Why work sucks

Posted by Ricki Sharpe on June 19, 2008
Filed Under Current Reading, Work Behaviour

If only my job could be like this. Picture an office where no meeting is mandatory and employees can come and go as they please, as long as they get the job done. Too good to be true! Well, Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It: No Schedules, No Meetings, No Joke–the Simple Change That Can Make Your Job Terrific suggests that this results-only work environment (ROWE) actually works.

The authors Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson pioneered the concept while working at consumer electronics chain Best Buy Co Inc. They argued that employees should be measured on output, not hours, and that the face-time culture was utterly out of place in the digital age. Their project, one in which you never had to darken the doors of the workplace if you didn’t want to, radically changed the culture at Best Buy.

The premise of ROWE is this: Forcing people to adhere to a set schedule and equating productivity with hours logged in the workplace is an outdated practice that leads to wasted time and unhappy workers.

So let them do what they want, when and where they want, and everybody wins.

In a ROWE, “you don’t have to ask anyone’s permission or tell anyone where you’re going. You just do it. As long as your work gets done, as long as you get results, then your life is your own,” say the authors.

Too often, they say, a company will treat employees like children incapable of working without supervision, while promoting mediocre performers simply because they put in a lot of time at their desks. Meanwhile, the traditional work week of 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday no longer serves the needs of many customers.

“Every day, people go to work and waste their time, their companies’ time, and their lives in a system based on assumptions about how work gets done and what work looks like, that don’t apply in today’s global, 24/7 economy,” they write.

The control freaks will likely dismiss ROWE as just another utopian fad, but it does appear to work, at least in some situations. But will it work in industries that have to adhere to strict schedules. Can you imagine waiting at a bus stop wondering if the bus driver will turn up or waiting on the operating table for the surgeon to finish his/her game of golf? In a time-driven society, a ROWE is not for everyone.

As usual, the book is supported by a slick website and a raft of marketing tools to help you to get your own ROWE started.

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