Parkinson's Law and ROWE in Government
I recently came across Parkinson’s Law, “Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” So bought a used copy of the book since it’s out of print. It was written in 1957 and is mainly about problems with government administration. Nothing much has changed since then. Parkinson talks about how bloated the British Admiralty became between 1914 and 1928. Ships in service decreased by 67.74%, men in the service decreased by 31.5%, dockyard officials increased by 40.28%, and Admiralty officials rose by 78.45%. He says there are two reasons for this. “An official wants to increase subordinates, not rivals,” and “Officials make work for each other.”
In 2008, San Francisco had a population of 809,000, and we had 27,844 civil employees. In San Jose, we had a population of 974,000 with 6992 civil employees. Though in SF, both city and county employees are counted. Does that seem ever so bloated to you? Hell yes! In SF, that’s about one government employee per 30 residents! Are the services in SF 4 times better than in SJ? I think not. Have you tried to get anything done in San Francisco? How about a building permit or inspection? I have some friends who ended up in building inspector/inspection hell last year while trying to open a new restaurant. They were trying to bring money and jobs to the city, and in times of financial strife, you’d think the city would want that sort of thing. Not so much.
If cities like San Francisco were to move to a Results Only Work Environment (ROWE), not only would we end up with the correct number of employees, but they’d be doing a better job and delivering better services. One of the hallmarks of a ROWE is that you very quickly find out who’s doing the work and who’s just punching the clock because employees are judged on results and not solely on the hours worked. ROWE employees work when they want, with who they want in the way they want. The only caveat is that the work gets done. ROWE employees are happier, more engaged, and have a much lower voluntary turnover.
Your thinking, “That could never work in government!” The folks in Hennepin County, Minnesota, and at the Office of Personnel Management in Washinton, DC, would beg to differ. That’s right. We have a state and a federal agency doing it now.
Can ROWE and 20% Time Help your Company Through the Recession?
This is not the time to freak out. It’s a time of reflection and introspection for companies and individuals. It’s a great time to ask, “why are we here?” Are we in the right market? Are our customers delighted with our products and services? It’s a great time to do research and design, and it’s a great time to start something new.
If your company spends most of its efforts reducing costs, it might not survive. Granted, reducing costs and keeping them in line with income is a sound business practice. As long as you’re not creating a stressful workplace for what’s left of your employees. Cutting costs is a short-term fix. It will help that quarter’s earnings, but it will not make or break the company in the long run.
So what things can a company do now to get through the recession? How about hiring some fantastic folks? With so many people unemployed, talented folks are looking for work. Hire them and find something interesting for them to do. It seems counterintuitive to hire in a down market, and it certainly won’t lower expenses in the short term, though it’s a hirer’s market, now is a great time to find new talent. Getting the right folks on the bus is just as crucial as getting the wrong ones off the bus. One great way to do this is to institute a Results Only Work Environment (ROWE). Doing this will increase productivity and employee engagement while dramatically reducing turnover. Yes, this works for sales organizations as well. One of the hallmarks of a ROWE is that it becomes readily apparent who the performers/nonperformers are. Results measure everyone.
Invest in R&D. Right now. You should be positioning yourself for what happens when the market goes back up. INNOVATE! What better way to motivate those new hires than to roll out 20% time? Let your employees work on whatever they want 20% of the time as long as it’s unrelated to their normal jobs. At least consider 5% or 10% time. This is where the Post-It Note and Gmail came from.
The importance of transparency cannot be overstated. Uncertainty about one’s fate is stressful. Let your employees know what’s happening with the company and encourage them to participate in challenges. Semco, a Brazilian company, let’s the workers they plan to lay off participate in the process. This increases employee loyalty and decreases stress around layoffs. According to Victor Frankl in his book Man’s Search for Meaning, the most harmful thing to concentration camp victims’ hope was not knowing when their captivity would end. It’s more stressful to show up to work every day wondering if this is the day I get the ax than to know I have six weeks until my job ends. I went through the layoff saga 18 months ago, and it was hell.
So stop spinning, take stock and make changes that help your company and customers. Prepare for the next upcycle, and don’t lose sight of your employees' importance. Don’t make the mistake of thinking you have a captive audience, so you don’t have to make an effort. If you do, you might find your retention bottoms out when the economy recovers.
ROWE and City Planning
If more and more people start working from home, what effect will that have on our cities and communities? Will our need for office space decrease? Will traffic lesson, will we need fewer parking spaces in business districts? Will it strengthen or weaken our relationships at home or work? Certainly, there will be consequences for changing the way we work. Some of them intended lower costs for office space, and higher employee engagement and satisfaction, and some of them were unintended. What will the unintended consequences be?
I went to an unconference a few weeks ago that was focused on Gov 2.0 here in San Francisco, CityCampSF. I learned a few things and met some interesting people. Among them is a local city planner. We met for coffee today to talk about how ROWE and telecommuting might affect the workplace regarding workspace and city planning. It was an enlightening conversation!
It never dawned on me that we might have to start planning our cities around these changes in work life. Since cities plan 20 years into the future, it’s time to start planning now. What will cities look like when most people can choose where and when they work? Will it change how we build living spaces? Will life become more centered on neighborhoods? Will we see more multipurpose shared workspaces being built?
In his book, The Seven-Day Weekend, Ricardo Semler says, “Working away from the office is an inevitable part of our future. In 1990 only 4 million people telecommuted from home or somewhere else in the US … in 2000 there were 24.6 million telecommuters.” Semco decentralized its office system. They now have satellite offices instead of large central offices. Semler predicts that as people get used to the idea and as technology evolves, the satellite offices will also go away.
If you’ve been working on this issue or have some insights, I’d love to hear about it. What will a ROWE city look like?
Uncle Sam Goes ROWE!
The US Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is launching a Results Only Work Environment pilot program for 400 of its workers. Currently, there is only one government entity running under ROWE: Hennepin County, Minnesota. Imagine letting government workers work when they want, how they want, and with whom they want. What’s a ROWE, you ask? From the book, ‘Why Work Sucks And How To Fix It.’
13 Guideposts of a ROWE:
People at all levels stop doing any activity that is a waste of their time, the customer’s time or the company’s time.
Employees have the freedom to work any way they want.
Every day feels like Saturday.
People have an unlimited amount of “paid time off” as long as the work gets done.
Work isn’t a place that you go — it’s something you do.
Arriving at the workplace at 2 p.m. is not considered coming in late. Leaving the workplace at 2 p.m. is not considered leaving early.
Nobody talks about how many hours they work.
Every meeting is optional.
It’s OK to grocery shop on a Wednesday morning, catch a movie on a Tuesday afternoon or take a nap on a Thursday afternoon.
There are no work schedules.
Nobody feels guilty, overworked or stressed out.
There aren’t any last-minute fire drills.
There is no judgment about how you spend your time.
Two former Best Buy employees created this work model. The Best Buy corporate office has been running this way since 2004. Voluntary turnover decreased by as much as 90%, and productivity went up by 35%. This is an international company with 140,000 employees. I’s not a new idea, SEMCO has been working like this in Brazil for more than 20 years.
For me, this is a dream come true! I have a goal of bringing motivation 3.0 to governments and institutions. It’s fair to say that the workplaces that would benefit the most from empowerment and productivity are government workplaces.
