Comments on: 4-Hour Workweek: What a Book About Quitting Your Job Can Teach You About HR

By: Chris Ferdinandi

Chris Ferdinandi — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 02:22:16 +0000

Excellent – very much looking forward to it!

By: Elijah

Elijah — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 02:21:22 +0000

progressing slowly…I will update you when we get to conclusions/actions (just put a reminder in Outlook).

By: Chris Ferdinandi

Chris Ferdinandi — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 02:14:23 +0000

@Elijah – Thanks for sharing your journey! How is your “new work environment” project progressing? Any conclusions or action steps you think others might benefit from hearing?

Thanks again!

Chris

By: Elijah

Elijah — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 02:03:50 +0000

Chris;
excellent blog… I’ve been tasked as part of “future leaders” group w/ proposing and implementing a new work environment to address the next generation (??genY??). By googling, I ended up at Kelly’s tHRyving post “8 Ways Gen Y Can Impact HR,” and followed you from there. In my reading on “genY”, I keep ending up at your conclusion: that the issues are not necessarily a uniquely generational thing. And then I started cruising your blog.. I’ve really appreciate your perspective.

hmmm…have I been multitasking??

By: Chris Ferdinandi

Chris Ferdinandi — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 14:39:41 +0000

@Ron – thanks for the comment, and you do raise some great concerns about ROWE. My understanding is that most people who participate in the program physically come into the office around two days a week. Additionally, with the advent of technology: video conferencing, email, cell phones and such, the teams are usually in constant contact.

I just spent three days working at home because I wasn’t feeling that well. I worked a few hours less, but got a lot more done! And now I’m in the office today to catch up with some people, have meetings, and so on. I see a healthy balance somewhere.

I’ve also seen studies on how a focus on results at the exclusion of methods (what vs. how) can result in unethical behavior, particularly among the executive crowd where the stakes are higher. So as you note, not a perfect fix, but an interesting take on what work actually means and what employees are paid to do.

And I’m 100% with you on productive vs. active. I started putting that into place as soon as I read the book, and I’m getting a lot more meaningful work done!

Thanks again!

Chris

By: Ron Ulrici

Ron Ulrici — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 14:34:24 +0000

Chris,

You certainly provide an indepth analysis! Good stuff.
My concern with ROWE is… I learned through my TQM training and experience that the journey, the process is as important as the results. I think that an important role of management is to provide coaching and you have to be present to do that. Being away from a facility sounds cool and exotic, but I’m not sure how practical it is from a long term perspective.

I like the idea of being productive versus being active. I think that many employees spend a lot of time in activities that are not always helping the bottom-line. They even think that they are being productive, but, many times, they are not.