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You Decide What Is Important

Jan 7, 2010 » by Cali & Jody

By: Michael Barata

When we talk about what should be important within an organization, we drive home focusing on results and results only. With regard to work, results should be what drive an employee to succeed and should be what’s used to measure an employee’s performance.

However, a ROWE is not designed to be soulless. Within a ROWE, work does not take precedence over one’s life, but rather YOU gain control of your life. This is vital to remember. Essentially, results to an organization can be likened to balance in one’s life.

Have you ever had to deal with a wandering mind, illness, or personal trauma when attempting to accomplish something personal? Whether it be a mundane chore around the house or attending a social event or trying to enjoy a hobby, you simply do not feel “into” or focused on the moment. What do you do?

Now apply any of those circumstances to work. What do you do? What does your organization do to help you achieve results, but more importantly, support your well-being? Personal days, vacation days, sick days, and bereavement periods are the common, traditional work environment’s response to such situations. This approach is absurd because it is so mechanical. There is no distinction made among employees. The assumption is all employees enjoy the same amount of personal time, get sick for the same amount of time, and grieve the same way.

The employee is viewed as a commodity with allotted downtime instead of a unique person who may benefit from a variety of options. This is an example of how a ROWE truly separates itself from other cultures or feel-good strategies.

Awhile back, Brett Legree contacted Cali & Jody about his interest in ROWE and shared some personal stories. One event he shared was so moving that with Brett’s permission, we felt it necessary to share it with all of you. You can find the details of this event in his own words here.

I strongly urge you to read his story. What Brett and his wife endured was a very difficult pregnancy in which they lost two of three triplets to complications. Such a personal tragedy as this is not one that can be relieved through anything written in an employee manual. This is something that the unique person must deal with and overcome.

Brett went back to work, but he acknowledged his mind was elsewhere. His work was not suffering, but he admits his progress had slowed. He turned to the internet to seek some help for what he was going through. He would access the net while at work, which created an issue as Brett’s company had a policy clarifying surfing the internet at work must be for “work-related purposes only” and only for 90 minutes a month. He exceeded the allowed time and the sites he was visiting were deemed not “work-related.” This was addressed with him. Well, he was actually reprimanded for it and informed he could be fired for it.

Brett’s take on the circumstances surrounding why he was surfing the internet is brilliant. He asks, “One supposes that the sanity of an employee is work-related, right?”  We believe that is 100% right!

Brett forged on even after being written up for excessive internet use and his supervisor referenced “family trouble” as the reason. That did not deter Brett. As he dealt with his sadness, he got faster at his job and also added improvements. He even beat his target times for the year. Then came his annual appraisal. Though his accomplishments were noted, his abuse of the internet rang louder than anything else. His achievements took a back seat to a childish scolding about internet use.

That’s shameful.

This impersonal approach to how employees are treated is not only cold, but hypocritical, too. How often do you hear “We are family-friendly here.” or “Treat your coworker like your neighbor.” Yet, whenever you do engage in family or neighborly activities with coworkers, like a conversation about the weekend or sharing pictures of the latest family vacation, you typically get reprimanded for socializing or being out of your normal work area.

Brett experienced even more negativity when he moved on to another project and supervisor. This supervisor told him she would have never hired him if she had known about his internet abuses.

That’s just insulting. The guy was dealing with tremendous hurt BUT exceeded expectations anyway.

Unfortunately, Brett is not in the minority with this kind of professional experience. This demeaning approach to managing people is experienced every day by countless employees. No one is asking for preferential treatment, but rather respect. No one is asking for less accountability, but rather more trust. No one wants a family or neighborly atmosphere at work, but rather the freedom to be with family and neighbors when they choose.

Brett realized what is most important to him and they are his interests and those of his family.

A ROWE empowers the individual to determine what is important – not a supervisor or an organization. So, what is most important to you?  And how are you going to make 2010 the year you start really focusing on that?

  • Concerned employee

    This behavior is typical in a traditional workplace. I would like to share an experience that I had a few years back at my job. My supervisor asked me “What is the most important thing in your life?” I was sincere and my answer was “The most important things in my life are my family and my health.” This answer was a surprise for her because she expected me to say that the most important thing was my job. Of course, my performance appraisal suffered and she tried very hard to eliminate me (not at all based on my performance). I had to challenge that sick culture and defended myself by showing my work to upper management. This problem is an epidemic and can make your life miserable. ROWE to the rescue.

  • http://deepfriar.wordpress.com Friar

    Brett is a very good friend of mine. I haven’t suffered the same loss he has, but I’ve shared a similar experience.

    This past summer, my Mom was in a serious bicycle accident. She lay in the trauma ward, with a broken pelvis, and hermoraging in the brain.

    I was back at work three days after her accident. Needless to say, my mind was elsewhere and I wasnt’ very productive. Later that week, a co-worker started chatting with me, and I found the distraction a welcome relief.

    Later that day, my Section Head scolded me for “chit-chatting” during work hours. I was told I’m to work 7.5 hours a day, and keep my personal conversations to lunch and break periods.

    She KNEW my Mom was in the hospital, yet she still insisted on towing the Company Line, and making sure I was putting in my hours.

    Talk about the epitome of being Anti-ROWE (not to mention having a complete lack of compassion).

    By the way, Brett and I work for the same company.

    Big suprise there.

  • http://6weeks.ca Brett Legree

    Thank you for sharing my story today. What really struck me when I wrote the post at my blog was that many other people came forward to tell their own stories, that were in many ways similar – much like “Concerned employee” did above.

    The response from some people in my workplace affected me for a very long time, in some ways shook my confidence, but you know, I’ve been able to find my way out of it.

    I have been working on a few things for a while that I never would have considered if I had been treated with more respect – the end result is that eventually, my company will lose me, and as my wife also works there now, they will lose two experienced employees.

    It doesn’t have to be that way.

    Friar’s story is yet another example (of many) from our workplace.

    I admit, I do still have some hope for the company, as there will be a very substantial re-organization this year.

    But from my own personal perspective, they lost me a long time ago. Any loyalty I had is long gone. This isn’t to say that I don’t take my job seriously, just that I will put my personal affairs before any professional responsibilities I might have at that company.

    If that makes me a bad employee in the eyes of some, well, you could call it a learned behaviour.

    I wasn’t always this way, and I have worked at some good places.

    I know there are others out there.

  • Persephone K

    Although I have been fortunate not to face such a horrible tragedy as Brett and Friar, today I did make a decision about what is important to me. I had to make a choice between compromising my ethics at work (not talking illegality here), or asking to be moved to a different job role. The job role I’m in now is fairly high profile, demanding, and brand new in my organization (a year old). I’m the first one to have it in my division and have been forging ahead for the past year with very little guidance on goals, but a lot of micromanaging. That all came to a head when I was asked to “adhere to the party line.” I had to decide whether I should go on in my current role — a better career move, or ask to be moved, thus likely hurting future promotion opportunities, and being perceived as a failure by management (not my direct supervisor thankfully) and peers. Today I chose the latter. I couldn’t go on in my previous job, where i’d taken a hit in my performance review because of completely ridiculous misperceptions of what I was or was not doing by upper management (contrary to my own manager’s review), and because I told the truth to upper management (which as an advisor is my job), even though it was not what management wanted to hear. I had been told that because I was not having enough meetings that I was not “engaged.”

    So what’s important to me from a business perspective? Doing the right thing, no matter the costs. I feel that if I’d been in a ROWE, I would have been able to just do my job instead of be judged on the perception of how I was doing my job, and my bosses would want to hear the truth.

  • Cali & Jody

    Thank you all for your comments so far to this post. It’s a very important one, in our eyes, because it’s so personal, but also because it hits at the core of what is so wrong about the current system. It doesn’t take into account that we’re actually *human beings* doing work, not robots.

    @Concerned Employee – we’re glad you were honest in your response to your boss. Even though you suffered through a poor performance appraisal (that had little to nothing to do with actual performance) and behavior from your boss that was immature and condescending, you didn’t compromise your values. You kept those front and center, which is what we hope you’ll continue to do…

    @Friar – good to hear from you again! And thank you for sharing your story. These actions from managers at your workplace are simply appalling. This is so far from the behavior of managers in a ROWE…night and day. The “new generation” of managers will eventually take over – especially as they breed productivity and happiness at an astounding rate. We are in a Fortune 200 company now in the western U.S. where the ROWE managers are gaining so much confidence in bucking the system that has gone against common sense for the last 25 years that it’s amazing to imagine how high this company will soar in the next decade. The future is managers as mentors and coaches who partner with employees on the best ways to achieve results (and don’t focus on anything but those results)…not the paternalistic, hall-monitoring, egotistical individuals that are in many management positions today.

    @Brett – your story is going to provide many of our readers with so much confidence to take a stand against the way things are operating today. Your company *did* lose you a long time ago and sadly, companies lose bright, talented people every day – even though their bodies are still present.

    @Persephone K – bravo. Similar to Concerned Employee, you’re staying true to who you are. You’re not going to let your employer beat you down into displaying actions and behavior that you’ll regret. For over two years, we’ve been with you – hearing stories of how incredibly frustrated you’ve been with your employer. Today, that all came to a head. And you did the right thing. Not the easy thing, by any means, but the right thing. This is a mark of someone who can hold the line in a social movement…which is just one more reason we’re glad we have you as one of the leaders of the ROWE movement. Today, you made a decision that will take you down a different path…it might not be comfortable or what you expected, but it’s in line with who are and that’s a great way to start a new year.