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Your employer doesn’t like you. Rather than waiting around for the dirty little secret, I’m just going to get right to the catalyst for Fiverr (FVRR). It’s a hyperbolic blanket statement of course. But chances are – especially if you’re punching the clock of a major corporation – your employer thinks you’re lying and up to no good.
And under the framework of brutal honesty, there’s also the chance that your employer is exactly right.
You see, while western societies have emphasized from day one how richly special and diverse we all are, it’s also amazing how very similar we are at the end of the day. For instance, each one of us – having reached a certain level of life experiences – share the same skepticisms toward particular marketing pitches.
There’s a reason why we instinctively don’t trust used-car salespeople and how this lack of trust has become a meme before the concept of memes even existed. And when we read descriptions that declare “mostly highway miles,” we know that the vehicle in question has probably been beaten halfway to death.
At the same time, we’re also not fooling anyone when we use those very same pitches to others. Therefore, we shouldn’t expect employers to believe the “mostly highway miles” narrative of work-from-home productivity. However, this is also where FVRR stock becomes quite intriguing.
The Problem with Working from Home
It’s not that working from home doesn’t have benefits for both employees and employers. Back when the COVID-19 crisis broke out and forced everyone to essentially quarantine themselves, remote operations protocols enabled enterprises to keep chugging along without skipping too many beats. And in many circumstances, the transition was largely seamless.
However, it’s difficult to sustain a framework of trust under a salaried agreement and without measures of accountability – such as clocking into on-site offices – because employees automatically get paid. Further, in a large organization, it’s easy to trim employers’ time from the top because such productivity lapses are difficult to pinpoint amid the noise.
Still, lack of accountability enables many people to take advantage of the situation – it’s just human nature. Notably, the California Highway Patrol noted a 46% increase in the number of tickets imposed on drivers for going over 100 miles per hour during the early months of the pandemic compared to 2019 comps. Without accountability, it’s just too tempting to break the rules.
For Corporate America, as worker bees became accustomed to the new realities of the workplace, they soon began taking advantage of their newfound circumstances. Today, instead of discussing exclusively the benefits of work from home, many organizations have turned their focus to time theft, or using company time to conduct non-work-related business.
It’s not a theoretical threat to employers either. Earlier this year, a Canadian accountant was caught committing time theft. Further, her employer ordered her to pay back the wages she fraudulently earned.
The conundrum for white-collar businesses is that proving time theft on a case-by-case basis is extremely difficult. Therefore, it’s just much easier to avoid the headaches – and possible discrimination lawsuits – by bringing everyone back into the office.
Obviously, such a move will cause friction. However, this friction is also where FVRR stock may shine bright.
FVRR Stock May Fly on a Readymade Solution
If you happen to notice, following the close of the July 13 session, FVRR stock represented one of the highlights for unusual stock options volume. On Thursday, the one-month volume change hit 293.53%. Also, the put/call volume ratio sat at 0.30, reflecting significantly bullish sentiment.
More than likely, Fiverr benefitted from massive subscription growth. Per Barchart’s content partner The Motley Fool, “Fiverr had 4.3 million active buyers on its platform in Q1 2023, with an average spend per buyer of $262. On a three-year basis, those two metrics were up by 74% and 48%, respectively.”
However, the article also pointed out a very underappreciated catalyst. “Fiverr benefits from serving both the supply and demand sides of the freelance relationship. It's also worth noting that as economic conditions remain in flux, companies are showing a preference for hiring freelancers over long-term employees.”
The aforementioned preference will also be supported by the lack of trust within the employer-employee relationship. Assuming that work from home becomes the new standard of the workplace, pivoting to a freelance framework would better assure productivity.
How? As a freelancer, if you don’t work, you don’t eat. There is a product (or service) that needs to be delivered within an acceptable range of quality and at a specific deadline. Fail to do that and the freelancer finds themselves out of a contract.
It’s the fairest solution for all and better assures that no one party is unfairly advantaging the other. By facilitating this negotiation, Fiverr may win in the long run, thus auguring well for FVRR stock.
On the date of publication, Josh Enomoto did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. For more information please view the Barchart Disclosure Policy here.
