Remember the green clay humanoid figure named Gumby? If you ever had a model Gumby you will remember that he was infinitely flexible. It appears ole Gumby is pretty welcome in today’s workplace.
75% of the employees at Best Buy’s corporate campus participate in their Results-Only Work Environment (ROWE). 40 percent of Sun employees participate in that company’s “Open Work” program, in which they have the freedom to work flexible hours and off-site. Nearly 50% of the 25,000 employee work force at PNC Financial Services Group is on some type of flexible arrangement including job sharing, telecommuting and compressed work weeks. Some companies are saying flexible work arrangements are available to all staff.
Companies everywhere are discovering that happy workers are more productive – and one of the biggest factors in keeping people happy is providing them flexible work schedules and locations. Even the U.S. government has discovered that flexible work schedules result in “greater employee productivity, higher levels of sustained performance, reduced traffic congestion and air pollution, and reduced real estate costs.”Could you imagine working from home for your current employer? Would you want that arrangement? Do you have a place in your home where you could have a work mind-set? Do you need help in creating a flexible work proposal for your boss?
Just be aware that you may be able to increase your job security by being innovative with your suggested work model. What if you could:
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Produce more work than a comparable guy in the office
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Work from your own real estate rather than taking up expensive space
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Use your own electricity, water and gas
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Help the company be a “green company” by reducing traffic congestion and pollution
Is the company going to choose your proposal or insist on keeping the slob in the cubicle who drinks too much company coffee, wastes company time by surfing the Net, and expects to be paid for time chatting with the new gal in accounting?
Dan Miller's Blog 
February 25, 2008 at 3:37 pm
Hi Dan –
You got it – Gumby would love working in a ROWE! In a ROWE, employees are free to do whatever they want, whenever they want, as long as the work gets done. They can grocery shop on a Tuesday morning or go to a movie on a Thursday afternoon…without asking permission and without anyone judging them. And, productivity has risen an average of 41% on ROWE teams. Who can argue with THAT?!
Wonderful work in bringing attention to the value of giving employees freedom over their time – keep it up!
Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson
Creators of the Results-Only Work Environment (ROWE)
Authors of the forthcoming book “Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It”
February 25, 2008 at 8:59 pm
Work doesn’t suck. Restrictions for the sake of restrictions suck.
March 3, 2008 at 1:51 pm
My wife works at a well known bible college up in the Chicago area. For reasons mainly stemming from being unwilling to accept this new idea of work, her workplace requires her to be there 8.5 hours for 2 hours of work (which she could probably get done in an hour if she wanted to.)
Yet, she’s desperately afraid to leave her current situation because of the risk, and the health insurance, all the while being miserable for 6 hours every week, 5 times a week.
I myself am looking forward to getting out of the commuting rut sometime soon, so we’ll see where things are in 6 months!