The Agency Model

They fired the in-house team. Hired an agency. The agency costs more per hour but doesn’t get benefits, doesn’t get equity, doesn’t file HR complaints, and can be canceled with thirty days’ notice.

The work is the same. Sometimes worse — the agency doesn’t know the culture, the history, the weird thing about the database that only Kevin knew. Kevin was on the in-house team. Kevin is gone.

But the agency is a line item, not a headcount. And headcount is what the board counts. The budget went up and the headcount went down and someone called that efficiency.

The agency model is outsourcing the humanity while keeping the work.