Don’t care for the way management runs your workplace? Would you do things differently if you ran the joint? Don’t just grouse about it; take it over — the legal way: Buy ’em out so you and your coworkers can run the business for yourselves.

Granted, that’s easier said than done, but it’s also about to become a little easier to pull off — if Gov. John Hickenlooper signs House Bill 1214 into law. The measure, sent to his desk after the state Senate approved it 20-14 last week (with all Democrats plus four Republicans, including President Kevin Grantham, voting for it), would help finance employee buyouts.

The legislation, introduced in the state House earlier this session by Rep. James Coleman, D-Denver, would establish and administer a revolving loan program cash fund, financed by gifts, grants and donations, to help existing businesses convert into employee-owned businesses. No state revenue would be involved. The measure also more generally directs the state Office of Economic Development and International Trade to promote employee ownership via its small business-assistance center.

As we noted here the last time we checked in on the novel bill’s progress, employee ownership seems to be enjoying new cachet amid the uncertainties of the rapidly changing, 21st century economy. And it draws inspiration from the likes of Fort Collins’s New Belgium Brewing Co., a 100 percent-employee-owned dynamo in our state’s booming craft-brew trade. As of 2015, New Belgium was the fourth-largest craft brewery and eighth-largest overall brewery in the United States.

A press release by the House Democrats shortly after the bill’s debut in committee noted:

…Small businesses employ a million Coloradans, about half the workforce. Of those million Coloradans, about two-thirds work for companies owned by baby boomers, who are now starting to retire in large numbers. In many, perhaps most cases, converting these businesses to employee ownership, rather than selling the businesses to outside investors, would be the softest landing for the employees, for the companies’ health and for the Colorado economy.

By many statistical measures, employee-owned companies simply perform better. They hire more employees and lay off fewer employees. They pay higher wages and have better retirement plans. They even have higher sales than non-employee-owned companies. The ranks of employee-owned businesses include widely acclaimed companies like New Belgium in Fort Collins, demonstrating that this business model can be highly successful.