Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It_ The Results-Only Revolution - Cali Ressler [42]
In a ROWE people treat time off differently. For starters, people don’t feel the crushing need for vacation as acutely because they are working when they are most productive for them and not working when it’s least productive for them. Remember that a ROWE isn’t a flexible schedule; it’s the absence of a schedule. So people take breaks in bits and pieces as a way of managing their own energy. They might go really hard for three straight days and then take it easy for a day, then work hard again for another day, then take three days off. And the best part is that you don’t have to justify any of it. If you are doing your chunk of work, then you don’t have to explain your time.
In practice this Guidepost means very different things for different people. There are people in project-oriented jobs like Trey who work like mad to get their work done for the month in two weeks and then travel for the second two weeks of the month, only checking in via cell phone and e-mail. They are essentially on vacation for half the time. (They are also pulling all-nighters for the other half of the month, but that’s their choice.)
Even people in more process-oriented jobs can benefit in a similar way. In a ROWE teams cover for each other, allowing individuals to take unlimited time off, and they don’t necessarily have to track their time off. Your coworkers are okay with you going to Mexico for two weeks, because next month you’ll support them when they go to Dallas to visit their grandma.
There are also people who use this Guidepost to do something that’s in between. We talked with a person who spontaneously left Minneapolis one Sunday and drove to Boulder, Colorado, to visit his brother. He didn’t take vacation time. He didn’t even tell anyone where he was until Wednesday. For three weeks he worked in Boulder and to hear him tell it, work wasn’t that different. Between his cell phone and his laptop there wasn’t any interruption in his work flow. The only thing that changed was that when he was needed in a meeting, the people scheduling the meeting had to find a room with a speakerphone.
There are no work schedules.
This can be a tough Guidepost, especially for management. We have years and years of precedent of upper management getting together and deciding what needs to get done and then individual managers sitting down and figuring out what jobs need to get done and by whom and when. Managers have their chess pieces (aka employees) and they move them on the board according to the latest process-improvement philosophy, or based on their years of experience, or sometimes even their gut.
Even employees, as much as they might complain about being under The Man’s thumb, can appreciate a good work schedule. It takes away the uncertainty of what to do with their time, and it forces the attention on filling hours rather than achieving results, which can create stress of another kind. With a work schedule there is one less thing for an employee to figure out.
But that’s the problem. Work schedules that come from the top down only take into account one person or one group of people’s point of view on what needs to get done at
work—management. When managers move their chess pieces around they are missing out on what those chess pieces might be able to contribute to the conversation about what needs to get done.
YEAH, BUT ...
“What about complying with federal regulations?”
ROWE is a paradigm shift in the way we do work, and it may take time for the federal regulations to catch up with how people live and work in the global, 24/7 economy. Right now, for example, we have the Family Medical Leave Act, which covers things like maternity leave. We think this legislation serves a good purpose, but it remains to be seen how this kind of law will change because of ROWE. If someone had a kid and wanted to restructure their life a different way (other than being completely “unplugged” from work for three months), as long as the work got done they’d have that