Can you imagine a workplace with no pointless meetings, no boss hovering over your shoulder, and no punishment for arriving at 9:05AM?  Two online friends of mine, Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson, have just released a new book based on their popular Results-Only Work Environment (ROWE) concept, which they pioneered with electronics giant Best Buy a few years ago.  What at first started as an underground movement and later gained the wholehearted support of the CEO, ROWE increased Best Buy’s productivity by 41 percent and reduced turnover by 90 percent in some divisions.  I’ve been a fan since I first wrote about it on Water Cooler Wisdom back in 2006!

In a ROWE company or department, employees can do whatever they want whenever they want, as long as business objectives are achieved.  As Cali and Jody put it, there’s no more begging for permission to watch your kid play soccer. No more cramming errands into the weekend, or waiting until retirement to take up your hobbies again. You make the decisions about what you do and where you do it, every minute of every day.

The book, Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It, shows how a Results-Only Work Environment not only makes employees happier, but also delivers better results.  It also explores why most workplaces are so dysfunctional, and offers solutions for stopping toxic behaviors and beliefs (“sludge”) that keep employees from reaching their potential.  Through its stories of how ROWE is realized for everyday workers like you and me, Why Work Sucks turns what may sound like a pipe dream into a business reality. 

If you think your company wouldn’t or shouldn’t go for this, consider these statistics from The Perfect Labor Storm.   By the end of this year, the number of young adult workers, from 25 to 40 years old, will decline by 1.7 million. That’s 1.7 million fewer workers to replace the nearly 77 million baby boomers who will be eligible for retirement.  One-fifth of this country’s large, established companies will be losing 40 percent or more of their top level talent in the next five years.  In order to remain competitive as the labor shortage draws ever closer, you may need to take drastic measures to give employees what they’re looking for.  A ROWE implementation might be in your future, and you can start with a copy of Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It.