Q & A on TIME.com
June 6th, 2008 by Cali & Jody
Thanks to Lisa Takeuchi Cullen for this Q & A on TIME.com. We appreciate the word “kooky” (it’s an upgrade from “crazy”) and we also appreciate her asking the hard questions without deciding out of hand that ROWE can’t work.
As this book and this idea gets out into the world, we expect a certain amount of skepticism and resistance. We want people to be challenged by this idea. We want a healthy debate. If we’re ever going to achieve real work-life balance, then we need an honest discussion about why people are so unhappy with the traditional workplace.
Even if you don’t agree with ROWE, we hope that at least the ideas behind ROWE spark a real conversation about why work sucks. We can’t go on pretending that 8-to-5 in a cube with endless meetings is the best way to work. The world has radically changed in the past twenty years. It’s time for the culture of work to catch up.
Working life has been making drastic changes in the past twenty years. Companies like Starbucks, Google and Southwest have kept up with this environment. It’s time the rest of the companies got on board.
I’m all for ROWE. I think there needs to be limits to implementing it, but that goes for any new idea. When we start slow we don’t scare too many people. Long lasting change takes time, like stream of water eventually turning into a raging river to make the Grand Canyon.
karl ,you are completely right. there is even nothing to add !!!