a hot take: ownership? at the very least, the ability to participate in decisions that affect them. look into employee ownership resources, cooperative models, etc.
now, i’m not saying give up the whole business! but check out the essay “private government” by elizabeth anderson. even with all the cushy benefits i had at a tech job, the bureaucracy and top-down decision making is why i left!
great to hear it!! and keep in mind, you don’t need to go down the ESOP route necessarily, as some of those more complex legal structures can be more for larger corps. i frequent a local business that just wrote up papers as an LLC with a set number of shares owned by its employees.
I’d be happy to chat/curious if you do go down this route. especially what the road bumps were / what would make it easier. i’m also a fan of employee ownership, and working to try and make it more commonplace :)