In some companies, people who arrive early and stay late are assumed to be productive. Managers will only approve limited requests for flexible work schedules, and only for employees who have already "paid their dues." Work-life flexibility is a fringe benefit... a privilege available to only a few employees.
Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson write about their frustration with this outmoded notion in their blog:
"even where the “cream of the crop” ideas in terms of flexibility are presented, employers are still talking about flexibility as a privilege."
It's unfortunately true that many organizations still treat work-life flexibility policies as a perk, reserved for a chosen few. This type of company typically view flexibility as an accommodation to employee needs, or a way to keep key high performers. Most employees are expected to "put in their time" -- to be at their desk for 40+ hours per week.
Of course, focusing on face-time instead of results has a bunch of negative consequences. Employees have an incentive to invest time in brown-nosing, because they can tell that their managers play favorites, and don't have a good handle on what employees are actually getting done. They also tend to fill their days with make-work and surreptitious computer game playing, since they need to "fill time" so they can be visible at the beginning and end of the day. Employees are actually discouraged from working efficiently.
Cali and Jodi provide evidence that redesigning the organization to be results-oriented, rather than face-time oriented, boosts productivity. In fact, they coined the acronym ROWE, and took the lead in implementing the results-oriented work environment at Best Buy.
Some well-managed companies, like Cisco, the Chubb Group, Corning and Xerox, have seen the productivity gains that come with redesigning their workplace for increased employee flexibility. Here are a few links that summarize the productivity gains observed:
- CISCO's CSR report section on workplace flexibility
- Chubb Group reports on productivity increases
- work-life redesign at Corning and Xerox (Rappoport study)
The bottom line:
Managers need to dispel the myth that flexibility is a privilege. It's not about perks for employees -- it's about increased productivity for the company.
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