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OMG. WTF??

Nov 1, 2010 » by Jody

The other day I read Dr. David G. Javitch’s blog post, Changing Trends: Rethinking Telecommuting? Returning to a “core time” mandate could resolve some of the problems created by flexible schedules and remote employees, and immediately determined Dr. Javitch’s thinking is the problem. Not where people work from or when they choose to work.

When I read the blog post, I shouted in my outside voice, “WHAT ABOUT RESULTS?”

I painstakingly break down the good Doctor’s points and bring us all safely back into the 21st Century where we belong.

1. The ‘Human’ Factor is now missing. Really? I don’t see anyone having problems interacting with humans, both using technology AND in-person. Do you really believe that just because we choose to work in another place besides the physical office, we will never see people? There are some people we really don’t want to see. Why can’t we be adults and choose when we need to get together with people to get work done – instead of having to succumb to someone’s old outdated beliefs straight out of the 1950s?

2. Staff get to know one another better. OMG. Well I agree, Dr. Javitch. It’s much better if everyone gets to know each other like they’re in high school and not really focus on results. Better we know each other because work is all about warm fuzzies and dopey team-building events and potluck lunches.

3. Many electronic communications are not clear. Good point! Let’s get everyone back on core hours instead of learning how to communicate effectively in the global marketplace.

4. Images, graphs and words on pages and charts transmitted electronically are sometimes difficult to see or decipher. WOW. Another good reason to implement core hours so that we can all waste inordinate amounts of time commuting, getting coffee, standing around the water cooler, surfing the internet and otherwise filling time in the workplace. Those darned images!

5. Impromptu collaboration at the water cooler or coffee pot simply does not occur if employees have to dial up a colleague to communicate. Dr. Javitch, perhaps you haven’t been introduced yet to Instant Messaging, Facebook, Twitter or Text Messaging. Who’s ‘dialing’ anyone up? The dial phone and water cooler went out with the mimeograph machine, typewriter and While-You-Were-Out pink slips. Seriously!

6. Sitting with someone over coffee or during lunch can often turn into an important discussion about work-related issues. Right-o. If we don’t institute core hours, NOBODY will EVER have lunch together! Nobody will be compelled to talk about work-related issues. Core hours RULE!

7. Establishing a work relationship with someone from the office by interacting with them during the day, at lunch or after work increases the ease and comfort people feel with each other and often leads to an easier and more positive working relationship. This cannot be created electronically. You’ve seriously got to be kidding me. We can’t let adults figure out how to build relationships without people like you setting core hours? What are we 5 years old?

Dr. Javitch, stop treating us like a bunch of brainless children who can’t figure out how to communicate, collaborate and move work along.  Pretty please?

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  • http://peakalignment.wordpress.com Dave Needham

    Specifically to number 7 – uh, do you not see what relationships people create over Facebook, LinkedIn, or even your own blogosphere? No doubt Dr. Javitch is from a different era where “management by walking around” was the norm. If he wants to work his Core hours, more power to him…I’ll be getting results while I live my life instead of subjecting myself to industrial fluorescent lights and windowless cubicles.

    • Cali

      And that’s the future – getting results while you live life. Not getting results while sitting in prison. Not getting results while being dragged to the company barbecue. Not getting results while sitting in endlessly unproductive meetings. Just plain getting results.

      We’ve had leaders in many settings say to us that “people need to be social and ROWE is taking that away.” In the end, people who need to be social will figure out a way to do that – and maybe they’ll be social with people outside of work. I know – quite the thought, isn’t it? It’s not up to an organization to manage and orchestrate people’s social lives. That madness must stop.

  • Lynne

    I like your outside voice, Jody!

    Also decided not to waste my time reading Dr. Javitch’s blog post. Instead I think I’ll build some social capital with colleagues on two different continents while sitting in the airport lounge in Paris using any variety of electronic tools at my disposable.

    And while I’m hopping up to join you on your soapbox, Jody. So electronic communications aren’t clear? Yeah, well I’ve NEVER had a misunderstanding with someone when talking face-to-face. Sheesh. Insert eye-rolling here.

    • Cali

      Jody does have a good outside voice – I can attest to that :)

      Now, Lynne – are you sure you can really build that social capital in the way you describe? I would agree you can build some, but probably not at the level you could if you actually traveled to those two continents 15 times in the next 2 months. [Insert a bit of vomiting here.]

      You build that social capital from the airport in Paris, Lynne – and then build some more from…possibly your deck?

      • http://www.womenpayequity.blogspot.com Patty Tanji

        I love the irreverent voices here! And, I can’t even really ‘hear’ you but I am ‘hearing’ you. Its all very cyberkinetic (is that a word?) and not at all face-to-face. Imagine!

      • Cali

        Right on, Patty – we can ‘hear’ each other alright!

  • Chris Veal

    Impromptu collaboration can be a major hindrance to productivity. It can take 15-30 minutes to sit down and focus on a task until you get to the point where you are fully involved and the work flows from you. It takes a 2 second question to break that flow, break that concentration, and break that productivity. It’s then another 15-30 minutes to get back to the level of productivity you were at previously.

    Now, those 2 second questions are often of the variety that the person posing the question could easily answer themselves by simply taking a minute and looking. They’d just rather save a minute of their own time by asking you. Nevermind that they’ve interrupted your work and will waste 15-30 minutes of your time while you get back to your formerly productive state.

    Having that Instant Messaging, Facebook, Twitter or Text Messaging barrier reserves these impromptu conversations for truly important questions. That has the side effect of improving productivity for everyone.

    • Cali

      And heaven forbid this side effect be experienced! The way you describe interruptions is perfect. When our team conducts ROWE migrations in companies, there’s a lot of discussion about the “drive-by” – when people physically walk over to someone else’s cube to ask a question, get information, or yap about their weekend. The people who are driving by need something (whether that be information for work or a social pick-me-up) so they feel their “drive-by” is legitimate (because it’s all about them, of course). The people who are being driven upon, however, are in pain because of exactly what you describe. Their productive state has now gone buh-bye.

      ROWE Fans – if you’re someone who likes to conduct drive-bys, try not doing so for one week and get your needs met in other ways (phone, e-mail, text, IM, etc.). See what happens…and share it here :)

      • KellyK

        . The people who are driving by need something (whether that be information for work or a social pick-me-up) so they feel their “drive-by” is legitimate (because it’s all about them, of course). The people who are being driven upon, however, are in pain because of exactly what you describe. Their productive state has now gone buh-bye.

        Absolutely! A lot of the criticism of telecommuting or variable hours boils down to “But if my coworkers/supervisees don’t work when and where I do, then I might not get whatever I want from them the minute that I want it.” Never mind where it fits on *their* list of priorities or what gets interrupted. And never mind that asking for things before the last minute might be a good habit to get into…

      • Cali

        When people see the Guidepost “There are no last-minute fire drills”, some say “That will never happen!” The point is would we like it to happen?! And can’t we try for it to become reality? It’s interesting – the people who say it will never happen sometimes end up being the firestarters.

  • John

    Oh Jodi, I can’t believe you fell for it! Come on! As soon as I read Dr Javitch’s post I got it. Just look at the cheeky smile in his photo. It’s clearly an April Fools prank. No one would write something like that for real. Look, I’ll just go back and check the date, you’ll see, it will have been written on 1 April. Give me a second…

    … Oh my God. I’m so sorry. I eat my hat. He actually is for real. Well I’ll be damned!!

    ;)

    • Cali

      John – that would have saved him, but alas, he must save himself by climbing out of the gigantic hole he’s now in with the ROWE crowd. When April Fools Day actually does come around, I don’t know how Dr. Javitch will come up with anything better than this…

  • John

    Sorry Jody. Got your name wrong. yPhone tipo!

    • Cali

      I really hope she forgives you, John. If she doesn’t, you might have a blog post coming about you. Uh-oh.

  • Joe

    Why oh why! I think his view is fantastic – oh and when we get out of the last decade past the 1980’s and into the 21st century we may just understand we can talk from most places on the planet.

    • Cali

      Oh, Joe – we think his view is fantastic, too…in our nightmares!! Painful, isn’t it?

      • Joe

        I wonder if he could purchase a migration strategy to ROWE, you may have to send him a letter delivered by horse though ;-)

      • Cali

        And we might have to use lanterns when we deliver the sessions because I doubt he has any electricity where he is.

  • CC

    Wow, this guy sounds like my baby boomer boss. He LOVES the drive by, and routinely interrupts work flow to ask questions that I have answered in previous emails. Thanks ROWE community for making me realize I am not the crazy one for wanting freedom!:)

    • Cali

      You = not crazy. Drive-bys = CRAZY!

      Just think of the productivity improvement for you if your boss would just stop interrupting you. And then multiply that by 10 – or however many people he supervises. And companies wonder how productivity can increase in a ROWE – here’s one simple way!

    • http://inaflashlaser.com Sara Gould

      I used to be on Twitter all day, every day. My boss would do a drive-by to ask if I saw that email we got, or to see what I had to say to the email he sent out, or any time he had an idea pop into his head.

      Since quitting and going to work for myself I’ve realized what a distraction Twitter can be and leave it closed most of the day… It fit in so much better when I was being interrupted every 15 minutes!

      • Cali

        Hi Sara – I’m sure Twitter misses you, but at least you’re not being interrupted by a boss who never cared about your productivity. When the time is right, you will again grace Twitter with your presence :)

  • Kevan

    I (heart) the ROWE idea! I wonder if it could gain more legs if you worked cooperatively, not antagonistically, with the non-ROWE-ers. You may have the same goal in common with people like Javitch, but the clashes of perspectives, generations and experience make it hard to see eye-to-eye.

    Javitch says at the end, “…it’s important for a manager to carefully weigh the pros and cons of employing all the powerful tools of modern gadgetry.”
    Isn’t that the same thing that ROWE advocates? “Don’t just do [The Thing You're Habitually Doing], but instead think about how it contributes to the goal.”

    When you say things like:
    “Why can’t we be adults…”
    “…stop treating us like a bunch of brainless children”
    and
    “…like they’re in high school”
    ..I feel like the burden also lies with you to elevate the discussion to the realm of, er, adultness. Y’know?

    That being said, I just gave a copy of Work Sucks to my director of HR. :) You guys are pushing towards something great. Javitch’s article comes from Bizarro-land, and I see why it upsets you.

    • Cali

      Hey Kevan – glad you heart the ROWE idea. Always love to hear that. And, even more, so happy you gave a copy of Why Work Sucks to your director of HR! Can’t wait to hear what comes of that…

      We hear what you’re saying – believe us, we’ve tried so many approaches to cooperate and collaborate with those that seem to have the same outome in mind. In the past, that’s led to a lot of skirting the real issues and…well…pain on both sides. We came to a point where we just said “We need to rip the band-aid off and not skirt around anything.” There’s so many people suffering in their workplaces and the game needs to change NOW.

      So, at this point, I can’t help but address that last line of Dr. Javitch’s :) “…it’s important for a manager to carefully weigh the pros and cons of employing all the powerful tools of modern gadgetry.” In a ROWE, the line would be: “…it’s important for a manager and employee to set clear and measurable expectations so that the employee can determine, with their full autonomy, how to utilize all the powerful tools of modern gadgetry.”

      RESULTS – now that’s something we can all collaborate on!

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

    Um. What about us at multi-national corporations who have teams flung across the globe. Does that mean everyone from China, Russia, and Mexico, etc. needs to move to the home office so we can be more “effective”? I personally appreciate technology for exactly the fact that I can work from anywhere and still communicate with my global colleagues.

    It does seem like you need to “rattle the cage” to get people to realize the “results only” idea. It’s MAJOR change. Jody’s title certainly caught my attention…

    • Cali

      Rattling the cage is exactly what we’re going to be up to. There just isn’t time to play nicey-nice with ideas that aren’t focused on results.

      You bring up a great point, Jenn. When we talk with leadership teams at multi-national corporations and they are completely stuck on face time, we point out the [obvious] fact that they are working and collaborating every single day with people across the globe. For a moment, something seems to click. But then, half of them revert back to “But when people live here, they should make use our closeness, from a geographical perspective, to come together to collaborate and build relationships.” The other half, though, continues moving toward the idea that physical proximity has nothing to do with whether you can do these things effectively. And as long as some of them are moving, that’s a good thing.

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

        And that’s exactly the problem we face. We gather in conference rooms for the people on site while a few people are on the phone. What a disadvantage for the ones on the phone who aren’t part of the “banter”, especially when they live in Australia or Malaysia. Not fair for them! I always thought, if it’s a con call, we should ALL be on a phone.

      • Cali

        Might be something interesting to suggest…and then report back here :)

      • KellyK

        Jenn, I hate being the only person calling in to a meeting. People don’t always speak toward the phone, there are side conversations, and I can’t tell whether a half-heard comment was a sidebar that doesn’t pertain to me, or whether I missed something important. I love your idea of having everyone on the phone.

  • http://peakalignment.wordpress.com Dave Needham

    And here is something I stumbled upon while writing another article.

    BlessingWhite’s 2008 Engagement study showed the “virtual workers are more engaged than their peers who worked with their whole team” (34% to 28%)

    I’m not sure what Dr. J is drinking but maybe he should do more research than editorializing.

    You can go here to get the study if you like. http://www.blessingwhite.com

    • Cali

      And Dave swoops in with the stat of the week! Love it. But Dave, let’s not compare Dr. Javitch to the real Dr. J. The game of basketball does not deserve that!! :)

  • Nate

    Wow…..I just don’t get his points. Half of them seem to be relationship orientated with the office being critical for fostering productive relationships and work. I don’t know about anyone else here who works in a corporate environment, but I rarely ever see or interact with many of my co-workers, even though they’re in the same office. In fact, sometimes I get an IM from someone who sits just a few spots away from me (that’s a whole ‘nother story :)

    At any rate, I don’t see why flexible work environments can’t foster personal relationships. I’ve established tremendous relationships with people I’ve met online and I have not met in person. In fact, I’d argue that if employees are empowered and there’s actually a stronger sense of a team…that is, a unified goal, mission, etc. where everyone is on the same page and every one feels like they are contributing and using their true unique strengths to add value, then the sense of relationship and closeness to other employees will be even stronger, REGARDLESS of whether someone is in the office or not. Not to mention that technology makes it extremely easy to communicate (smart phones, IM, Skype, etc.).

    I was in a meeting yesterday and I looked around the room. Every single person was either typing on their computer or looking at their phone. Talk about a WTF moment. I said, ‘what would it be like if none of us brought our phones or laptops to a meeting?’ People kind of looked at me with amusement like I was joking or something….

    Needless to say, I felt a bit discouraged by that response.

    • Cali

      Your argument is right on. And actually fits in very well with the stat Dave shared about employee engagement. Engagement, relationships, and collaboration depend on a lot more than just physically being next to someone in an office.

      This actually brings me to a point about cube moves (which I know will probably be near and dear to many of you). It really would be possible to never have to pack up and move to a new cube or office ever again. Just as we’re talking here about people collaborating with each other in different countries – it’s possible to collaborate with people that on different floors of an office building, too :) When we worked at Best Buy, Jody and I were moving cubes all the time. Every time there was a reorg situation and teams got shuffled, everyone was packing up to move somewhere. In fact, there was one year where I moved to five different cubes on the same floor – yes, the same floor. Talk about wasted time, energy, and money. Next time you’re in this position, ask yourself “What is the point of this move? What beliefs are driving this? And how much is being spent on this move I’m being asked to make?”

      As for the question you asked in the meeting yesterday – good for you!!! This is where the ROWE Guidepost “Every Meeting is Optional” comes in. If I’m just bringing my body to the meeting but my mind is going to be buried in my laptop or my phone, then I shouldn’t be there. If I understand the outcome and my role in making that outcome happen, then I should participate – but that becomes very, very frustrating when everyone else isn’t on the same page and they’re just displaying presenteeism. It’s going to take you, Nate, continuing to poke at them to start changing that. And we know you can do it :)

      • Nate

        Thanks for the encouragement Cali! I’m trying, but man, sometimes I feel that it’s a HUGE uphill battle. It’s also more difficult because this is the kind of stuff that interests me immensely….sustainable work environments, employee satisfaction, empowering employees, harnessing and nurturing employees unique gift, incorporating mindfulness into work environments…I could go on and on. Yet, it’s nowhere near what I’m doing. I’m trying to figure out a way to start these conversations, but I think the mindset of the masses is ‘sounds great, but nothing’s going to change.’

        Going on a different tangent, or back to my original response above, I didn’t even mention the environmental effects of flexible working and ROWE in general. All the way from health care costs going down in the long term (less stress, happier, etc.) to direct environmental impacts form not driving every day, from the saved electricity and all other associated costs with keeping an office up and running. It would be extremely interesting to know how much energy is used in a typical day to keep a ‘standard’ office up and running. Can’t be pretty…

      • Cali

        Not pretty at all. Have you seen the stats from the ROWE study at Best Buy that was conducted by the National Institutes of Health? Here it is: http://www.flexiblework.umn.edu/publications_docs/FWWB_Fall07.pdf. Lots of good health and well-being impacts.

        We’ll also have statistics to share soon about ROWE’s impact on traffic from the MN Department of Transportation study that was recently completed.

        This will all just make you more crazy, but it’s good info!

      • Nate

        Cali – thanks so much for forwarding. The results are astounding….and it’s so good that we are getting concrete measurements of the results of moving to this way of working.

  • http://creativeliberty.wordpress.com Liz @ Creative Liberty

    Lame, lame, lame! Makes you wonder if “management by walking around” is really better labeled “management by panic/drive by/interruption.”

    The funny thing is, the “core hours” crowd is reaping all the downsides of our connectivity — namely “always-on” making people feel EVERY work task is urgent — without utilizing any of the upsides, such as cloud storage or FTP, which make sharing large files fairly easy.

    Thanks for a great deconstruction!

    • Cali

      MBWA turns into MBPDBI!

      Love the take on the “core hours” crowd, Liz – so true.

  • Concerned Employee

    After this discussion Dr.Javitch should go back to his cave and start changing his thinking. He better not come back with the same nonsense.

    Go ROWE!

    • Cali

      Concerned Employee – we haven’t heard from you for awhile! Glad you’re back. Dr. Javitch wouldn’t dare come back with the same nonsense…at least I hope he doesn’t. Time will tell…

  • http://StreetSmartLeader.com John Halter

    Great post! These are really useful thoughts that can be used by everyone. Thank you.

  • Pekka

    I guess my boss read this article after taking an ass-whooping recently from a Board member who is old school management by bullying kind of guy. (it’s good to have extended networks for the inside scoop)

    Now he’s go me doing work time accounting hour for hour and and and meetings scheduled for most weekdays at the very end of the day (4-5pm) just to make sure were all there till the end. This means I can’t pick up my daughter from daycare and need to rely on my parents to pick her up as my wife’s studying till 6pm most days.

    This in a company that works with clients only outside of the country. Not like one of them is gonna walk in the door, right?

    This also makes my career as a top league referee (it’s an amateur gig, so no possibility of being a pro) basically impossible ’cause I can only work in the hours I miss for leaving for a game early at the office, between 8-17 o’clock.. Usually I’ve used that time that we spend on the road to a game at the back of the car enjoying the possibility to read larger documents uninterrupted.

    This means that a routine of me and my wife taking our daughter to daycare together (we’ve got one car) and me dropping her off at the University at 8.30 and being in the office at 8.50 and leaving maybe 4.10 to pick up my daughter goes out the window..

    Now I’m filling in a excel sheet every day about when I came in and when I left. The craziest thing is that as a small company we work in one single room. There is no time at all for Flow moment, ’cause someone is interrupting you every 20 minutes (usually our “innovative and agile” boss with a off the top of his head idea or a micromanagement task suit for a secretary).

    The man is a mystery anyway as he talks about being a fan of Open Innovation!(?) and is the ultimate at AdHoc ideas guy- meaning that every freaking day I get to enjoy another half whit idea based on about as much youtube clips of Glengarry Ross and literally writing AIDA and ABC on the board.. (this really happened and I’m sure his on Ebay looking for a pair of brass balls)

    New rule also came in about industry events, business breakfasts and information events – every single time you want to be outside of the office for an event, you must bring it in to the Weekly meeting which are in reality as common and reoccurring as OctoMom’s periods…

    Writing this makes me even more comfortable with the decision I’ve made – Get the F*** out.

    Dr. Javitch should be according to title a guy who knows how to read and he would as an academically educated man like research results instead of this of the Tayloristic view which has been throw out the window so many times by actual research already in 1900′s that I would even like to make a case for taking his “Dr” license away – cause this prescription is lethal to worker motivation and would make him the in office Dr. Shipman (UK doctor who killed about 225 of his patients).

    The craziest thing is that these Looney’s still are not a minority, but majority. If any of them could open up a book and read any of the work of Herzerg, Collins, Deci, Latham, McGregor or just Dan Pink’s Drive they might have a clue. But as Dan says there is huge difference between what Science knows and business does.

    All I really have to says is just as the title of the entry: WTF!

    If this is the medicine for the global recession I don’t need to be cured.

    • Cali

      Well, Pekka, I can’t even tell you how happy I am with your decision. As I was reading your comment, my brain was screaming “Get OUT!!!!!” This is no way to live and it certainly sounds like things were only going to get worse.

      One thing Jody and I learned early on was this: Spend energy on people that will see ROWE for what it is – and what it can do for businesses and for lives. Don’t spend energy on people that will suck you dry. It sounds like your former boss was the latter.

      Glad to see you here – keep us updated on what’s happening. We’re rooting for you and just think – no more excel worksheets full of when you came and went!

  • http://www.freshorange.nl Martijn

    Hey Cal’,

    GREAT post. Laughed very loud.

    Be bolder next time:

    Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it!”

    Best,

    Martijn

    (Quote attributed to Goethe, reportedly by the Scottish mountaineer W.H. Murray, tx about.com)

    • Cali

      Martijn! Glad you liked this post :) Jody can get pretty prickly when people like Dr. Javitch want to throw us all back into the dark ages. I do have a feeling that next time there will be even more boldness. And it will be coming soon…

  • robyn

    well, i hope you all appreciate the 21st century lives you have. i, on the other hand, live in that bizarro world of which this “dr.” javitch speaks.

    the drive-by – always 3 minutes before i am supposed to leave for the day.

    our director sends us e-mail to schedule meetings instead of using the calendar function IN the email!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    no water cooler, but there’s “the break room” for the sordid gossip discussions of the day. yeah it turns into an important discussion, all right.

    i was in a meeting where someone actually said they preferred making and receiving phone calls at work to receiving e-mails. yes, i, too, prefer to have to stop what i’m doing to answer a phone call to answer an insane question from someone that is totally unrelated either to my job or to the project i’m working on. viva la productivity.

    potluck lunches – alive and well for holidays and every week during the summer months.

    they do all this, and they STILL hate each other and each others ideas. so much for # 7.

    dr. javitch is stuck in the “good ole’ days” time warp. everything “back then” was great and these new-fangled ideas will never work. down with elvis and rock and roll.

    me? i watch it all like a train wreck. i can’t turn away AND they pay me to watch. ;-)

    • Cali

      Oh my – I don’t know which of the awful, utterly gross things you’ve written is worse! It’s between the potluck lunches and e-mails you receive to schedule meetings. No wait – it would have to be the love of the phone (the co-worker that said they prefer receiving phone calls vs. e-mail could actually star in “Romancing the Phone” perhaps?).

      The situation you’ve described is definitely one that’s true for so many people. So I guess that means there are train wrecks happening all over the place…what a nice thought.

      Dare I ask what would happen if you didn’t participate in the next potluck? :)

    • KellyK

      i was in a meeting where someone actually said they preferred making and receiving phone calls at work to receiving e-mails. yes, i, too, prefer to have to stop what i’m doing to answer a phone call to answer an insane question from someone that is totally unrelated either to my job or to the project i’m working on. viva la productivity.

      In some (very limited) circumstances, I agree with that. I’d rather have one phone call than half a dozen e-mails to go over something complex in real time. But most of the time, e-mail all the way.

      And those people who do prefer receiving phone calls are free to let other people know their preferences, or to respond to an e-mail or IM with a phone call. They just need to realize that it’s not the only way to communicate, or the best way for every person or every situation, and they should respect other people’s communication preferences too.

  • KellyK

    There are two things that jump out at me about this.

    First, I think the freedom to work how and when you want actually provides more opportunities for socializing with coworker, if that’s important to you. It means you won’t be criticized for spending “too much” time socializiing at the water cooler. It means that if you’re hitting a wall at 2 PM, you can go grab coffee with a coworker to take a break.

    I would actually go out to lunch with my coworkers *more often* if I could telecommute whenever I wanted, particularly if I worked in a ROWE and wasn’t judged on hours. I sit in an office with coworkers I like pretty much every day, and yet I rarely eat with them. Why? Well, a sit-down, social lunch takes an hour and a half minimum. Just running out for take-out burns half an hour. And because of hours, the longer I spend eating lunch, the later I have to work. So, most days, I’d rather microwave something to eat at my desk and go home to my husband at a reasonable hour.

    Secondly, you can’t learn what you don’t practice. People having difficulty with e-mail or IM communication doesn’t mean they should switch entirely to face-to-face. It means they need to learn those skills and practice them.

    Putting everybody in the same office at the same time doesn’t eliminate the need for e-mail, either, unless you’re going to let things slide when someone is in a meeting or out sick, until you can discuss it face to face. So, taking away the opportunity to practice e-mail communication skills isn’t doing anyone any favors.

    • Cali

      As usual, Kelly, you’ve hit it. I remember being an hourly employee at Best Buy and always feeling anxious beyond belief when we’d go out for a sit-down, social lunch. I was constantly looking at my watch and my stomach was in knots (so obviously could never enjoy the food, much less the company!) the entire time. And yes, you always know that any “extra” time taken at lunch will lead to time needing to be “made up” at the end of the day. Yuck.

      And then, when Jody and I met, we were the ones spending “too much time having fun” while we were creating ROWE. Work is supposed to be drudgery and we were smiling and laughing all the time…heaven forbid!

      Crazy.

      • KellyK

        Yeah, that anxiety about hours just sucks the joy out of everything, doesn’t it? It’s funny how a perfectly reasonable wait for your food or your check seems like *forever* when you know you’re supposed to be getting back to the office.

      • Cali

        And here’s another memory: Going out to lunch as an hourly employee with a bunch of salaried employees who had a boss that was more “flexible”. I was the one who had to shovel the food in, gulp my drink and then rush out while the rest of them gave me the “Oh, poor you” glance. Ahhhh…you’re bringing me down memory lane, Kelly, and I’m not sure I like it! :)

  • PersephoneK

    Wow… I came late to this party, didn’t I?!

    • Cali

      Don’t worry about it, Persephone…as long as you’re first to the next party!!

      • Persephone K

        I’ll see what I can do!

  • https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/mydeveloperworks/blogs/InsideSystemStorage/ Tony Pearson

    Hi Jody,
    IBM tried this, they called it “must-office” days. Every team had to pick one day a week that all members would come into the office, so that if anyone might want to plan a meeting, they could choose that day of the week in the future and know that everyone is planning to be already in the office. Unfortunately, People were on 3 or more teams ended up having to come into the office just to comply with must-office days even when no meetings were actually planned, and as people were re-assigned from one team to another had to switch to new must-office days of the new team.

    – Tony Pearson (IBM)