An entertaining polemic against the tech industry

Lab Rats: Why Modern Work Makes People Miserable. By Dan Lyons.Hachette Books; 272 pages; $28. Atlantic Books; £16.99.

NEWTON’S THIRD law is that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. The titans of technology have amassed great wealth but, like investment bankers before them, they have discovered that this does not bring them popularity. The past few years have witnessed a “techlash” on a wide range of issues, including the way technology invades citizens’ privacy.

Dan Lyons, a journalist who spent time working in the industry, has written an entertaining, if scattergun, attack on one aspect of technology’s influence—the effect it has had on everybody’s working lives. He argues that the industry has reduced real wages, made workers feel dehumanised and less secure, and exposed them to constant, stress-inducing change. Tellingly, the proportion of Americans who are happy with their jobs dropped from 61% in 1987 to 51% in 2016.

A particular target for his ire is the startup technology company. With their sweet-dispensers and ping-pong tables, they may give the appearance of friendliness. But in the author’s experience, such firms are associated with very high staff turnover, especially in sales and marketing. They tend to be marked by a brutal management style; Mr Lyons was told not only that he was failing, but that his fellow workers didn’t like him. “Most startups,” he writes, “are terribly managed, half-assed outfits run by buffoons and bozos and frat boys.” Worse still, they offer little job security because of the way they operate. “All they have is a not-very-innovative business model; they sell dollar bills for 75 cents and take credit for how fast they’re growing.”

Some tech pioneers promote a new compact with workers which holds that companies owe them neither loyalty nor job security. Workers should expect to move on as frequently as singletons at a speed-dating evening. Patty McCord, director of human resources at Netflix, was astonished when a woman burst into tears when she was fired. She wrote a book saying that employees should no longer expect their company to help them with career development or acquiring new skills. The chapter about sacking workers had the title “People Very Rarely Sue”.

Tech companies cover up their hard edges with a wide range of dubious management techniques. At the start of the book, Mr Lyons attends a Lego Serious Play session where he is asked to build a duck out of bricks. Lego-building is embraced by those who believe in “agile” work, one of the most popular management fads, whereby staff are organised into ad hoc teams to complete a specific task. All this approach produces, the author argues, is another set of meetings for employees to attend. Another fad is for open-plan offices where workers lose all privacy. The main advantage accrues to the management, since the design saves money by cramming workers into a smaller space. (When Apple engineers found out that they were going to be housed in an open-plan set up, they rebelled and were given a separate site.)

In the last section of the book, Mr Lyons cites examples from the alternative school of management that is built around treating people well, and thanking them for their efforts. Nurturing a reputation as a good place to work helps recruit better employees. Instead of obsessing about unicorns (startup companies worth more than $1bn), the author thinks the world should look for “zebras”, which can turn a profit and improve society at the same time. Many modern workers will agree.