Misperception – The Results-Only Work Environment is a Remote Work Strategy
To ensure we’re all on the same page, the “R” in ROWE stands for Results, NOT Remote. But even more important, ROWE rejects all labels. And wow, there are a lot of them.
Office worker
Teleworker
Remote worker
W.F.H.
Flexibility
Hybrid
ROWE is far more about one’s mindset than it is about one’s location. The focus is on measurable results for clients and customers. Period.
Misperception - The Results-Only Work Environment is a Flexibility Program
Who designs flexibility programs? Who decides what flexibility looks like? Who decides when flexibility is permissible and when it is not?
If the adult employee is not making those decisions, it is not flexibility. Instead, it is often permission-based management masquerading as flexibility. Other problems with flexibility: some employees get it, some don’t. It gets granted, it gets taken away.
Here’s the rub, a flexible schedule is an oxymoron. Let that land.
ROWE is NOT flexibility. Flexibility and autonomy are NOT the same thing.
However, if a culture is heavy on autonomy and light on accountability, this typically leads to a chaotic landscape where non-performance is tolerated. There is often a realization in this culture that goals and measures are not clear, prohibiting accountability to measurable results. If the culture is heavy on accountability and light on autonomy, business operations may be strong but at the expense of the employee experience. The heavy accountability/light autonomy leads to high frustration levels, voluntary turnover, and lack of engagement in work.
Make the move to 100% accountability to measurable results and 100% autonomy (equity - not flexibility).