Book Notes - Why Work Sucks

Why Work Sucks by Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson [2008]

Summary:
Judge people on results, not the amount of time they spend in the office. A simple and some would say common sense statement, however 99% of the world is managed in completely the opposite way. This book provides a great argument against the prevailing management methods and also what they should be changed to.

Definitions:
Presenteeism - Being physically but not mentally present in your job. (page 17)
Sludge – The negative commentary that occurs in the workplace based on the erroneous beliefs on page 23. (page 30)
Sludge Anticipation – Mental preparation you go through if you are expecting sludge, wasted time and energy. (page 49)
Sludge Justification – The time and energy taken to present your excuse to the sludger, not only wasting your time but the person sludging too. (page 51)
Black Sludge – Sludging people behind their back in groups of 2 or more people. (page 52)
ROWE – Each person is free to do whatever they want, whenever they want as long as the work gets done. (page 66)

Notes:
Page 13: The core problem with work is the theory that Time + Physical Presence = Results, when infact it is very easy to put in a lot of time and physical presence but not accomplish anything.
Page 15: Random Thought: If you are working in an ROWE and can accomplish your job in say 20 hours per week, what happens if your boss wants you to do more, do you get a pay rise or do you just get more to do?
Page 19: Presenteeism isn’t the employees fault it is the fault of the system, of the judges of performance. Show me how you measure me and i will show you how i behave.
Page 23: List of erroneous assumptions we currently have for work. My favourite is “if people get their work done in less time they should get more work”.
Page 24: Random Thought: I wonder how much the above statement has to do with problems in project management, one of the big things in Critical Chain is that “finish early” is never passed on to the next step, one of the reasons for this is that there is no incentive to do so, you will just get more work or be expected to do future work in less time.
Page 33: Paragraph two goes on to say that almost all companies are the same, even young ‘progressive’ ones because the people working there have the same assumptions.
Page 34: If you have a high level of demands (stuff to do) and a high level of control (you get to prioritise and manage the work) it may be hectic but it is not so stressful. However if you have high demands and low control (someone else decides what you do when) life becomes unbearable.
Page 41: Flexitime is not the answer, it is considered a perk, the company will do anything within their power to put you off doing it and you will likely be ‘sludged’ for not being committed.
Page 54: Random Thought: Is Sludge the 8th lean waste?
Page 61: Black Belt pointing out that it isn’t all about fluff bunnies and spending more time with the kids, it is about focusing on what really matters to the company and eliminating waste.
Page 66: The irony is most people go from a ROWE (college/university) into jobs that are all about how much time you spend at your desk. You go from an environment where you are completely free to select and prioritise your work (within a certain framework) to being told what to do and treated like a child. Is it any wonder that there is a serious adjustment period for graduates?
Page 82: The perception is that ROWE is a win-lose situation (employees win, employers lose) this could not be further from the truth. How can the employer lose if the employees have a focus on business results, are more committed to achieving those results because they want to keep working in an ROWE and are generally happier and more productive?
Page 85: Random Thought: Consultants and freelancers already live in an ROWE world, all ROWE is doing is bringing that ethic to companies. Maybe this is how Charles Handy’s view of the future will happen, rather than everyone becoming freelance and being bought into a company, ROWE will allow similar flexibility and benefits without the hassle of coordinating hundreds of independent workers.
Page 89: The 13 Guideposts:
1. People at all levels stop doing any activity that is a waste of their time, the customers time or the company’s time.
2. Employees have the freedom to work any way they want.
3. Every day feels like Saturday.
4. People have an unlimited amount of “paid time off” as long as the work gets done.
5. Work isn’t a place you go – it’s something you do.
6. Arriving at the workplace at 2:00pm is not considered coming in late. Leaving the workplace at 2:00pm is not considered leaving early.
7. Nobody talks about how many hours they work.
8. Every meeting is optional.
9. It’s ok to grocery shop on a Wednesday morning, catch a movie on a Tuesday afternoon, or take a nap on a Thursday afternoon.
10. There are no work schedules.
11. Nobody feels guilty, overworked, or stressed out.
12. There aren’t any last minute fire-drills.
13. There is no judgement about how you spend your time.
Page 125: The side effect of “Every meeting is optional” is that people are much more focused on why they are having the meeting, who they want to attend and why and if people don’t turn up it probably saying you got it wrong.
Page 144: Random Thought: An ROWE would eliminate the need for project reviews, it would be up to the project leaders to schedule time for coaching, mentoring and questions.

Quotes:
Page22 : “Perception is reality”
Page 29: “We have this weird permission to be shitty to one another at work.”