What You Should Know About Democratized Employment

If you’ve found the traditional framework of employment purely advantageous in terms of benefits, hopping onto the freelancer train might not seem stable or secure. However, democratized employment aims to create a movement where employers and employees share the risks and rewards of a more mutual employment structure.

John Paller, the co-founder of Opolis, provides insights into why democratized employment is the future of work, especially for freelancers and employees who find themselves in Web3.

He says, “Democratized employment would give the individual employee the ability to make their own employment choices.”

What Is Democratized Employment?

Democratized employment is a more mutual employer-employee relationship that levels the playing field, creating a peer structure, as opposed to the hierarchical structure we’re used to.

In this structure, the employer doesn’t control the employee. Instead, they’re more like partners working together towards a common goal. This way, there is reduced risk for the employer in terms of hiring costs, and the worker maintains their freedom and control. 

What Is a Self-Sovereign Worker?

A self-sovereign worker has the freedom and flexibility of being self-employed, but with the benefits of those in the traditional workforce. Self-sovereignty allows you to unbundle the corporate offering, without compromising on the key benefits you’ve chosen for yourself. This allows you access to financial products and services that are typically hard to access when you can’t provide pay stubs.

The key takeaway is that you get to take control of your employment package without having to sacrifice your benefits.

Why Does Democratized Employment Benefit Workers?

The only employment structure that currently favors employees in all spheres of life is the traditional employment structure. The one that serves the biweekly or monthly pay stubs and benefits. However, there are contract and freelance workers who earn on a less traditional platform, and in a less traditional way.

These workers can earn in excess of $400,000 per year, yet still fail to qualify for a rental because their landlords and letting agents want the regular documents such as two years’ worth of tax returns and pay stubs. Web3 and crypto workers often get paid in less traditional methods, such as cryptocurrency, and have the dollar value to sustain a comfortable lifestyle, but are excluded from important financial decisions such as simply renting a property or applying for a mortgage.

Democratized employment offers a framework where these workers can have both freedom and control:

• Employees have access to benefits such as great healthcare.
• They receive pay stubs in order to prove income.
• Employers don’t have the risk of employee onboarding expenses.
• Workers can move around and not be geo-locked.

Before, employees had to make an employment decision based on the safety and security offered by traditional employment. And, often, this meant sacrificing freedom and flexibility. Democratized employment creates the middle ground where all of these factors can cohabit and remain fluid for both employer and employee.

Employers also benefit from the system, as they no longer have to lose time and money during the hiring process. Studies show that it costs around $4,000 and 24 days to hire a new employee, and for many businesses, this amount is hard to absorb.

With a fluid work structure that incorporates a more decentralized approach to the work environment, employers don’t carry the risk of the cost of new hires. They remain agile, as they can have their pick of the worker pool without the burden of going through the hiring process.

How Opolis Is Supporting the Democratized Employment Movement

Opolis is a movement and paradigm shift in the way we’ve done employment. It matches the needs of the workers, especially those who find themselves in Web3.

Opolis provides the benefits freelancing workers need when it comes to healthcare, taxes, compliance, and accounting.

DOAs and Democratized Employment

Decentralized autonomous operations (DOAs) form an essential part of the Web3 ecosystem. They allow workers the possibility of endless earning opportunities, which is quite a step away from the finite nature of traditional employment. For instance, in a traditional employment arrangement, it’s not in your employer’s best interest that you have another job, especially within the same industry. They may place restrictions on your earnings outside of the company.

DOAs, on the other hand, provide endless earning chances. You can easily contribute to two or three DOAs, thus lifting that lid on your earnings without compromising the quality of work or your freedom.

Listen to the full episode on democratized employment for the decentralized future on Opolis.co/Podcast.