If you don’t know about ROWE, I suggest you stop reading this blog immediately and get a copy of WWS. If you’re sticking around, make sure to read it afterwards, but to give you the Cliff’s Notes version, ROWE was conceived by Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson when they worked in HR at Best Buy. In an effort to improve Work-Life Balance, they eventually came to the realization that if you manage people’s time, you cannot effectively manage outcomes (results). In the Information Age, most businesses still model themselves on Industrial Age practices, effectively turning the office into a factory. From that realization, it wasn’t long before it was clear to them that all jobs – not just office or IT work – could be ROWEs. Eventually, Ressler and Thompson left Best Buy to create their own consulting company, CultureRx, in order to spread the word to the masses.
For me, the idea of ROWE instantly clicked. I can remember my first job out of college. My busy times revolved around pay periods. Although I did everything ever asked of me and more at that company, I was still a slave to the clock. I can remember feeling guilty for working on some spreadsheets that would improve my efficiency, yet that weren’t technically within my required duties, in order to fill the slower periods, so I wouldn’t die of boredom. I often thought, why can’t I just go home early? Everyone knows I’ll be here until infinity come the next machine order cutoff deadline. I used to come up with ways I would adjust the workplace if I were “Queen of the World”. I believed that strict start and end times were stupid. I am a night person, so getting in before 8 am has always been a challenge for me. I had to ask permission to leave early on nights when I played softball. Then there were those Minnesota snow storms. We’d spend treacherous drives getting into work, or wondering if the boss would “let” us leave early (usually the answer was no). And don’t even get me started on the dress code. I once was given a stern warning because I wore socks to work. Socks! Not trouser socks or nylons, but just regular socks. Oh, the humanity! I knew all of these things were ridiculous and made me feel like a child, but I couldn’t come up with anything better than “core hours” in my own mind. Afterall, I was new to this world of work. What did I know? I mean, paying people according to how many hours one works is so entrenched in our collective psyche, it’s hard to imagine anything else. Yet, I always felt there had to be a better way where only things that mattered were the things that mattered. A way in which useless political games became much harder to play. A true meritocracy had to be out there.
Enter ROWE. When I learned how in an authentic ROWE there are no timecards to punch, and there are no vacation policies… how every day is like Saturday, it all made instant sense, despite that old workplace hard wiring (brainwashing). So, when I discovered ROWE during my crisis of career year of 2007, it was like I could see colors I hadn’t known I couldn’t see before. Suddenly, so many of the things we did at the office made absolutely no sense. I saw so much waste. Wasted time, wasted energy, wasted money. By this time, I worked for the federal government, so that money was also your money. I hate when people say “this is how it’s always been” as an excuse for why something is done a certain way, and this device is used even more in government. Ironically, as much as I saw how much ROWE could improve not only my agency’s performance, and improve my own life, this knowledge probably accelerated my eventual burnout. I hate admitting that, because I don’t want it to be used as an excuse for people to not learn about ROWE, but it is true. I just didn’t want to spend any more time in a world where I spent my life’s currency (time) doing anything but what mattered or made me happy. I made sure to tell everyone I knew about ROWE. It’s hard to impress generally cynical government workers, but I like to think I made a few ripples. I even entered a government contest by writing a white paper on how ROWE could improve the US Intelligence Community (didn’t win… not even close). I really believed (and still believe) it’s a moral duty to shift the current outdated workplace (especially government) into a modern ROWE.
When I finally decided to leave the government it was to go to a place (that shall remain nameless for now) I believed was as close to a ROWE as you can get without being a ROWE. What I learned from that experience was there are no ROWE substitutes. Either you measure an employee’s contributions through outcomes, or you measure their value by time. You cannot do both. If you want to measure employee’s contributions through outcomes, you (managers) also cannot control how they get their work done. You can give them deadlines, and quality benchmarks, but other than that, you must leave them alone, otherwise you are simply doing the same thing the clock does – restricting a persons’ creativity and individuality, also known as micro-managing. I don’t work at that place any more. And now I’m even further from a ROWE than ever, yet I see the tide turning. I’ve followed CultureRx’s successes. Although ROWE is not a telecommuting program, I see more companies opening up that option as well, and I see it as a positive trend. If nothing else they’re trying to recognize that happy employees can give you the world if you let them.
That is why when I read this week about the CEO of Yahoo!’s recent leaked email effectively repealing the company’s telecommuting policy, I’ve been re-energized in my passion for ROWE. I also recently finished reading the follow-up to WWS, [easyazon-link asin=”B00B0H9QWU” locale=”us”]Why Managing Sucks and How to Fix It: A Results-Only Guide to Taking Control of Work, Not People[/easyazon-link], and highly recommend you take that one on as well. Like its predecessor, it’s an inspiring read. It’s sad to see Yahoo! Going back towards a century old style of managing their high-tech company, especially at the direction of a woman who I believe took unwarranted criticism when she came back to work only two weeks after starting maternity leave. Tech companies have always been on the forefront of changing the way work is performed in the modern era, and to see a woman who is slightly older than myself embrace such an archaic, old school way of thinking is unfortunate. As Ressler and Thompson frequently say, “Work isn’t a place you go, it’s something that you do.” Once companies like Yahoo! Realize that the only way they can keep the ship from sinking is not by calling for “all hands on desk, er… deck” but by making it clear that what matters is that the hole in the hull be fixed, then leaving them alone to solve the problem. If you can’t trust the people you hire to do the work necessary, why did you hire them in the first place? Just because Ms. Mayer wants to meet with everyone face to face, it doesn’t mean that is the only way of working. If the hole is fixed, who cares where the designer was when they came up with the plans?
I’m a consultant now, and I can say that there is very little chance I will ever commit to a company permanently that isn’t a ROWE. I’ve tried the pseudo ROWE route. It sucked big time. I’d love to own my own business one day, but I’m not sure I have what it takes. I have a detail oriented (control freak) personality, and enjoy spending long periods of time creatively solving problems in a state of flow, or teaching others, but I don’t have the ambition to network and stir buzz to gain the clients. The beauty of a ROWE is that it allows people with a bit lower risk tolerance to live the entrepreneur lifestyle. For me, that is the ultimate dream. I know I can do great work. All I ask is that I’m treated like an adult and allowed to prove it.
I’m sure this is just the beginning on my ROWE-themed blogs. I’m especially looking forward to any questions you may have! ROWE for all!
Cheers,
PersephoneK
