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The Path To A ROWE

Apr 29, 2010 » by Michael Barata

The $1,000,000 question: How can I can convince my company to go ROWE?

Depending on your organization’s current culture, the path to a ROWE will vary. Unfortunately, the path does not always lead to a ROWE. Many of you may remember my year and a half long battle with my employer, which did not result in me going ROWE….BUT…..it really did. See, I am part of the ROWE movement now!

Following is a story from someone whose identity we were asked to keep anonymous, but experience needs to be shared. He realized the benefits of ROWE and had the courage to ask for it. Though his request to go ROWE was rejected…..well….his pursuit of freedom and happiness could not be denied!

His story….

As far as ROWE goes, I had been with my employer for about a year when I stumbled upon the famous “Smashing the Clock” piece in Business Week. I was fascinated. The day after I read the article, I went to Barnes and Noble and picked up a copy of the book. I read it in one sitting that day at work. I had never really considered anything outside the normal 9-to-5 workweek, and to hear a real company implementing such a policy seemed…well…revolutionary. I’d never thought about it the way Cali and Jody explained it. I don’t owe anyone my TIME. I only owe my EFFORT. Why should it matter when I walk in the door or what time I get in my car as long as the work gets done? So many days I had heard my boss ask “Do you have enough to keep you busy?” and not thought about how absurd that question was. Was I really stuck in some alternate universe where my expected contribution was to sit in my chair for a certain number of hours everyday, no matter what my actual contribution to the company was?

Incidentally, just a few months previous, at an all-employee meeting, our CEO had charged employees with coming up with new and innovative ways to save the company money. He talked about how people may have been reluctant in the past to bring up ideas because management would shoot them down for no specific reason. He urged us all to forget the past and not settle for “because the CEO would never go for that” as an answer. When I read “Why Work Sucks,” the CEO’s words were the first thing that came to my mind. Here was an opportunity to save the company some money and revolutionize the way we work! I was on fire.

I took the book to my immediate supervisor. I had known him for many years before I started at this company, and he was someone I trusted. I laid out the facts for him and made the case for ROWE within our department. His immediate reaction? “It sounds like a great idea. But management will never go for it.”

I challenged him on his assertion, pointing out that we had been specifically charged by our CEO not to use that as an excuse. He looked at me and said, “Don’t pursue this. They’ll never go for it. It’s a bad idea.” I tried to talk to him about why it was a bad idea, but could never get any hard-and-fast reasons as to why ROWE wouldn’t work in our department. On the contrary, he kept telling me how the idea was great, but that the 9-to-5 work traditions was “the way things have always been done.”

I pushed further. “If you think it’s a good idea, why don’t we just implement it in our department, and let the results speak for themselves?” He declined. Well, if he thought it was a good idea, but was too afraid to implement it or back me on it because of what management “might think,” I would pursue it myself without him. I asked permission to contact the head of HR to discuss with her the idea I had. He agreed that I could contact her.

For the next week, I prepared notes and facts regarding how specifically ROWE would save our company money. When I felt prepared, I emailed her and let her know I had an innovative idea for her, and asked if I could have just 30 minutes of her time to present it to her. She emailed back and asked what it was regarding. I told her that I thought it would be best, rather than trying to sum things up in an email, to meet and explain my idea in full. She didn’t respond.

A week went by and, against my better judgment, I gave her the 30-second pitch over email. She didn’t bite. Her response was (paraphrased) “We’ve already talked about flexible work arrangements and decided that it’s not a good fit for our company and the way we operate.” No specifics as to why it’s not a good fit, no acknowledgment of my statements that ROWE is NOT the same thing as flexible work arrangements, just a flat-out rejection.

After reading through the book another time, I decided it was time to go the more “stealth” route. I would go to my supervisor’s boss, two rungs up the management ladder. He was someone I trusted, albeit not as much as my immediate supervisor. I made the same pitch, mentioning the call-to-action from our CEO and the rejection I’d received from the head of HR.

Within a few days, I was called into a meeting with my supervisor, his supervisor, and a representative from HR. I was told that this was to be a formal, recorded meeting to discuss my attitude and behavior at work regarding my pursuit of ROWE. Nothing good came from the meeting. I was accused of being insubordinate, having a poor attitude and not respecting the chain of authority (even though I had asked and was given permission to contact HR by my supervisor, which is how we were taught to do it)

Things were never the same after that. In my annual reviews, I was always rated the lowest in my department. After coming from a job in Washington, DC where I worked for a government contractor and received two promotions within a year and a half and saw salary increases totaling almost 30 percent, I spent three years with a company that never even considered me for a promotion and gave me no salary increase the year of my “disciplinary meeting” and a laughable 1.5 percent increase the next year.

Finally, after bogging me down with responsibilities that fell wholly outside of my job description for over a year, I was shown the door. In the end, I never received a poor job performance review from my immediate supervisor. In fact, I was always given high marks for my writing and my overall body of work, but was constantly marked down for my “attitude” because I pursued ROWE on a constant basis.

Looking back, I don’t know what I would have done differently. The corporate culture at my former employer was so incredibly stifling, I felt that I had to do something drastic in order to be heard. My voice, my opinion, my contribution was not valued there, and I am much happier being gone and knowing that I am providing value to my family, not some corporate machine.

After leaving, I decided to pursue freelancing full-time, and was able to give myself that salary increase my former employer never found me worthy of. I work from home and I’m my own boss, deciding when I want to work and when I don’t. I’m not chained to a desk and I’ve never been happier.

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  • Stacey Swanson

    I am glad this person found their own way to be happy in a new environment. Kudos to this blogger who had the courage to stand for something they believe in. Go ROWE!

  • Eric Cole

    And there is nothing this blogger could have done differently because some corporate cultures just aren’t interested in improving. Status quo is all the improvement they need, want or believe in.

  • Michael Salamey

    That is an awesome story. Great ending.

  • damom

    Wow. I am glad to see in the end you won. The company lost twice – they lost you and they lost the chance to save money and better the lives of their employees.

  • Matt

    Some who are regular readers here may know that I was in the opening salvos of the ‘war’ to bring ROWE to my department and company. I hate referring to it as ‘war’ because it should be considered as a positive movement for everyone’s benefit. Unfortunately, this story and my own experience tells me that as long as the old bastions of the workplace are still in charge (i.e., cowardly middle-aged managers), ROWE will always be a fight. My fight has not gone well and I don’t expect it improve any time soon. That being said, I have some issues with this post.

    I have always been a positive supporter of ROWE, but this experience is anything but a victory in the context of ROWE. The only person who benefited in the end was the individual and the solution was not ROWE, it was self-employment. This story seems more appropriate over at Cubicle Nation. All I get from this story is affirmation that I will either be fired for trying to establish a ROWE or I need to work for myself to be free of the ‘old workplace’.

    Please post more positive information from the companies that are already ROWE, especially GAP Outlet. Also, information that can be shared from companies that are in the process of establishing a ROWE would be appreciated. I would prefer to see those successes rather than failure.

    • Michael Barata

      Hey Matt-

      Thank you so much for your continued support of ROWE and keep up “the fight.”

      Also, thank you so much for your suggestion about posting success stories from employees at ROWE companies. We are currently developing a more interactive outlet for people who have gone ROWE, are going ROWE, and are interested in going ROWE. Stay tuned…

      The path to a ROWE will be different for everyone. Life in a ROWE will also be different from person to person and organization to organization. With all due respect, this story has its positives. The fact this person was courageous enough to have the “ROWE Convo” with his employer is HUGE. Prior to that interaction, though painful and the end result not leading to a ROWE, that employer is now well aware of the ROWE movement and informed about the benefits of ROWE. Therefore as times change and more people rise up and ROWE gains more steam, employers will have no other choice but to truly consider ROWE as a management strategy – including this employer.

      We also strongly believe ROWE can work in any industry and that includes self employment. The ROWE context of this story is we are so appreciative of people who take the stand and ask for a ROWE at their organization. We know it can be awkward and frustrating, but it spreads awareness and information, and that is always good. The real reason this is a success story is because the individual is happier now.

      We still have work to do. And we thank everyone who follows us on our blog, connects with us on Facebook and Twitter, and anyone who pushes for ROWE within an organization.

      goROWE!

      • Concerned employee

        You are right Michael. The transformation of a company/institution to a ROWE is very difficult. It encompasses a radical change of culture. I had a similar experience at my workplace a couple of years ago. This concept was/is hard to digest – at first. Since this company started, the culture has been very tight and controlling. This situation has been very lucrative for higher management. They do not care about results – rather only what they want to see and are able to manipulate. Therefore management is not going to give up this ideal situation easily. The only way they will change is the from pressure from outside. If they do not change, it will be difficult to compete. At that point, the migration of ROWE will be a necessity.

        These experiences are very important because they are giving us an idea of how that transformation takes place in different cultures. Please keep up telling those stories that are affecting people. As far as I am concerned those are not failures. We are becoming catalysts and those experiences make us aware of this universal problem.

        GO ROWE!

    • Persephone K

      I have to admit, I had a similar reaction to Matt. I debated whether or not to respond at all because frankly my attempt to bring a ROWE-like environment to my workplace has gone anything but well. I would not speaking in hyperbole to say its been one of the most contentious, stressful and difficult couple of years in my professional (and by extension, personal) life.

      On the one hand, I believe people need to stand up for ROWE at their office. Unless people demand ROWE, the status quo will continue. I’ve taken a stand for ROWE philosophies (such as measuring results, not politics, and engagement as measured in results, not how many meetings one attends) at great professional cost.

      Yet at the same time, I think its important for people to know what they’re getting themselves into. I don’t know that I’d change much about the past year/year and a half, but perhaps if I’d been a little less naive that if I’d just show people the logic behind ROWE they’d flip the switch and “see the light” Perhaps I’d have been better able to handle the scorn, sabotage and unprofessional behavior by my superiors because I was apparently threatening the “chain-of-command” and “acting insubordinate” because I took initiative.

      I am all for pushing boundaries, and jumping into the fire, but if there’s a way to give people an asbestos suit for protection, I think we should try to do that here as well. Not everyone wants to, or is a situation to work for themselves. I can’t rule out the possibility for myself, but most of my self-employment options include a drastic career change. To stay in my current industry where my expertise lies, going solo is not practical, and without getting into too much detail, leaving my company would be a little like disowning a family member. Traumatic. Not that I won’t ever do it — there comes a time when severing ties is necessary — but striking out on one’s own can be a tremendous sacrifice, and not just because of the security and loss of benefits aspects.

      Just food for thought.

      • John

        Persephone K

        You took the words right out of my keyboard! Felt exactly the same. Read the post, felt a bit like Matt, then thought about it and had the same realisations you did re the importance of not being naive and being prepared for consequences. I’ve had ‘ROWE tinted’ glasses on (I might copyright that one!) ever since I came across the concept. When you really get it, it’s hard to conceive that others might not. I think it is good to be aware of how strongly opposed some people will be to this way of thinking. In fact, I think it is a good way of making yourself face up to your reality.

        I want to work for a forward thinking company who understand innovation and embrace the opportunity for change. I keep hoping my employer is that company and yet I seldom see evidence of this. I’m planning to present the concept of ROWE to my employer quite soon. I’m going to use this presentation as a make or break situation. If they go for it I can feel excited about the fact that I work for a company who stand for all the things I believe in. If they oppose it (without sound reasoning) then I’ll have to face up to the fact that I’m not working for the right people and need to make a move.

        Freelance is not the only option though. There are companies who might not be ROWE yet but at least embrace that sort of thinking. I’ll try and find one of them and then I can have the fun of introducing ROWE to someone who gets it! But I am ever optimistic. I will continue to believe in my employer until I am proven wrong.

        My plan is to find an influential senior manager who likes the idea and then have them there when I present to the others. Don’t know if it will work or not but I’ll keep you posted.

  • Ruby

    I can’t believe how closely I can relate to the anonymous man described in this blog. I have not attempted to implement ROWE into my own corporation (mainly because they have made my heart so sick I wouldn’t want to work here regardless of the changes). I am working a deal with them to become a consultant…so at least soon my time will be my own. It makes me ill to think of how corporations stifle their employees and reduce their quality of life by forcing them to sit in a chair all day.

  • http://hk.linkedin.com/in/jenniferborek Jenn

    Thank you for posting this experience. I found value in the cautionary tale. ROWE is revolutionary and it’s going to take time for people to adapt. I tend to be on the front end of the bell curve when it comes to change. I welcome ideas like ROWE. When I first read about it in January 2007, I was hooked on the concept. We talked about it among my peers. My peers are interested, but levels above us aren’t as completely open to the concept. While I was still hooked on the concept, I wanted to watch the movement with caution. I’m encouraged to see Best Buy is still very ROWE. Not only that, Cali & Jody have been instrumental in helping organizations like city government adopt ROWE! The main thing I’ve learned is that change takes time.

  • chicagojess312

    I had the same experience. I was called selfish and naive. The kicker is that our president railed at me insisting that we were “ROWE on steroids” and that I just hadn’t been with the company long enough to earn flexibility yet. Meanwhile, management’s “summer hours” have started and there isn’t one to be found after 2:00 on a Thursday afternoon.