Is the Problem of Work Universal?

July 9th, 2009 by Cali & Jody

Posted in Miscellaneous

7 Responses to “Is the Problem of Work Universal?”

J | July 11th, 2009 at 9:35 am
I don’t think my employer even makes any effort with “band-aids”. What is the difference between buying a person’s TIME and buying a person? Employees have no intention of selling their lives to an employer (your time is your life), but selling their work – a result. It makes me sick that employers act like they “own” a person for 8 hours/day and treat him/her as property during that time. So many employers seem more concerned about buying a person to fill a seat and control every aspect of their life from 8-5 than hiring someone who can accomplish a outcome for them. Employers are shooting themselves in the foot by wasting their time babysitting and generally making employees miserable when they could be setting up measurable goals and watching employees (and the organization) shine.

Obviously there is no comparison to slavery, but I do believe there is an unethical aspect to the traditional work environment for jobs where the hours to not directly correlate with the results.
Blogs of the World II « Living the Life Less Traveled | July 13th, 2009 at 12:07 am
[...] first blog is from Cali and Jody, who wrote a book called Work Sucks and How to Fix it that discusses their concept of ROWE, or the [...]
LaDeb | July 13th, 2009 at 9:52 am
I have found that the largest issue I am dealing with is that management doesn’t seem to trust their staff. I feel that hurdle could be easily over come if 1) the goals and deliverables are documented, communicated and measurable; 2) develop checkpoints or milestones to track against #1; and 3) if successful reward and continue allowing full flexibility, if not, find out why and if the person truly isn’t trustworthy or able to do the job, they should be in the position.

I would guess that most employees WILL NOT fall into the problem categories. Maybe the problem is management cannot define their goals in manner that can be measured??
Concerned employee | July 13th, 2009 at 2:28 pm
I understand the frustration of the previous comment (J) and that is happening in my company. That kind of behavior is normal in companies and it appears to be engrained in their cultures. It is affecting people, their lives, and families. Cali and Jody, you hit the right at the heart of this problem and, indeed, it is a universal one. I’ve talked to people that are going through the ROWE experience; they cannot believe the transformation they are experiencing in their jobs and families. They would never leave the ROWE environment for anything – not even for more money. They’ve tasted freedom and know what a powerful role it plays in their lives. Actually, they can say openly “I am in charge of my own destiny” without being judged. They really appreciate what you are doing and the impact it is having in their daily lives.
Ed Dodds | July 21st, 2009 at 2:30 pm
LaDeb: The truth re: Maybe the problem is management cannot define their goals in manner that can be measured?? is that management knows that once they’ve reduced a job to a digitally replicable description their position will be outsourced to India at best or automated away at worst (from their perspective). The same goes for the C-Suite if you think about it. That’s why you’ll get all sorts of red herring push backs to ROWE — who’s going to say “Please remove my position for the good of the firm!”?
E.C. | July 22nd, 2009 at 3:52 pm
I’m not sure if this counts as a band-aide, but at my former place of employment they used a system of “on-call” time for certain employees. So they would get paid to be on-call and come in if they were needed.

Most employees, like me, were not paid to be on-call. However, there was an unwritten expectation that I would be called during the off-hours if something were to go wrong. I was fine with this. In fact, I wanted it to work as such. The problem I encountered was that I figured since I could be called to deal with a work problem at any hour, on any day, without being paid to be on-call, then it was obvious that I had some sort of flex hours.

But no, apparently management thought that this should not be the case. So, although I could comp-over the extra hours, my schedule was to remain fixed. It was a very lame situation because I had to change my schedule around so much to deal with issues, late night tests, and long days to get things done, that my fixed schedule became meaningless anyway.
Cali & Jody | July 27th, 2009 at 8:37 pm
@E.C. – what a headache that must have been for you! With businesses moving toward global, 24/7 work, schedules just don’t make sense. Doing the work does.