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When Ya Gotta Go, Ya Gotta Go!

Jul 1, 2010 » by Jody

I was talking to my cousin the other day and she told me this story.

She was at work (wasn’t going to mention the place, but SAM’S CLUB) and had been working at the register for almost three hours.

Now, my cousin is in her 50’s and ladies – you know what I’m talkin’ about. She had to pee badly. When ya gotta go, ya gotta go.

So, she asked the floor manager if she could quick run to the restroom. She had people in her line, so the manager would have had to ‘stand in’ for say – oh – 3 minutes.

You guessed it. The manager said “No. You’ll have to wait for your break or close down your register.”
Now, my cousin looked at her line and there were about 10 customers waiting.

Being the good employee she is, knowing that Sam’s Club is in business because of the CUSTOMER, it just didn’t seem right to shut down the register and send everyone to another line. As a customer herself, that would have pissed her off (no pun intended) so she didn’t want to do that to others.

It was a tough choice. Take care of the customers and pee her pants, or disappoint the customers (which by the way wouldn’t bode well on her review.)

Wait a minute – was she actually being focused on RESULTS???

Now you can understand the Manager’s predicament. If the Manager pitched in for one person to go to the bathroom, then it would be anarchy. EVERYONE would want to go to the bathroom. And you can’t really TRUST if people really need to pee, or if they’re outright lying because they’re lazy.

Here’s a thought.

Maybe the employees should figure out how to take a pee by working together. Perhaps my cousin could have planned ahead at a slow time and collaborated with a co-worker to take turns using the restroom in anticipation of a rush (remember Mom saying before a road trip ‘Try going to the bathroom even if you don’t have to right now?’)

What’s happened to common sense and just being kind and decent to people? After all, sometimes ya just gotta go.
Oh, and by the way. My cousin put in a request 17 weeks in advance to have one day off for a wedding.

You guessed it. She got scheduled.

That’s what you get for needing to pee in between scheduled break times.

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  • KellyK

    But…but if one person gets treated decently, everybody will start to expect it. And if we start using a little common sense, people will start expecting all the *other* stuff we do to make sense too. Surely that’s no way to run a railroad!

    • http://michaelsalamey.com Michael Salamey

      Kelly, that was great.

      • KellyK

        Thanks! :)

  • JC

    Buncha knuckleheads.

    Try to institute this system in any kind of customer orientated environment where service plays a major factor and it will inevitably fail miserably.

    Who is deemed accountable? The people that just left to see a matinee? The people that just left and are on their way to the beach? All the employees that went out drinking the night before? “Looks like we all forgot to show up Mr or Mrs Patient or Customer.” Great news! They have quality of life.

    From what I understand, they are trying to sell this program to medical facilities now? Places where actual care of people is involved. Not such a great idea.

    Deadlines will not be met, customer expectations will not be achieved, responsibilities will be shirked. Some poor dedicated employees will always get stuck with the late shifts, doing the difficult tasks and therefore creating a “SLUDGE” environment.

    Absolute chaos.

    This program basically allows people the excuse to make excuses and shirk responsibility.

    • jody

      Oh, JC. Oh.

      I certainly can understand your confusion. A lot of people, like yourself, miss the whole point of a RESULTS-ONLY Work Environment. They think it’s a flexible work program. A time off program. A slacker program. A PROGRAM. They think people in the service industry can’t focus on RESULTS. That a restaurant worker, right in the middle of taking an ‘order’ would say to themselves, ‘I don’t feel like taking this order right now. Think I’ll just go to the beach and still have a job and get a paycheck’.

      We are implementing a ROWE in a highly regulated service industry. Early indications are so phenomenal, even WE underestimated the power of people to focus on what’s important. RESULTS. Even WE underestimated the power that removing Sludge (like yours) would have on the workers and ultimately the customers in service industry. Even WE couldn’t imagine how a ROWE would affect the level of respect and trust and ultimately change the whole experience for the customer. Wait – did I say CUSTOMER?

      Nobody will ever want to pause live TV. There will never be a computer in everyone’s home. Mobile phones will just be for the wealthy. The earth is flat. We need managers like you because people obviously can’t be trusted – so they need to be controlled. Yea. That’s the kind of employee/manager relationship that creates the ultimate experience for the customer.

      I stand corrected.

      • A.M.

        Healthcare is not SERVICE. These are human being that NEED our help it is not a REQUEST for dinner! I am highly offended by you comparing healthcare to a restaurant service. Highly offended

  • KellyK

    Deadlines will not be met, customer expectations will not be achieved, responsibilities will be shirked. Some poor dedicated employees will always get stuck with the late shifts, doing the difficult tasks and therefore creating a “SLUDGE” environment.

    And the folks who do this will get fired, and replaced with people who get stuff done. People always forget that part. It’s a Results-Only Work Environment, not a No-Work-Necessary Environment.

  • Lily

    KellyK – funny!

    Oh, JC – quite the contrary! In a Results-Only Work Environment, as stated, the focus is on *results*, which means that if you don’t deliver what you’re responsible for, then you won’t have a job. It’s actually a good way to weed out the slackers at all levels! ROWE is not an “I-Get-to-Play-and-Everybody-Else-Can-Do-My-Work” environment. No matter what the work, we are all responsible/accountable for outcomes. The difference is that in a ROWE, *we* get to decide how to achieve them. Deadlines are met, customers are served, patients are cared for. Communication is a must in this philosophy. In a ROWE, chaos is not an option.

    According to the data that has been published in national and international media outlets, in a ROWE, customer-oriented services have actually experienced increased productivity – along with more content workers.

    Rest easy, JC and learn some more about ROWE. Those who work in a ROWE get the job done – and are happier doing it :-)

    • A.M.

      Quite the contrary Lily. I have been introduced to ROWE and haven’t seen anything thing change except people feeling empowered to take more smoke breaks more often and expecting no “SLUDGE” becauser they come back asking if they could help out in any way. Well you could have helped out by not taking the extra smoke break in the first place.

  • Courtney

    JC, you’re flat out wrong too, and your argument is based on the slippery slope fallacy. The assumption that if the current system isn’t in place, chaos ensues doesn’t follow logically.

    I work in a ROWE workplace, and the key word here is RESULTS. Respect for what others need is expected as well–if I don’t have some pressing need, I help out if someone else does. They do the same for me. But believe me, you are expected to tow the line…more so than in a few other places where I’ve worked. But since you think you know what everyone ought to do, I guess my anecdote is meaningless.

  • Linda

    JC-

    I am going to write myself a reminder to never, ever, ever hire you. For anything.

    You ask, “Who is deemed accountable?” The person whose job it is to deliver results. They don’t deliver then they’re fired.

    You’re clearly not only ill-informed about the principles of this initiative, you’re completely out of touch with how work can get done, and it’s not with the old 9 to 5 mentality.

  • http://www.midchix.com Gretchen Seefried

    I just discussed the need to pee on my blog “God Bless Wawa.” Everyone should have the right to relieve themselves when they need to. And naturally workplaces like Sam’s Club should anticipate that a worker might need to unexpectedly leave their post whether to pee, change a tampon, throw up, blow their nose (or maybe wash their hands after the last customer did!) With a company the size of Sams, a protocol for these easy to anticipate occurrences should naturally be in place. The same way that stores/shops/restaurants that earn their revenue from the general public should have clean restrooms available to all. End of discussion.

    • Lynn

      Well said Gretchen.

      As a high school teacher we deal with this all the time. I may have 4-5 hours that I work with students and can’t leave my classroom!! It is sometimes very difficult to concetrate. I wish we could get a ROWE to work in my environment!!

      • KellyK

        Yep…being a teacher will build up bladder control like nothing else! A ROWE philosophy applied to the classroom would be a wonderful thing.

  • C. A. Hurst

    Hi JC,

    Your concluding sentence really sums up your opinion for us: “This program basically allows people the excuse to make excuses and shirk responsibility.”

    Wow. Have you read “Why Work Sucks (And How To Fix It)”? Have you taken the time to peruse the data that Cali & Jody have provided here on their website in the “Know ROWE” tab? Have you ever worked in an environment where everybody is at least close to being on the same page and where each member of the team is doing her or his best to reach the projected goal; produce the results? I have. In quite a number of work environments; from hard, physical labor to knowledge work. Long before anybody ever thought of ROWE. And, in fact, within the framework of an hourly wage, specified number of hours, specific place to be context.

    It’s all about attitude. Either I take pride in who I am as a human being or I don’t. If I respect myself then I respect others, not just at work, but in my entire life. If I feel like I’m just a cog in someone else’s money machine that doesn’t do much for my self-respect. On the other hand, if I feel like I have a part in a purpose larger than myself I can put up with a lot in order help change things.

    In “No Jive 5”, Michael Barata’s post here on the ROWE blog on June 23, he states “…ROWE is adaptive social change not technical change.” I couldn’t agree more. There is still an old “factory” mindset to the way many companies function. It’s never worked very well. It’s always provided lots of places for slackers to hide, but still get paid, because they punch a time clock. If there is a specific project that needs to be done in a specific time frame, you either get it done or you don’t. No place to hide. Personal accountability and responsibility right in your face. If you slack, you’re held responsible. That’s just one extremely positive aspect of ROWE.

    Here’s a quote from Richard Florida’s new book, “The Great Reset”: “Economic systems do not exist in the abstract; they are embedded within the geographic fabric of the society – the way the land is used, the locations of homes and businesses, the infrastructure that ties people, places, and commerce together. These factors combine to shape production, consumption, and innovation, and as they change, so do the basic engines of the economy. A reconfiguration of this economic landscape is the real distinguishing characteristic of a Great Reset.”

    Our world has changed drastically in just the past 5 years. It is continuing to change… and will continue to change. ROWE is a very important part of the adaptive social process that needs to happen to keep our businesses viable in a global marketplace.

    So, “This program basically allows people the excuse to make excuses and shirk responsibility.” Nope, completely disagree with you. ROWE shines a huge spotlight on people who play games and don’t get any real work done; who don’t produce any real results.

  • Persephone K

    Not unintentionally ignoring J.C. as others have responded nicely, I thought I’d add a related anecdote to the “gotta go” side of things. At a large organization that I may or may not work for I know of at least one group (a cubicle farm full of knowledge workers) who were forced to raise their hands to ask permission of their supervisor when they needed to use the restroom. And if they had to go too frequently, or took too long (heaven forbid you had the beef tips for dinner), you were forbidden from going the next time until the supervisor deemed it long enough between events.

    And for those of you who know what organization I’m speaking of, this story is even sadder considering the year was 2001/2002.

    • KellyK

      Wow…that supervisor must’ve been doing *tons* of important work if he or she had time to track bathroom breaks.

      • Persephone K

        Unfortunately for this particular group, they were all stuffed in one room and didn’t have cubicles but rather shared tables as desks (it was kind of an emergency situation), so it was easier for the supervisor to be in everyone’s personal business than ever. But yeah, definitely too much time on their hands.

  • KellyK

    So, as a great example of how the non-ROWE mindset is problematic in customer service, a kid I know got fired from a gas station job recently. His offenses? He was there early and started working early because the guy whose shift was ending had a line 10 people deep. Then, after having done that, at a point when there were no customers and everything that needed to be done was done, he was reading.

    He got in trouble for starting work early, and then for not working when there wasn’t really work to do.

    So now he’s learning the importance of looking busy…

    I don’t think this would happen in a ROWE. The fact that this is an hourly job rather than a salaried one might make things trickier, but if you have the mindset that it doesn’t matter *when* you get your eight hours, it would’ve been totally reasonable for the kid, after helping a coworker when it was needed, to take a break and read for the same length of time.

    • Jody

      KellyK – you’ve got it right!

      • A.M.

        Whoever fired that kid was feeling threatened by him. Plani and simple. He was willing to put in the extra effort required to get things done and the boss wasn’t willing to change. The poor kid, he should get a pat on the back for that. Now if you are caught reading while in a healthcare setting you ARE shirking your responsiblities. There is ALWAYS something that needs doing.

  • Jon

    A few years ago, my much younger brother worked the evening shift at Target stocking shelves. His manager insisted that company policy stated that no employee clock in early or late. If you were scheduled to start at 10pm, then by God you had to clock in at 10:00pm, not 9:59pm or 10:01pm. I can partially understand not clocking in late, but what is the harm in clocking in a few minutes early?

    • KellyK

      Depending on how their payroll and time accounting works, it may be to avoid having to pay for those minutes (or having hourly employees working those mniutes and getting in trouble for not paying them).

  • Don

    I was recently accused of “wasting company time”, experimenting with technology that has the potential to provide benefit to the business, even though the experimentation was performed on days clearly designated as company observed holidays. Needless-to-say, this certainly killed what little motivation was left.