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There is still, of course, a social aspect of work. One of the weak points of a ROWE is that people can start to feel disconnected. That’s natural. So what people do is they make sure to take time as a team and as an organization to do social activities. It’s not team building and it’s not forced fun. Instead a team decides that it needs to connect on a social level and then figures out the best way to drive that result. When teams take this kind of action, it’s far more meaningful than meetings for the sake of meetings.

It can also be hard for newcomers to enter a ROWE because it’s a different setup. But again, once people realize that there is no pressure to be there, only pressure to get results, then the equation changes. Newcomers realize that they don’t have to lie. They don’t have to figure out the secret rules of the culture like pretending to be around or filling out a false time card or beating the boss to the office. Newcomers don’t have to look busy. They can simply do their job.

This is true for everyone. Imagine talking with someone and the whole idea of hours worked never comes up. Let’s say you’re efficient and you can get your job done quickly. That’s great. Then there is more time for you. What’s amazing is that at first people really measure their hours worked. After a while, when you ask people how many hours they work they don’t really know. They might be aware of their job being harder or easier, or it being a slow or busy time, but as that line between socially acceptable and unacceptable goes away, people aren’t putting time into a work box and a free-time box. It’s all their time. So they don’t keep track. What they do know is that it’s in their best interest to be smart and efficient about their jobs. Because the less time they spend delivering those results the more time they’ll have to do their own thing.

Nobody feels guilty, overworked, or stressed-out.

Stress can do crazy things to a person. We talked to one employee who used to get so stressed-out coming to work that she would get in traffic accidents. Most of them were pretty minor but one time she ended up in a ditch on the side of the road. The only reason for this was that she felt compelled to be in on time.

Now she comes in when she feels like coming in. No more accidents.

You still work hard in a ROWE. You are still busy in a ROWE. You can still be buried under a mountain of work in a ROWE. But you don’t feel overwhelmed. And you don’t feel stressed-out and you don’t get burned-out.

The reason is that you are in control. When you are in control you have the power to solve problems. This doesn’t mean that people aren’t supported, that they are on their own, or that they aren’t going to work hard. What it means is that people are taking care of business and their lives. They are whole people. Think about that. You are not a different person at work than you are at home. You are taking care of both aspects of your life because it’s your life.

So you don’t have to feel guilty about neglecting your family when you’re at work and guilty about neglecting your work when you’re with your family because it’s all the same.

Some people get concerned that they will always be working, that taking away those barriers between work and free time means that they will never not be working. It’s true that work expands across more hours, but you don’t feel overworked in a ROWE because you have that control.

YEAH, BUT ...

“Stress is good. You need stress to keep people motivated.”

We’ll give you that—not all stress is bad. We’re against the added stress of having to account for your time, of having to put on a show of work, and of not having control over your day when things in your life come up and you need to take care of them. At Best Buy, work can be very intense. We would never want to see any person, team, or organization lose their intensity or passion. That’s the good stress. The rest, no one needs.

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