Even as I argue on one hand that a blind drive towards disentangling individuals from social trappings comes with unremarked costs, it is clear that communications technology today attenuates autonomy. Economics tempts us to view the job market today as an extension of the job market 10, 50, or 100 years ago when in fact these are different species. 

For one thing, employing someone in white-collar work used to mean having to engage their humanity in some degree. While professionalism and industrialism and power itself have always sought to neuter an employee of her idiosyncrasies, a presumption once existed that the employee would use their own resources to achieve that assimiliation. In other words, an individual owned their comportment. In practical terms, this meant that the median assignment 50 years ago involved much more individual discretion than the median assignment today. The ability to precisely monitor and instantly contact subordinates retards their autonomous agency. 

Most ascribe the founding of capitalism to Venice in the Middle Ages, when wealthy merchants and skilled captains reached agreements to trust each other and divide profits. The conduct of a voyage under those conditions necessarily involved circumstances which could not be foreseen. Since mail was an affair of weeks rather than seconds, a captain's bearing was as important as the money he had returned on prior voyages. The scope of his discretion was as broad as the imperative to deliver on the bottom line. Nor could the captain supervise everyone on the ship at once. . . 

What's better moment to moment may not serve long-term development and mission.