«
»

Blame the BlackBerry: Company Policies That Totally Miss the Point

Jan 2, 2012 » by Cali & Jody

BlackBerry "Don't blame me"

[Hi there! Thanks for reading the blog. We wanted to let you know about our radio show coming up this week. We're pretty excited about it. The show is on BlogTalkRadio, and Jody and Cali will be chatting live about Managing the Virtual Workforce this Wednesday, Jan. 4 at 12 central. Click here to bookmark the site and participate in the live show!]

Remember when you were a teenager and your parents would take away your TV or phone privileges, when you abused them? You didn’t know when to stop. It was for your own good!

A similar phenomenon seems to be happening in the workplace when it comes to mobile devices.

Recently, Volkswagon decided to pull the plug on BlackBerry servers after union worker shifts are over (non-union workers and execs still have  access to their BBs). Workers reported that they felt pressure to be “always on” with email, texting, and IM all hours of the day. This is a common problem that we all have to deal with. Smart phones and the internet allow us to work whenever and wherever, and sometimes it’s hard to know when to “turn off.”

To us, however, this policy seems to miss the point. Switching off email after-hours feels like that parent/teen relationship.

If employees are feeling pressure to answer emails 24/7, the problem might go deeper than technology. Maybe the BlackBerry isn’t to blame?

One executive at a German company declared a BlackBerry Free Week, except for emergencies. He said:  “I don’t want to have to read email just because someone is bored somewhere and wants to show he’s busy.”

Alright, let’s unpack that very loaded statement.

First, there’s an exception for emergencies. Obviously, emergencies should be handled with a phone call, not email, so there’s not pressure to be checking anything.

Second, there’s a corporate culture problem if employees are trying to “show they’re busy” by sending their boss a lot of email.

Third, the exec shouldn’t feel obliged to read email if he’s communicated with his team about when he’ll be responding to email again.

In our view, none of these reasons necessitate a corporate policy. Just like Meeting Free Days and Casual Fridays, it’s part of a series of “for the good of the worker” type mandates that are actually just paternalistic, top-down approaches to controlling how work gets done.

If employees or executives feel burnt out and unable to free themselves from their mobile devices, we would suggest the answer is not a unilateral corporate decision to pull the plug after a certain time .

What’s the deeper issue here and what’s the solution? Fixing corporate culture is not really a short answer, but we’ll condense it down to a few key points.

1. Let Employees Decide

Give your employees the autonomy to decide how and when they work best. What if some of your employees like catching up on email in the evening? Maybe they’re more productive at night, rather than late afternoon.

2. Set Expectations for Communication

Should you use email for emergencies? No, that’s a really bad idea. If the  expectation is set, employees and executives shouldn’t feel obliged to be checking email at all hours. Be clear about what constitutes an emergency and who to call if a true emergency comes up.

3. Reward Results, Not Time

Are you rewarding the employees who put in the most hours? Or do you simply look at the results they produce? The employee who is sending his boss a lot of email at all hours to show he is “busy” is doing so based on a reward system that favors looking busy. When the focus is on results, it doesn’t matter how much time your employees put in, or how busy they appear.

4. Plan for Down Time

If you won’t be responding to email for a week, plan in advance and communicate with your team about when you will be responding again. Let your team know that they can do the same: “Hey, I’m not going to respond to email this week. I’ve got my work done and I’ve planned for emergencies. Just know that if you email me, I’m not going respond until [date].” That seems so much more practical than shutting down servers and restricting access for everyone.

Across-the-board policies that dictate how and when employees should or should not be doing their work undermine creativity and productivity.  These policies take autonomy and responsibility away from the employee. They cause headaches for managers and executives. They lead to more and more rules about how work should be done, and they totally miss the point:

We’re all adults.

 

[What do you think? Is this kind of policy really going to fix the “always on” problem? What corporate policies do you think miss the point?]

  • Fred Pilot

    “Always on” doesn’t just describe communications. It also describes the mind.  It’s always on, even when we’re asleep.  And no matter whether we are in the office or not.  The larger issue is workplace policies assume the mind can only process work-related thoughts and ideas in an shared office environment.  It’s good for brainstorming and face to face collaboration and team building.  But a central office location and cubicle are not essential to getting the work done, particularly when thoughts and ideas can be stored and shared so easily with the information age tools available to us today.

    • http://twitter.com/caliressler Cali Ressler

      Fred – thanks for the comment!  How we wish more people in the world thought like you :)   The mind is indeed always on.  We have a running commentary on our team about the ‘mobile worker’.  Aren’t we all mobile workers – because of the fact that our minds are always on?  Could a restaurant employee have a thought pertaining to work outside the restaurant?  Yes!  Could a surgeon have an idea about patient care outside the hospital?  Yes!  And could an office employee come up with the next great thought for his/her organization while in the shower?  Of course! 

  • Anonymous

    Although it’s not a good thing, the policy will actually help a little bit. Since people can’t access email after hours, they won’t be able to “look busy” by sending email at strange times. This will help curb extreme working hours.

    Of course, people will find ways around it. The policy only applies to union workers, so that’s just one more way to create a caste system. And you can do non-email work during off hours so that you seem to be more productive.

    The real issue is not the notion of creating structures to try to help the company work better. The problem is that this is another top-down, treat-employees-like-children issue. Maybe everyone could come together and decide that turning the Blackberry servers off might be a good technique to help deal with the addiction.

    Making decrees is always a recipe for trouble at work.

  • JACH

    I think this pictures perfectly one of my worries of companies that go with half-baked flexibility. If you don’t really adopt the “results-only” part of ROWE, then the rest of the actions (work whenever you want, wherever you want) can backfire because you’ll be at the mercy of a manager that insists that, if he doesn’t see you busy, then you’re not producing results (or even at the mercy of your own prejudice)

    Now, for the Blackberry problem. I don’t like the paternalistic solution, but there’s a big discussion about the over-use of the communication devices (addiction, as robbyslaughter put it). I’ve seen this “digital drug” in action with a 15 year old girl, which was there, but wasn’t, and didn’t accomplished much, because she was always texting her friends. And this had nothing to do with work or demands from a boss, but to a need to be “in touch”. I had my share of this while I was unemployeed (and now that I think of it, even during my first job) when I was hitting refresh over and over in hope to see an e-mail directed to me (I recovered since then :) . Maybe a results-orientation would helped, but then again, maybe this e-mail dependency must be viewed as a problem?

    Time will tell.

    • http://twitter.com/StaceyMSwanson staceyswanson

      Jach-
      Great points! We are training ourselves to be tied to the blackberry.  Just like pavlov’s dog- it buzzes or chimes and we pick it up- instantly.

      Each person is different.  Some people may need to detach from the technology more than others. It’s okay to turn the phone completely off.  As long as results are being achieved, it shouldn’t matter. 

  • http://twitter.com/JodyROWE Jody Thompson

    We control technology. It doesn’t control us. 

    • http://twitter.com/StaceyMSwanson staceyswanson

      Jody- so true! I think for some people it flips the wrong way where they let technology control themselves.  When that happens, they need to take the control back- and decide it on their own without a company shutting down technology.

    • Christy Runningen, Culture Rx

      Unfortunately, sometimes we let it control us…and this is why we all feel like we have developed Attention Deficit Disorder.

  • Christy Runningen, Culture Rx

    One of the great ironies of these types of policies is that people never really buy into them anyway! I was once a part of a group that declared ‘meeting free Wednesdays’, but if you truly had a meeting-free Wednesday you were made to feel like you weren’t important…people who ‘just couldn’t do it’ and HAD to have very important meetings on Wednesdays were self-important and made sure others knew it.  

    With so much distrust in the workplace, employees often feel like this type of policy is actually a test to see how dedicated they are. What a way to work!

    • http://twitter.com/caliressler Cali Ressler

      Agreed, Christy.  Back in the corporate world, I, too, went through the ‘meeting free Wednesday’ declaration.  I often heard people say “I know not having meetings on Wednesdays might work for *you*, but I would be triple-booked on other days if I did that!”  I found myself gagging when I heard those comments :)   You’re absolutely right – with a foundation of distrust, it’s difficult for any policies to have success – even if the intent is good.