Archive for November, 2008

Last night I had coffee with a friend and we discussed plans for Thanksgiving. She and her husband are driving from Dallas to Oklahoma and then on to Missouri to visit relatives. I asked if they had to work on Wednesday and she said yes. Her husband was working a half day and she was working a full day—although in previous years, her boss had “let them leave early,” so she wasn’t anticipating having to work a full day.

At first glance it seems letting your employees leave early is a nice thing to do, but let’s not kid ourselves. Letting people leave work a few hours early the day before a holiday isn’t really a treat or a reward. Managers aren’t supposed to be like parents – as in they let you stay up a few hours past your bedtime.

We’re all adults here. It’s time to stop measuring performance by the clock. How much time you put in does not determine the quality of results you produce. We’ve all created excellent presentations, reports, or fleshed out a brilliant idea in less than an hour. And we’ve also all sat at our desk staring off into space for 8+ hours of our day. Time doesn’t equal results. 

When managers “reward” their employees by letting them go a few hours early it sends mixed messages. What’s really important? The time you physically spend at work or the results you produce? Start treating your employees as adults by giving them full control over their schedules. That’s something they’ll be truly grateful for this Thanksgiving.

I was driving in my car one day when an old, but great John Mayer song came on the radio. As I sang along with the lyrics of No Such Thing I saw it in a new light…

“They love to tell you
Stay inside the lines
But something’s better

On the other side…I just found out there’s no such thing as the real world
Just a lie you’ve got to rise above.”

I saw these few lyrical lines through the lens of work. And you know what? Work isn’t working. It doesn’t work for small business owners who can’t find or keep good workers. It doesn’t work for employers who have employees that are disengaged and unproductive. Work doesn’t work for commuters whose stress level and heart rate rise on the way to and from work each day. And work isn’t working for people who haven’t had a vacation in five years.

But what if there’s something better on the other side? Perhaps a better way to work…

One of my favorite authors, Tim Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Workweek, says that reality IS negotiable, just as Mayer sings about there being no such thing as the real world. If this is true, and if the way we’re working is broken, what would happen if we started working “outside the lines?”

At WorkStyle Design that’s our goal. And we’d like you to join the conversation about redesigning work so it works for everyone. The real world is what we make it – and if it’s not working, or we don’t like the way it’s turning out – it’s our responsibility to change things. Join us here as we shake it up, rise above the lie of the real world, and start a revolution working outside the lines!