How do managers contribute to workplace inefficiency?
The main way they contribute to workplace inefficiency is by having staff meetings every week to talk about the work that everybody’s doing. That is a waste of time, because people can update each other via e-mail, or on a shared drive or in different ways. When we talk to people in companies, they say they waste 30 to 80 percent of their time in some sort of pointless meeting.
You coined the term ROWE — a Results-Only Work Environment (ROWE). What does that mean?
In a ROWE, each person has complete autonomy to come and go from work at his will. It’s not a flexibility program; ROWE is about one thing — and that’s being accountable for measurable results. An example of that would be: I wouldn’t need to ask permission to come in at a different time, or leave early; I don’t have to tell my boss where I’m working from. It’s all about achieving measurable results. In a ROWE, managers manage the work, not the people.
So does that eliminate meetings?
One of the tenets of a ROWE is, “Every meeting is optional,” which means you can’t make me come to your meeting if there’s no obvious reason that it’s going to help the work move along. I get to determine whether or not that’s going to be a good use of my time.
With their increased productivity, can employees in ROWEs take additional vacation?
In ROWEs, one of the other tenets is unlimited paid time off, as long as you get the work done. You’re not tracking vacation time. So, for example, I might unplug on a Wednesday afternoon. In a traditional workplace, you might make me put in four hours of vacation time. But in a ROWE, you don’t track it, you just unplug, and you make sure the work is done. [Employees in ROWEs] have complete control over their time.
Can an employee create a ROWE if their manager doesn’t implement it?
When they’re having conversations with their manager, stick to things that are objective and not subjective. Talk about the work — not where you’re going to work from, or if you can leave early. Just be really clear and objective about what you need to accomplish. Keep conversations focused on the work.
— Tina Peng