Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It: No Schedules, No Meetings, No Joke--the Simple Change That Can...

Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It: No Schedules, No Meetings, No Joke--the Simple Change That Can Make Your ... | Cali Ressler, Jody Thompson | Interesting Concept, Light on Implementation Details

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Why Work Sucks and...

	Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It: No Schedules, No Meetings, No Joke--the Simple Change That Can Make Your ... Cali Ressler, Jody Thompson Portfolio Hardcover, 2008 - 224 pages average customer review:based on 30 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

If only work could be more like college . . .

In college you are given the tools to succeed and the ultimate freedom to decide how, when, where to achieve those goals. Yes, you can party all week but you will pay the consequences in poor grades and wasted tuition. Study hard and you will be rewarded. It's pretty basic and it works. What's amazing is that after four or more years of college education most of us leave the University to enter a cubicle only to be treated like children. These low expectations set the bar for results.

I work for a great company that is very results oriented, however results-oriented and results-only are radically different things. This book helped me see that and it helped me identify the areas the I can improve my team's focus. There is still a lot of sludge where I work, and I now have the tools and the language to be able to address these issues in my workplace.

I know people that work at Best Buy headquarters and I can tell you that this isn't a utopian fantasy - this is reality. My friends work extremely hard and still have stressful weeks and impending deadlines, but they own their lives in a way that so many of us don't.

How will companies compete for top talent if they do not change outdated non-ROWE culture? This will be the ultimate power of ROWE. The best and the brightest will choose to go where they are respected and trusted, and to work for people who pay them for their work, not for their time at a desk.

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Interesting Concept, Light on Implementation Details

The idea is intriguing--eliminate the concept of "face time" from your corporate culture. Treat everyone like grownups.

What was really interesting, but somewhat buried in the book, was the little tidbit that voluntary quits tend to go way down after a workplace implements this concept, but involuntary terminations go up quite a bit.

Not everyone can handle independence, it would seem.

Cool Productivity Concept, Quick Read

Solid concept, well-written in an entertaining style, but the content is pretty straight-forward and could have easily been 25 pages versus 180 pages. For those from the traditional workplace, you'll find fear and reassurance alternately as you make your way through the stories of the ROWE environment. Ultimately, the book provides emotional reassurance to people ready to take up the mantle of this new style.
The book is simply 'Work wherever, whenever and however you want as long as you produce the desired results. The hardest part being Sludge, the desire to judge co-workers by how long or how much they are in the office working.

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Tempting New Workplace Approach

While reading the book, I frequently found myself considering my career and how differently things would have turned out if only the work had been managed in a more intelligent manner. "Work Sucks" shows what can happen when the management focus is on employee contribution versus conformity to company rules and social expectations.

The book is tantalizing introduction to ROWE, but skimpy as a guidebook or recipe that could be followed elsewhere. Especially lacking is a description a ROWE project: how management and workers decide how a project can be broken down into tasks, how the task estimation effort is handled, and how manager and worker come to an agreement on what is a reasonable completion time for each task. These are all essential ingredients to making the plan work.

At several points the book mentions that in a ROWE, the rules for hourly workers and contractors have to be different, but the details are never spelled out. Is a ROWE only feasible for knowledge workers vs. clerks/laborers? The book left me guessing in too many places.

The key to whether a ROWE can succeed is management, at all levels. The book answers many of the tough questions that managers would ask, but makes no mention of how the managers are retrained to be effective in a ROWE.

It would have been illuminating to read about the employee and management turnover during the time that Best Buy was implementing ROWE. My guess is that it caused a tremendous amount of upheaval. I was surprised that the book was silent on this topic.

Despite the shortcomings, I still consider it one of the better management books I've read the last few years. I like books that make me think, consider, and reflect, so in that respect it was interesting and enjoyable.

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Back-up and Background Needed to Make this Good Book Great

This book introduces and argues for a new way of organizing work called a ROWE (Results Only Work Environment), which is how the job gets done in the corporate headquarters of Best Buy. The authors say that structured schedules and mandatory meetings are a custom that does not help the customer. "In a results only work-environment," they explain, "people can do whatever they want, whenever they want as long as the work gets done." (Pg 3) The 40-hour work week is a vestige of factory work (when you really did need everyone there at the same time). Face time is often wasted time. With today's technology, there is no need for people to be working at the same time and place.

As an employee, I found the concept incredibly tempting. In a ROWE, there are no work schedules, mandatory meetings, or sarcastic comments when a person is "late". A ROWE combines the advantages of being self employed with the steadiness of a paycheck.

Unfortunately, the book needed more convincing information to explain how management and employees make this happen. How is the work defined? How is the work measured? The book describes an e-learning specialist who followed a rock band he liked and said he got the work done. I'm sure he did. But my experiences with voice mail and e-mail as a substitute for face to face contact are not positive. They are filled with mixups and time spent going back and forth. I wanted more information on how they measured productivity and assured all the work is done.

What happens when the edges between jobs are not well defined? In a ROWE, is there a temptation to do a little less and expect your coworkers to do a little more?

What happens if people became so efficient they can do their job faster than 40 hours? Will managers consider redefining the jobs and paying them part time wages? And if the jobs can be done remotely, why not just ship them overseas?

I was inspired and tempted by the possibility of jobs with a regular paycheck and no regular schedule. But the book failed to provide the backup necessary for the idea to become widespread.

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, page 5, 6

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