Thought of the Day - Results-Only Work Environment

99% of people are paid for their time and not their results. Which do you think is better for the company and the individual? Unsurprisingly for anyone with half a brain, the results method is better for both.

I really should have posted this when i came across the concept on Tuesday but i wanted to read the book (Why Work Sucks) first to make sure i really understood what i was talking about. The books notes will be up very shortly after this post but i wanted to offer some comentary that wouldn't have been appropriate in the notes.


Having just read the book it feels like the culmination of thoughts that i have been having in my career up until now. It really ties together; behavioural management, self-directed companies (Maverick, Open Minds etc), process improvement (Six Sigma, metrics etc) and even the more recent lifestyle design (4-Hour Work Week).

It also finally puts a name to something i have expereinced first hand, i am a morning person when it comes to work, i like getting up early and making a start on work. I tend to be in the office before everyone else (~7am), i don't take lunch or breaks and i know that after 3pm i'm not really at my best but i have to hang around until at least 5pm because it is expected, because people will call me a slacker if i don't. It doesn't matter if i don't accomplish anything in those 2 hours, as long as i am at my desk people assume i am being productive.
In my first job after grduating from university i took the approach of doing my contacted hours, i'd start early and finish early. The hour before my colleages arrived tended to be my most productive, so i thought logically it was good for the company. However it wasn't long before my boss took me aside and said that he didn't care if i was in early, he wasn't there so he didn't know if i was working or not and leaving before 5pm was showing a lack of comitment. Which sent the clear message to me that he didn't care if i worked or not, just that i was at my desk. It also prompted me to start recording my hours so that if he ever said i wasn't comitted again i could throw my regular >50 hour weeks in his face.
That conversation has stuck with me for the last 4 years and i still record my hours for the same reason. After reading the book it strikes me that it is a huge waste of time. A waste of the companies time because i do it in work time. A waste of my energy because i worry about how it might be perceived if my average hours drop below 45 despite the fact i am only contracted for 38. It also provides zero incentive to improve, if i know i have 2 hours of reduced productivity why not stretch things out to fill them time, the only outcome of working faster is getting more work to do in my least productive time.

I suspect this will be a recurring theme in this blog, so i have given it a tag "ROWE" if you want to group all of the posts together.


Idea from: http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2008/05/21/no-schedules-no-meetings-enter-best-buys-rowe-part-1/