Stop Remote Working!

Flextime Policy, Remote Working Policy, Unlimited Vacation Time Policy, Casual Friday Policy, Open Door Policy…. You know there’s a problem when the word “policy” is needed to manage work in a sensible way.

How about having no policies instead?

I wrote a significant part of my latest book while traveling across the world. Actually, sometimes I was just trying to travel. Once my flight to Hamburg was canceled two times, and thus I spent a whole day at the Vienna airport reading articles, answering emails, planning workshops, sending invoices, and writing blog posts. The coffee was good, the Wi-Fi was great, and the chairs were comfortable. I had a perfect office. To my surprise, some people on the Internet asked me, “Why are you staying at the airport? Why don’t you go sightseeing in Vienna?” And I thought, “Excuse me? Why do you stay at your office? Why don’t you go home to spend time with your family?”

Strange as it may sound, like many other people, I have work to do. But unlike some other people, I can do most of my work anywhere. The whole world is my office. The suggestion that I could spend a day sightseeing reflects the thought, “Jurgen is not at an office; therefore, he is probably not working. He could use his free time to relax and find himself a delicious chocolate-heavy Sachertorte.” It seems to me an expression of the notion that office work is normal and remote work is different. It’s time to change that.

I’m not a remote worker because I’m not away from anything where I’m supposed to be.

OK, I was supposed to be in Hamburg at some point, but that was just for a few hours. My work is always with me. I think the same applies to other creative networkers. When we focus on results, we don’t need office policies.

A popular example of a no-policy policy is the concept of the Results-Only Work Environment (or ROWE). It basically says, trust people to get the work done and measure performance by looking at output, not input. [Ressler and Thompson, Why Managing Sucks loc:1519] In a ROWE, people can work anywhere they want. It’s the results that matter, not the method. There is anecdotal evidence that both output and engagement have increased when organizations have switched to a ROWE. [Belkin, “Time Wasted?”] This is no surprise. A Results-Only Work Environment implements what many studies have indicated to be the most effective way to manage an organization.

It's About Results, Not About Remote

Like any other good idea, ROWE has its share of problems and critics. Some people have confused the Results-Only Work Environment with a Remote-Only Work Environment, pointing out that some jobs and work environments require people to handle customers (in retail) or patients (in hospitals), which is work that can’t easily be done remotely. [Haun, “Why ROWE Hasn’t Quite Caught On Yet”] It’s a strange argument because the idea is to focus on creating results, not on staying away. If good results require employees to discuss among each other who will be at the store or the hospital, and at which times, to take care of customers or patients properly, then this is exactly what should happen in a ROWE. A failure of people to take joint responsibility for results is not a failure of ROWE; it is a failure of company culture and personal attitude. [Haun, “Why ROWE Hasn’t Quite Caught On Yet”]

Other authors have claimed that a Results-Only Work Environment fails when company survival is at stake and that a sense of “all hands on deck” is needed. [Hollon, “Goodbye ROWE”] Again, the same conclusion applies here. If the crucial outcome is survival of the company, then that is the result the employees should be aiming for together. Indeed, they might have a better chance at survival with intensive face-to-face collaboration at the office, and it could be a sign of bad culture and attitude when employees don’t come to this realization by themselves and instead prefer to save the business from their own separate but comfortable homes. On the other hand, when people can’t be bothered to show up at the office, one might also conclude that it’s the company culture (not ROWE) that simply isn’t worth saving.

Stop Working "Remotely", Start Working Anywhere

When you have no specific reasons to get together at an office, and you're able to work anywhere, then I believe your work does not deserve a special attribute such as "remote". You're just a worker. Instead, in the 21st century, working from anywhere will become the norm. And to the people who are tied to an office, the future generations will say, "Oh, you are an office worker? How fascinating! Yes, I think my parents once told me about that concept. Sounds challenging!"

Jurgen Appelo is Europe’s most popular leadership author, listed on Inc.com’s Top 50 Management Experts and 100 Great Leadership Speakers. 

References

Belkin, Lisa. “Time Wasted? Perhaps It’s Well Spent” <http://nyti.ms/J9Q6aH> The New York Times, 31 May 2007. Web.

Haun, Lance. “5 Good Reasons Why ROWE Hasn’t Quite Caught On Yet” <http://bit.ly/1kCqhMa> TLNT, 17 June 2010. Web.

Hollon, John. “Goodbye ROWE: Best Buy Ends Flex Work Program It Was Famous For” <http://bit.ly/1cq5I1a> TLNT, 6 May 2013. Web.

Ressler, Cali and Jody Thompson. Why Managing Sucks and How to Fix It: A Results-Only Guide to Taking Control of Work, Not People. Hoboken: Wiley, 2013. Print.