Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It_ The Results-Only Revolution - Cali Ressler [3]
It was this control over schedule that planted the seed for what would become a Results-Only Work Environment. Cali saw that if you gave people even a little control over their time they immediately began to see the benefits both at work and at home. The people in AWP were happier and more productive and they didn’t want the pilot to end.
Jody came on board in 2003, and the insights and ideas gained during AWP started to grow and change. As we developed and refined what a Results-Only Work Environment was and how it worked, the culture of Best Buy started to change. Some managers were supportive and others weren’t. Regardless, the idea grew and grew and eventually took on a life of its own. By the time this book is published, approximately three thousand Best Buy corporate employees will work in a ROWE, with plans to test ROWE in the retail environment.
Thanks to ROWE, people at Best Buy are happier with their lives and their work. The company has benefited too, with increases in productivity averaging 35 percent and sharp decreases in voluntary turnover rates, as much as 90 percent in some divisions.
This book is about bringing this commonsense, effective, and mutually beneficial approach to living and working to the rest of the world. In the coming pages we’ll explore why the workplace is broken and reveal the hidden attitudes and beliefs behind the problem. Then we’ll describe what a Results-Only Work Environment is and how it works, and how it addresses the problem of work. You’ll also get a taste of what life is like in a ROWE (hint: it is very, very good).
Along the way we won’t be afraid to acknowledge the challenges a ROWE creates for an organization. The good news is that we’re not advocating that companies radically change their values, their identity, or their core business. People and companies don’t have to change who they are, just how they work.
In the coming pages we hope to build a compelling case for why everyone should be in a Results-Only Work Environment. We’ll tell stories and give results, but we won’t bully you with statistics. We doubt there is a single perfect fact out there—every year stress costs American businesses $300 billion; the average worker only puts in three hours of real work per day—that will somehow wake people up. All you have to do is Google the words work and family or stress and productivity and you’ll have all the statistics you’ll ever need. Presenting a rational argument for why work sucks isn’t going to change anything, because our attitudes about work aren’t based on reason. We need a new approach to the problem.
Ultimately what we are offering is a proven cure:
for the problem of work,
for being treated like a child by your company,
for feeling stressed-out about time.
We know it sounds too good to be true, but it’s not. You still have to do your job. But in a Results-Only Work Environment everyone gets to act like an adult and gets treated like an adult.
You get your dignity back.
You get your time back.
You get your life back.
And if all that can be true, if you can have your time and work and live and be a person, then the question you’re faced with every day isn’t, Do I really have to go to work today? but, How can I contribute?
How do I contribute to this thing called life? What can I do today to benefit my family, my company, myself?
Changing how we work is not going to be easy. There will be a lot of resistance, and that resistance will come from surprising places (including inside you). But we need this change. As you read these words we are out there fighting to make work productive, fair, and humane for everyone. We hope that in our lifetime this commonsense approach to work isn’t the exception, but the new norm.
Voices from a ROWE: Gina
Gina1 works on a team that focuses on strengths-based training.She