Isn’t it Ironic?
October 13th, 2008 by Cali & Jody
We work and live in a ROWE. We couldn’t ask for a better situation for running our business and doing the work of migrating teams to ROWE, being with our families, and living our lives exactly the way we want to. We evangelize ROWE every day - in the media, speaking around the country, in individual companies, in almost every conversation we have. We want everyone who works in an office environment to wake up and be full of life. We experience a range of emotions every day when it comes to ROWE - sadness, frustration, and anger when he hear/read about talented people that are being crushed by the weight of the work culture, and complete happiness when we watch people/hear about people taking their lives back.
But for all this evangelizing, for all this desire that we have to make ROWE the status quo, we have members of our immediate families that are struggling in the most non-ROWE of environments. For us, this is a big part of the inner frustration we go through on a daily basis. The people closest to us, people we would donate organs to if the need arose, aren’t able to experience this thing we’ve created - while thousands of others benefit. It keeps us awake at night and, along with all of your stories, gives us more and more motivation to keep fighting for a better way. Let’s dive deeper…
First, the two people in our immediate families that we’re speaking of don’t have it easy to begin with. Because they work in environments that are about as non-ROWE as you can get, they are “watched” just a little more closely because they’re related to “those Why Work Sucks women”. They have tried to bring ROWE thinking into their companies. Relative #1 is buried in work and is required to go to a long, unproductive marketing staff meeting every week. Everyone hates it and everyone knows it’s a colossal waste of time. As the meeting rolls around, Relative #1 feels stressed out and angry because he knows he could use that time for much more important things. He’s tried to explain this to his boss who replies by saying Relative #1 is not a team player, and reiterating that the meeting is mandatory and he needs to be there. So much for productive uses of time.
Relative #2 has been speaking up about his unhappiness with his work environment for a long time and was recently asked by his boss’ boss to give a presentation to their team about what he thought their environment should be like. His day came last week. He gave a presentation on their current environment and what he thinks the answer is to their problems…you guessed it: ROWE. It was met with agreement from his peers, who desperately want to see change. From upper management, he received silence, “this is too good to be true”, and from HR - “this could never work here.” The team is buzzing about ROWE and the conversation won’t stop anytime soon. Relative #2 plans to keep the ROWE fire stoked…he’s not sure what will happen. Time will tell.
We know this is an uphill battle…we experienced it firsthand and now we’re experiencing it with our loved ones. It’s almost doubly hard with our loved ones because now ROWE is proven and we know what it would do to their business results and for their lives. As much as it hurts to watch them go through the pain and struggle of trying to bring the ROWE mindset into their environments, we know it’s all part of the journey.
So for our relatives, and all of you, we say it again: You are pioneers in trying to get others to understand the promise of ROWE. William James, a philosopher and psychologist who lived in the 1800s, said “The greatest revolution of our generation is the discovery that human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives.” Two hundred years later, the revolution is getting a kick in the butt…
I share the same level of high scrutiny that relatives #1 and #2 are enduring but for different reasons.
Reason #1 - Earlier this year we had our 4th child and I have been exercising my rights under the Family Medical Leave Act to take a lot of extra time off from work. One of the (five) greatest days/times of my life (the other four are getting married and the first three children.) But I have paid a price for exercising this legal right — my supervisors/co-workers look at me funny for “coming in late”, “leaving early” and taking more time off than my regular leave time allows.
Reason #2 - My wife runs a successful business that has been growing each year for the past several years. At times I am needed to assist in the operation of the business, thus using vacation time to be away from work during normal work time. This little fact was discovered by my supervisors and they tried to bring them hammer down on me. Much to their dismay they quickly learned that “vacation time” is not “their time” and, as backed up by our union representative, I am free to do whatever I want on “my” vacation time.
Needless to say I am watched more closely than a toddler running around a campfire. Time away from my desk is literally clocked on a regular basis by my supervisors.
What is ironic is that even with all of this extra time off my level of productivity has not dropped at all — it is better than ever! Go figure…
It is all about power. Most businesses are about kingdom building. The more people you supervise, the more important you are (or, to put it another way, the more people you have to do your bidding, the more important you are). If something like ROWE were to take affect and people started to be in charge of their own work, there would be no need for middle management, since the work would just get done without a lot of supervision. Once they lose the ability to control people, they lose their jobs and reasons for existance. Therefore, they challenge the ideas however they can, be it directly through Cali and Jody, or indirectly through their loved ones.
Say, didn’t we fight a war about 225 years ago to be able to direct our lives the way we saw fit. Something about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Funny, I wonder what happened to those ideas. Can anyone in management tell me?
Of course, there’s also the fact that many middle managers are in fact lazy… the kingdom-building thing is sadly so true. I call them “fiefdoms.” People want their own little sphere of power. And in a ROWE, managers lose that. Also, managers will become responsible for knowing how to do the jobs of the people they supervise, since their role is more of a mentor. In my line of work, the supervisors know nothing about the jobs of the people they supervise. It is sad. They see the people below them as tools for their own success, rather than the other way around, which is how I believe management should function. I see managers as servants of those “below” them, but most of the working world sees the worker bees as the slaves, and the managers as the overseers.
@ DC Guy
Well, management would want to establish a ‘finding’ team to discover what happened to ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’. This would require a mandatory meeting of the team every week. On top of that meeting, management would want to have another meeting to update them on the status of the ‘finding’ team. This meeting would not be mandatory, but since several bigwigs would be on the invite, any lower ranking employees would feel pressured to be there. Eventually, management would decide it would be more effective to break the original team into three teams to investigate each component -life, liberty, pursuit of happiness. Each team would need to add a couple more employees as resources based on the suggestions of management (i.e., politics). Eventually, the work required of these teams would expand and actual business related results would suffer. After several months, the teams would be pushed to the background as yet another team would be formed to determine why productivity and results are floundering. This would lead to another team being formed to boost the morale of the employees - you know, to give them a sense of ‘life, liberty and happiness’. Ad nauseum, ad nauseum, ad nauseum…
In talking with coworkers about ROWE, I notice that many want to drop the timekeeping foolishness more than anything. They want to be judged by the work they do, not by how long they were or weren’t in the office. Not everyone is this way, of course, but those people are exposed and eliminated in a ROWE. Those people may also be a negative influence in adopting ROWE, since abusers always seem to be the reason good policies that benefit the majority get eliminated.
For some reason, ’status quo’ is good enough for the majority of managers. They are probably well aware that they don’t get anywhere near 100% from employees, but they get enough, so why change? Rather than looking out for the improvement of the company and the employees, they only care about keeping their jobs.
I think the resistance to ROWE is something ingrained in us. It begins a lot earlier than any of us realize.
I recognized the futility of traditional work when I was in high school.
I have always been an excellent test taker. Test taking is just my thing.
Well, I realized that I was great at test taking, but hated doing the busywork. So, I went to each of my teachers and asked if we could base my grade solely on tests and quizzes (the RESULTS, and demonstration of the retained knowledge). I was met with resistance, very similar to what people have experienced when bringing up ROWE. I was told that I was “looking for the easy way out” and that “looking for the easy way would make me into a bum”, etc.
So, looking back at the experience of school, and the busy work that is hoisted upon us, is it any wonder that people are so resistant to ROWE?
It’s sad though.
Following is my boss’s repsonse to my proposal being denied and then my rebuttal follows….this is so sad….
Michael,
The decision has nothing…I repeat…nothing to do with how your services are valued. The contracts you speak of are with services/providers that in fact impact ACCESS in a positive way, and are provided with people who provide their services on-site, not from home. X Company (left out for fear of bad things happening to me) does not endorse your idea. After much thought, I, along with the Superintendent and the HR Director, weighed their input heavily and agreed with their assessment. We made an informed decision based upon much of the communication we had with X Company.
My resposne:
Thank you for responding and I appreciate the opportunity to have open discussions about this matter with all involved in the decision making process. It seems it would have been sensible to include me in those conversations with X Company, but I digress.
To better serve the district, could you please provide me with specific recommendations made by X Company and or the administration as to how I can improve my management of both programs, which could not be accomplished under a contractual agreement? Also, can anyone speak to how I submitted over $130,000 in claims during the period June through August 2008, which is a period when I was not in the office, but more significant, no expectation of work being completed existed as I was off for summer break?
And so I understand, the decision was made not on my personal and professional capabilities and accomplishments, but rather on the assessment of an outside company which has no direct supervision of me and holds no jurisdiction over enforcing accountability measures or performance metrics over my professional employment here at the district?
As always, I appreciate your willingness to discuss this matter with me, but respectfully, I disagree.
@Mad Guy - again, we see where the madness lies…there are more than enough reasons for it! The one thing that we’re so proud to see every day in these blog comments is that none of you pioneers is happy giving in to the status quo…there are times when the fighting seems to go nowhere, but you won’t settle for anyone trying to talk you into going against common sense. A belated congratulations to you on your 4th child and continue standing up tall no matter what. Your work results are improving and *that* is all that matters. Period.
@DC Guy - funny you should mention life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This week, we are preparing for one of the biggest speeches we have given up to this point. It will be given at an event called WorldBlu Live which is all about creating democratic organizations. The preparation process has been painful and exhilerating - we are adults and we have the *right* to control our time. We need to stop giving in to a system that reinforces Time + physical presence = results. All of us have the power to undo this work culture and create a new one. BTW - we’ll have the list of ROWE companies up in about 12 days…the countdown begins…
@Persephone K - you speak the truth, as usual
Some managers are, in fact, downright scared of ROWE for this reason: They know they will be exposed for not knowing what’s going on around them, and will fight to the bitter end to keep ROWE from coming anywhere near them. The faster we turn up this pressure cooker on the social aspect of this change, the faster ROWE will spread…
@Matt - your comment had us laughing ’til we cried! And it will probably give us nightmares of what we lived through at Best Buy pre-ROWE. Continue the ROWE talk with your peers…and take on the aspects of ROWE that you’re able to. Focus on the pro-ROWE people…the negative folks will either drop off the map or start coming along in time…
@Eric Ogunbase - you bring up a great point. This reminds me of when I was in math class as a grade-schooler. I thought the whole “showing my work” and how I got to an answer was such a waste. They were prescribing exactly how I had to show my work, when I could do it in half the steps and get the right answer. But no - I was forced to follow their methods.
@Michael Barata - this just gets crazier and more maddening by the day. Six days until the school board showdown…we’re counting with you.
@Cali and Jody
I’m glad my attempt at humor did its job.. it’s just too bad the absurdity of it is still reality for so many of us.
It’s funny that you mention the ‘time+physical presence=results’ myth. I like making little slogan signs to put outside my cube to call out workplace annoyances and absrudities. It’s also an attempt tp try and deter some workplace absurdity from entering. It rarely works, but it does get some laughs. Well, this time, I decided to step up my ROWE proselytizing and put a sign up that boldly states:
Time+Physical Presence=Results
Don’t believe the myth!
It will be interesting to see what kind of reaction it gets, but I feel with the coming of our project tracking initiative, there needs to be something to counteract the move towards time as the defining force. In the end, it may only give me satisfaction that I am speaking up because I don’t think the department managers have the courage to make the ROWE leap, but maybe that will tide me over until you publish The List.
I am actually meeting with a board member this Friday at 10:30 in a conference room right next to the Super’s office….eeeek….
Stay tuned!
I met with the board member and it went surprisingly well. It is in his hands now.
However, I would like to broach another issue with you all…one, which I believe to be some form of Sludge.
A co-worker/friend of mine and I were discussing the poor financial standing of our school district. Now as someone who I have spoken to countless times about my proposal and a ROWE, I have always thought of her as a valued listener and a supporter. Well, yesterday as the discussion came up about the finances of the district, I mentioned how my proposal would be saving the district close to $17,000.
She snapped back with, “That is not your primary motivation…your primary motivation is to benefit yourself.” Ouch. I have never erected a self-serving pedestal ever when discussing my proposal. But, I will admit, of course personal benefits exist. What is wrong with that? What is wrong with making yourself happy?
Unfortunately, a very spirited convo followed and continued today…it was not pretty. I felt as if my character was being attacked. I responded with some not so nice pleasantries (pertaining to work) as well, which I regret.
I truly believe the “traditional beliefs about how work should get done” is the issue. People are miserable. People are bitter. People then give up and, whether they admit it or not or even care, the WORK suffers.
I feel completely drained…..
Michael - can’t wait to hear how the meeting went.
All - Here is something interesting. I was at my local watering hole a couple of days ago, talking to a lady from the Department of Veteran’s Affairs. She was talking about how the Department used to require anyone who telecommuted to work 140 hours more a year than those who did not. Then, a US Congressman (I think she said Frank Wolf) found out about this policy, wrote a couple of letters to the secretary of the agency, and got the policy reversed. I checked his website, and this was in fact true. He said : “Telework is good for families — working parents have flexibility to meet everyday demands. It reduces traffic congestion and air pollution as well as gas consumption and our dependency on foreign oil. Some estimate that up to 6 billion gallons of oil can be saved if commuters telework just one day each week”.
SOMEBODY IN POWER GETS IT. This guy should be re-elected with 100% of the vote. Maybe what we need to do is start talking to our government officials about ROWE. A lot of our employers get handouts or contracts from the government, why can’t we have them start putting the pressure on those who get this money to convert over to ROWE?
Matt - You must work in my husband’s company. You know it so well! He, also, tries to make co-workers and supervisors aware of the better ROWE way to work, but so far, there’s interest only among the co-workers. We’ll see….
Michael - she may just be afraid that she would lose her job if the ROWE proposal goes through. The fear isn’t just on the executive side, it is on the employee side as well. A lot of people have acheived what they have because of what they have made others beleive they do. If it ever came out that they don’t accomplish anything, they will be out of a job.
In many cases people work and work hard, because thy are afraid to lose their jobs and won’t have mony to live and feed thier families