Election day in a ROWE

It’s Election Day today, but will you get the chance to vote? Or will you be too busy, too stressed, too pressed for time? Would you like to vote, but fear coming in late or leaving early? Are you frustrated that something so basic (the right of people in a democracy to vote) should be made so difficult?

Over the years, people have proposed a number of solutions to the problem of voting. There is the idea of making Election Day a national holiday. Every few years, Wisconsin Senator Herbert Kohl introduces a bill to change Election Day to a weekend. There is also the Vote by Mail Project, which is an effort to give voters more options for how to vote. These are all good ideas, but each has been met with either apathy or political resistance.

The flaw with these solutions is that they fail to address a deeper problem that all working people face: for 40+ hours of their week, they don’t have control over their time. In a Results-Only Work Environment this isn’t a problem. As long as the work gets done, then people can do whatever they want, whenever they want. And that includes voting.

Yeah, but what happens if someone is out voting and I need to reach them?

Some of these issues can be handled with technology. If you have a cell phone, you can be reachable while you’re in line at the polls. You can also address these concerns with planning. Just as teams cover for each other when someone is sick, traveling or in a meeting, you can plan for individuals to be gone for an hour or two at a time. That could mean collecting people’s contributions for a meeting beforehand.

Election Day does not take us by surprise. It’s parked in the same spot on the calendar every year. There is no reason why we can’t take some time to vote and continue to do our jobs.

Give people control over their time and they can exercise their rights as citizens, and that’s better for business and for our country.

Posted in Workplace trends