Workers Are Gaining Leverage Over Employers Right Before Our Eyes “Employers are becoming much more cognizant that yes, it’s about money, but also about quality of life.” Adquena Faine at home in Chesapeake, Va. She is a former driver for a ride-hailing service who entered an I.B.M. apprenticeship program and is now building a career as a cloud storage engineer.Credit...Dawn Bangi for The New York Times June 5, 2021, 12:16 p.m. ET The relationship between American businesses and their employees is undergoing a profound shift: For the first time in a generation, workers are gaining the upper hand.