Comments on: Best Buy’s Results Oriented Work Environment, a Workplace Revolution in the Making

By: Rick

Rick — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 12:59:56 +0000

I love the idea of ROWE so much that I created a job board for ROWE (results only work environment) called “rowejobopenings dot com” so ROWE companies please sign up your jobs. The world is waiting!

* It’s amazing to me that with all this technology we’re still expected to be sitting in chairs from 8 to 5, then spend 1-2 hours commuting both ways.

It’s sick that my job as an IT person is still being done like this when I can do my job from anywhere and probably get more work done and be happier but my boss loves to walk up to my cube and BS about some idea they have and that’s considered the software requirement, ugh!

As a society, we’re stuck in this early 1900′s manufacturing mentality and we need to see you with your “butt in a chair” or we think you’re not working, that’s so deflating to your workforce.

Lets hope this ROWE movement happens soon because burn out will become a huge issue for our workforce and we can’t afford to lag behind in this truly global economy.

We’re going to need happy workers which in turn make efficient workers and helps increase the bottom line.

By: Flexible

Flexible — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 20:43:42 +0000

I actually think a ROWE could work for Retail, production, labs, etc. ROWE is NOT about WHERE you work. The definition, according to CultureRx, is people are free to do whatever they want, whenever they want as long as the work gets done. The most important thing is the RESULTS! Applied to retail, the employees would need to be in the store in order to get their RESULTS. Perhaps there could more flexibility in the way the employees are scheduled for shifts. Mabye there wouldn’t be predefined, 8-hour shifts! It’s all about giving the employee back the control to achieve in his/her professional life AND personal life.

By: Daya Sharma

Daya Sharma — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 17:11:59 +0000

Among the companies that can implement ROWE, I predict, there will be a gradation effect.

The lowest grade which can include small to medium sized companies, some startups, some fortune 500 companies where IT is for in house software development and consumption and consulting companies. This grade of companies are hardened, either in the concept face time equals actual work or the temptation of managers to over burden the employees who finish 8 hours work in 2 hours or the temptation of managers to use the threat of layoff/firing to get more work done without time off / more pay. Needless to say employees with less self-confidence in their skill will survive these work places.

The middle grade, will be the worst, since they won’t be able stick to ROWE or old style and will continue to waiver back and forth based on the turnover effect and loss of intellectual property and erosion of competitiveness.

The top grade companies, like Google and may be Best Buy, will have the highest retention rate or employee satisfaction as long as the sheer size of the corporation induced bureaucracy and tainted ROWE implementation are kept at bay by some kind of self regulating checks and balances.

By: Jayson

Jayson — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 19:43:47 +0000

ROWE is actually much more of a revolutionary change in organizational behavior than you might think. The dominant paradigm in the business world is bottom-line economics which currently implies the worker or human capital, as merely an input in the indongenous model. Time is thus the easiest way to physically meaure an employee’s produvity input into the model. ROWE implies that the productivity actually results from things like knowledge, creativity, and imaginiation.
These inputs are much more difficult to measure in the superficial, physical sense.

There are a few feasible objection as well..
Unless you have a good amount of discipline It’s just so hard to produce in an environment outside of the office. I personally like a work space, that is specialized for working. It put me in the right frame of mind and insures that I have the right tools to produce..similar to the library being a study base in college.
Also, even with all the technology we have these days, it is difficult to collaborate with co-workers unless they are physically present. Collaboration is a huge factor in good ornganization behavio and is where new ideas emerge, so this is certainly important.

However, with analytical, left-brained work moving overseas I do see a shift in the workplace and eventually all workplaces will to consider ROWE.

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 14:45:45 +0000

I am a senior employee at a conculting firm and I have worked this way for the past five years. I absolutely could NOT go back to a 9 – 5, be in your cubicle, job. I am very, very scrupulous about recording the time I spend on our clients’ projects but I might be doing it in my hammock or in my pajamas (or both).

Early in my working life I had a boss that insisted he see all of us at our desks at 8 AM and again at 5 PM. Anyone who had a newspaper or magazine out on his desk at any time except lunch was in for a severe reprimand. Nobody gave him their best effort and nobody ever worked late for free either. The lack of respect for us as human beings was palpable. I sincerely hope that my kids never have to experience that kind of life. They see the way I work and I think that already they’ve decided they want that sort of life too.