Imagine Working in a ROWE

What is ROWE? It's short for Results-Only Work Environment where employees are evaluated on results, not for the time they spend showing up and logging in. I've been interested in this management strategy for quite some time now, ever since I walked away from my full time gig (and the benefit package that went with it) to become president of my own company. Or more accurately, to live the freelance life.

The women (naturally) behind ROWE recognize that life is an individual experience and that no two lives are the same. ROWE, as described on their website, is not flextime or telecommuting or job-sharing. "In a Results-Only company or department, employees can do whatever they want whenever they want, as long as the work gets done. No more pointless meetings, racing to get in at 9:00 am, or begging for permission to watch your kid play soccer... You make the decisions about what you do and where you do it, every minute of every day."

Sounds good, doesn't it?

Because really, who came up with the hours for our standard work day anyway? Who decided a mom should be at the office at 8:00am when the school bus doesn't pick up her kids until 9am? How can a concerned daughter escort her dad to his weekly doctor's appointment if she's expected to be at her desk for fixed times every Monday through Friday? Clearly, not every job or industry lends itself to ROWE. I'm not sure how my father (a police officer) or my mother (an inpatient nurse) could have done it. More arrests? Save more lives?

Certainly there are some work schedules that organically allow for more flexibility: Twelve-hour days in exchange for more time off; the 3-11pm shift; part-time jobs. In my experience, nontraditional full-time schedules are often arrangements made on a case by case basis at the discretion of individual managers. As a result, some employees are seen as receiving favors while others stew quietly because they haven't been able to strike the same deal.

Earlier this month, the Office of the Chief Technology Officer in Washington, DC signed on as the first agency in that city's government to embrace ROWE. What? A city government office trying something cutting-edge? Read this interview with Bryan Spivak, the agency's Chief Technology Officer to see what he was thinking when he decided to go ROWE.

What could your company do to change its culture? Can you imagine working in a Results-Only Work Environment? Would you want to?