Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It_ The Results-Only Revolution - Cali Ressler [54]
And his team leader stepped in and said that you really can’t even joke about that stuff. Because even when people joke to test the limits of a ROWE it can have a ripple effect. Then other people start making comments and you can backslide. Jokes about time—even really, really funny ones—erode trust. These kinds of jokes are based on the assumption that ultimately it’s really not okay to work and live this way.
This Guidepost doesn’t mean that people are disrespecting management or that there is a total breakdown of company values or confusion or lack of direction. In fact the opposite occurs.
People show total respect for the work and the people doing it.
There is complete trust between employee and manager. People are focused on the bottom line and only the bottom line.
Imagine how this feels. You are free from judgment about time. So you go into work and you do your job. If you have to get your oil changed at 1:00, you go do it. You have your cell phone with you in case someone needs you. But you don’t even have to tell people that you’re leaving. You don’t have to make up a lame excuse. Because no one is judging you. If someone calls you and you’re walking on the treadmill you don’t have to say, I’m working out but I promise I’ll be right back. You can say, What do you need? Answer the question, hang up, and not even think about it. (You may also opt to let the caller leave a message, just like you do when you’re in a meeting.)
YEAH, BUT ...
“You can’t erase what’s in people’s heads. And you can’t prevent people from saying mean things about people.”
This is true. There will always be people who judge how you spend your time. However, in a ROWE you look stupid for letting those judgments come out of your mouth. Just as it’s not okay to say something racist or sexist in a traditional workplace, it’s not okay to judge time in a ROWE. Judging people’s time is no longer socially acceptable. Even better, a ROWE actually gives you a mechanism for dealing with that judgment. So while in a traditional work environment the office lout can get away with saying rude things because he’s the boss, in a ROWE if someone judges your time you always have Sludge Eradication. You may not have the power to stop people from acting stupid, but you do have the power to shut them down.
There isn’t less judgment or more favorable judgment. There is no judgment. Zero. Frankly, people are too busy doing their actual jobs. There is so much to do. People can take work to a much deeper level than they ever did before because they are caught up.
It’s an interesting feeling when you walk into the office and have no judgment about time. You also have no judgment about what good work looks like. Imagine walking onto a floor of an office building and seeing cubes that are filled, cubes that are empty, seeing someone walking along the hall, someone having coffee or leaving for the gym, people gathered in a conference room meeting, and people talking by the watercooler. Now imagine not being able to make any judgments about whether or not those people are being productive. The only way to know is by seeing if they are delivering results. You can’t assume anything. You can’t just look at a clock or whether or not someone’s hair is wet because they’ve been swimming or maybe you haven’t seen them for a week. You can’t assume they’re slacking or taking advantage in a ROWE.
So if you can’t judge people on their time, what can you do? Often you don’t do anything because it’s none of your business. If you are getting what you need from people so you can do your job, end of story. So you simply don’t waste that time judging.
Now flip it around. Imagine yourself walking into this