There’s a little buttony, widgety thingy over to the right that says “Tell us why work sucks.” (It’s right above the RSS buttony, widgety thingy.)

Many of you have been clicking on it and telling us your stories. Thank you! We can’t solve the problem of work unless we’re all talking about it as a problem. Please keep writing and venting and sharing.

Here are three stories that we hope inspire you to tell us yours.

Work sucks because . . .

I’m micromanaged, work for someone who is completely anal, controlling and swears at his employees on a weekly basis. Everyone of my co-workers, except the “boys club”, feels sick to their stomaches to come into the office everyday, unless our boss is gone. We are all afraid of making mistakes…and that right there leads to numerous mistakes being made. We over-analyze everything because we are always second guessing ourselves. I call it the 50/50 rule; you have a 50% chance of doing something right but chances are its going to wrong!

**

Work sucks because . . .

When clients need my help, I’m asked to search the internet for a book because someone else is too important to that for themselves.

***

Work sucks because . . .

I work for a large university with over 45,000 employees. You’d think there might be some open mindedness, right? I draft benefit plan documents, employee newsletters, respond to high level employee complaints. I spend over an hour driving 60 miles round trip to work. I have discussed the possibility of telecommuting with my manager. Oh no, no, no. He even has issues with requests to work from home when I need a repairman over or weather conditions are inclement.

Why? He cannot be assured my home “work space” is safe and there are liability issues. What if I fell and broke my arm at home while on “company” time? He is more comfortable when I am available on the spot if he needs me (I’ve seen him twice this week for a max of 3 minutes).

And, he really cannot monitor my productivity if I am not there.

I write for crying out loud! What is not measurable?

We’ve been running polls over at CultureRx and today we’d like to open up the results for discussion. A few weeks back, we asked what was considered coming in “on time” at people’s workplaces. Most recently, we asked what was considered “leaving early”. Here’s what you said:

On time

34% Before 8:30 a.m.

30% There is no such thing as “on time”

27% Before 8:00 a.m.

9% Before 7:30 a.m

Leaving early

41% Before 5:00 p.m.

22% Before 4:00 p.m.

13% Before 3:00 p.m.

13% Before 6:00 p.m.

11% There is no “leaving early” — we leave whenever we want

What we found interesting about these results is the difference between the beginning of your day and the end of your day. It seems that the rules are looser in the morning than they are in the afternoon, that you are more likely to get in trouble for leaving early than for being late.

Our first question is whether or not these results ring true for you. Do 30% of you out there honestly not have to worry about being “on time”? Or is something else at work?

Our second question is why there is a gap in the first place. Why would the traditional work environment have more of a problem with people leaving early than they would with them coming in late? If the goal is to put in an eight-hour day, then what difference does it make where you miss the time?

Thoughts? Insights? Witty comments?

There is a nice, lively debate about the merits of ROWE in the comments section of The Globe and Mail. One of the conversation threads that stood out for us was this idea of availability. Here are four quotes from four different comments to show you what we mean:

“We need people to be available, in person as necessary, for ongoing issues, and yes at short notice.”

“I find the problem starts when you need to ask a coworker something, and he isn’t in the office that day.”

“[I]n an environment where you need people to be able to offer answers, feedback and decisions on short notice, you need to be able to predict when they’ll be available. Human beings don’t cope exceptionally well with unpredictable situations.”

“In my line of work there are many disciplines working on a project. Timing and scheduling are crucial. There are times when I need a piping designer to make modifications right away; not when they get back from an afternoon movie.”

One of the big misconceptions about ROWE is that because it gives people control over their schedules, it’s a “time off” program. The assumption is that if someone is not physically present, then they are unavailable, and therefore worthless to the organization. When you think about work in this way, then the two choices are either “at work” (and therefore working) or “out of the office” (and therefore unavailable and not working).

There are two problems with this model. First, you can have everyone in their cubes and in meetings from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and the work still doesn’t get done. Even with 100% percent availability, there is no guarantee that people are engaged. They could be surfing the internet, chatting with their coworkers about what they watched on TV last night, or simply spacing out.

And even if everyone were working the entire time (talk about a fantasy!), the energy people spend on being available is energy they’re not spending on driving results. Whether you want to admit it or not, the simple act of making sure you’re on time every day (and appearing bright-eyed and bushy-tailed in front of your boss and coworkers) consumes physical and emotional energy. In our view, that energy is completely wasted. Put that energy toward results and both employer and employee benefit.

The second problem with the availability model is more of an untapped opportunity. As we know from our personal lives, technology has made the notion of availability a lot fuzzier.

For example, if you want to watch a DVD right now, then you would go to the video store. But if you wanted to watch a video sometime in the coming week, then you might rent it online. So which DVD is more available? The video store DVD is available immediately, provided that the store is open. The online DVD is also available immediately (you could rent it at 3:00 a.m. on a Sunday if you wanted to), provided you’re willing to wait a few days for it to arrive. The better method depends on your needs and desires.

A ROWE works under the same principle. It doesn’t mean that your boss can call you at 3:00 a.m. demanding to know where you keep the toner. It also doesn’t mean that everyone leaves at once on a sunny day to play golf. It doesn’t mean that if there is a genuine emergency (as opposed to fake emergencies — but that’s for another post) that no one deals with it. A ROWE means that you get very clear about the business results you’re trying to drive. You plan how to get there and then you let people do their jobs (and live their lives).

Don’t you think that beats “available”?

Maybe you are here because you saw our 10 ways to increase productivity using a Results-Only Work Environment (ROWE) mindset on Tech Republic.

Or maybe you are here because you saw our What It’s Really Like in a Results-Only Work Environment post on Brazen Careerist.

But it’s highly unlikely that you are here because you saw both posts.

And so we’d like to do a little internet matchmaking. Tech Republic readers: meet Brazen Careerist readers. Brazen Careerist readers: meet Tech Republic readers.

We think you’ll really like each other. The reason is that whether you’re an IT person trying to get the most of your day, or a young person looking for help in striking out in a new career, both of you have something in common. You both have to deal with the tired, broken, outdated culture of the traditional workplace.

What makes ROWE so exciting is that it makes work better for everyone. It’s not an idea that discriminates based on age or job title or education level. Everyone has a role to play. Everyone can contribute. And if people are contributing, then they should be free to live their lives. It’s a simple idea that works.

Thanks to Michael Salamey for interpreting the Workplace Signs with such gusto and verve:

These posters endorse conformity to a status quo of Mediocrity. The basic premise of all three is, “Do not make (me/ everyone else) look bad”. The last poster especially, in the guise of promoting politeness and courtesy, in actuality insinuates that out-performing or not conforming to “the way things are done around here” can be just cause for revenge.

Further, these posters exploit the lack of recognition that should be granted for producing results. They foster a mentality of cynicism and promote an “Us versus Them” attitude, coyly stating that regardless of how well you perform, “no one else will notice”. (But then, why would anyone notice if the favorite activities of subordinates include “running down the boss”, “dodging responsibility”, and “pushing their luck”)?

Despite being sometimes humorous, these types of posters/ sayings/ quotes, etc. are perpetuated, frankly, by those who would fear things like a “Results-Only Work Environment”. Who could blame them? It would be terrifying for someone whose apparent success has come by “putting in the time” and getting to know “the right people”, to have a truth uncovered—a truth about themselves they may not have even been present to.

In a ROWE, lack of ability to produce results is clearly and obviously detectable. What CEO with a sixth-grade reading level (I have met many) would not fear that? Indeed, the cynicism of these posters is the cynic’s natural defense to keep their (glaring) secret covered… even to themselves.

Yup. That’s pretty much it. Michael, your book is on the way.

Perhaps these signs are funny. Perhaps they are sad. Perhaps they are funny-sad. (Or sad-funny.) Whatever they are, they reveal a lot about what we believe about work. A free copy of Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It to the person who best translates the hidden meanings.

Seth Godin recently ran an excerpt from his book Free Prize Inside that got us thinking about fear in the workplace. Godin finds the root of workplace angst in Henry Ford’s decision to pay workers based on productivity rather than replacement value. His take is that we’re insecure in our jobs because deep down we know that we’re replaceable.

We’d like to add another source of our insecurity. When you go into work today you have two responsibilities. One is to get your job done. The other is to meet the cultural expectations of your workplace. The cultural expectations are the unwritten rules and codes that add a layer of complexity to your job. Some of those cultural expectations may include:

1. Being on time

2. Showing obedience to your boss

3. Using certain buzzwords or slogans

4. Sending ideas up through “proper channels”

Not all cultural expectations are bad. There are work cultures that genuinely value transparency, innovation, community involvement, and so forth.

But there are also cultural expectations that are crippling and destructive. If you’re stuck in a workplace that has any of the unwritten rules we mentioned above, then you know what we mean.

Take the relatively common example of a workplace that strictly enforces traditional working hours. You may be absolutely terrific at your job, but if you’re not on time every day (or if you leave “early” one day) then you’re branded a bad worker. So you have to be afraid of your kids taking too long to get ready. You have to be afraid of catching a bad break during your commute. You have to be afraid of something coming up in your life that might require you to leave at 4:00 instead of 5:00.

You’re afraid of being replaced not only because someone else could do your job, but because someone else might be more willing to tolerate the culture. We wonder how much workplace insecurity out there actually has to do with people worrying about not being able to do their jobs. How many people are in over their heads when it comes to the task at hand? And how many people feel like they’re drowning because of the culture of their workplace? Let us know.

Monster.com’s blog is running a contest that asks the eternal question: Is Your Job Like a Sitcom? Judging by the responses so far (contest ends May 5th), the answering seems to be that yes, most people’s jobs are pretty much like a sitcom.

Just check out this excerpt from a contest entry about life at a small brokerage firm:

“Usually at any time of the day they have what is known as their alley. This alley begins at my desk and goes past the assistants. This alley is used for football, soccer and softball practice. I usually am ducking half the day while on the phone trying to work. The ball hits me in the head and I just keep right on talking. There is a five dollar fee for any direct hits to me or the items on my desk!”

So this poor woman goes to work every day and things are so out of control, her only recourse is to charge money when she gets hit by a poorly thrown football.

As one of the entrants notes, “At the end of the day, there are a million stories in these buildings and no one would believe any of them because we live the stories and we can’t believe them ourselves.” That sentence (and the football-dodging worker’s story) sum up the challenge facing all of us. Your workplace’s culture, no matter how broken, still operates almost invisibly. The daily indignities and absurdities are so commonplace that you barely notice them. You might even feel embarrassed to complain about them. It’s just the way it is, right?

What a lot of people might not realize is that cultures can change. You can complain, especially if you have a reasonable alternative. Even if you aren’t in a position to implement ROWE, you still have the right to talk to your manager or your coworkers about results. What exactly are we trying to accomplish here? What can we all do to drive those outcomes? And can you please talk to those guys about “the alley”? Because there is work to do.

. . . and yet still so close.

When we first started working on the framework for what would become a Results-Only Work Environment, we didn’t have a language for what we were trying to say. We knew that work was deeply dysfunctional, and that people had all kinds of strange beliefs about time and how work gets done, but we didn’t have the vocabulary for it that we have now. So when we needed to explain ourselves, we knew we could always point at a Dilbert comic.

This recent post on Scott Adams’ blog reminded us of those early days. Because even though we’re deep in our own world of ROWE, some things haven’t changed. It’s still all about giving people control over their time. It’s about giving them real choices for how they live their lives.

Adams gives three satiric choices for how people can wisely manage their time:

1. Become independently wealthy

2.  Don’t eat or sleep

3. Live for the moment, but be prepared to live on cat food when you retire.

He’s kidding, but some of the comments are no joke. It’s scary to think that, for a lot of people, the idea of actually having control over your life seems as likely as winning the lottery.

A friend sent us this link to Guy’s Bozoification Aptitude Test, which is based on Guy Kawasaki’s blog entry about how to tell if your company is “sliding into bozosity.”

We know it’s an old post, but this kind of thing never gets old. Right now, a fresh crop of young people is entering the workforce. Right now, they’re being conditioned to behave based on a set of broken assumptions about work. Right now, veterans of the workforce are turning a blind eye to the problem and teaching these new hires how to get along in the world. Work sucks, but what can you do, right?

We encourage you to take this quiz. And by all means, have a laugh. It’s funny. But we also encourage you to consider what would happen if we tried to change the culture of work.

For example, check out Question #7:

“Time is now considered more important than money so you have a company cafeteria, health club, and pet grooming service. Moreover, the first thing that employees show visitors is the company cafeteria, health club, and pet grooming service.”

Reading this made us think of a recent post about “The Walk of Shame” on The Juggle, the Wall Street Journal’s work-life blog. (The walk of shame is that feeling you have when you leave the office before “normal” quitting time.) Check out all the comments.  Even in companies that are “flexible,” people are still obsessed with time, as opposed to focusing on results.

The workplace perks that Guy makes fun of are just like the benefits of flexibility: an illusion. We can’t help but wonder how often the “walk of shame” takes people past the cafeteria, the health club and the pet grooming service. Maybe a better option than flexibility is control. Instead of giving people access to an on-site gym, they could have the freedom to workout whenever, and wherever, they wanted.

Which would you rather have?