What is this "Fractional" Thing, Anyway?

The Binary We Don’t Question

Here’s something weird about how we think about work in tech: it’s binary. You’re either a full-time salaried employee (equity, a laptop, a Slack account you’ll never fully mute) or you’re unemployed. That’s it. Those are the options.

When a company needs something done, the conversation almost always starts with “we need to hire someone.” Not “we need this capability” or “we need this outcome.” We jump straight to headcount. FTEs. Full-Time Equivalents. It’s so baked into how we think about building teams that we don’t even notice we’re doing it.