are struggling with is that for every employee they are leaning on there are two jobs waiting right outside the door. That means the power center in the American Economy has shifted from the boardroom and investor calls into the workers hands. And that's kind of a big deal. In a post WW2 context, 70 years of top-down power has made things a certain way.

What did top down power ask from workers in the last 70 years? For millions, it amounted to something like this:

1. Raises underneath the annual inflation rate.
2. 60+ hour weeks.
3. "Nine to five" quietly slipping to "Eight to Six."
4. Work on airplanes, at night and on weekends. (Walmart's famous 7 am Saturday meeting for execs only recently got nixed.)
5. Insane commute time.
6. Normalization of workplace toxicity.
7. Starting out not quite so imbalanced at the beginning of the post war boom, but certainly landing there now.

The idea being that if you accepted these terms you would get your just reward. Of course, that just reward didn't happen for millions. I mean, are you really surprised people aren't in a rush to go back to the way things were? After all, their reality at the worker level has been a lot different than it has been at the management, leadership and investor level. As such, it makes sense that a workeforce with the power now in their hands wishes to leverage it on their own behalf. I mean, that's absolutely capitalism at its core anyway. It's always good to be on the right side of the supply and demand equation and cash fat checks.

What will bottom up power look like from here forward? Who knows. We could look at ESOP businesses as a point of reference. But it would all be guessing. How long will it last? Will it create a 70 year economy of bottom up power? Will top down power and bottom up power find a way to work together in harmony? Will that be the secret in the sauce of businesses moving forward? Striking that balance?

A lot is changing as we emerge from the pandemic. (Or learn to coexist with it) I suspect that the current discomfort at the top has more to do with power control than anything else.

Leaders and businesses who accept the change and find a way forward probably have the advantage.