Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It: No Schedules, No Meetings, No Joke--the Simple Change That Can Make Your Job Terrific (Hardcover)

by Cali Ressler (Author), Jody Thompson (Author) "I've been late to work for the last three days, and I'm starting to get "the eye" from my boss..." (more)
Key Phrases: why work sucks, traditional work environment, beliefs about work, Results-Only Work Environment, Best Buy, Sludge Anticipation (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
“If you work, you need this book! Cali and Jody share the secrets of the most radical workplace experiment the Fortune 500 have ever seen. Want 35% greater productivity while going to the movies on a Wednesday afternoon or taking Fridays off? Make the switch from hours to outcomes.”
—Timothy Ferriss, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The 4-Hour Workweek

“ROWE is a chance for everyone to learn a better way to work. It encourages people to contribute rather than just show up and grind out their days.”
—Brad Anderson, CEO, Best Buy (from the Foreword)

“Now, this changes everything. Buy this book. Act on what you read.”
—Cindy Froggatt, author of Work Naked

“This is like TiVo for your work.”
—BusinessWeek

“It is a fundamental shift away from ‘face time’ or ‘chair time’ to just one consideration: Did the employee get the job done?”
—Minneapolis Star–Tribune

“The freedom, employees say, is changing their lives. They don’t know if they work fewer hours—they’ve stopped counting—but they are more productive.”
—Time

“A remarkably persuasive and mind-bending book. Family-friendly, too.”
—Joan Blades, cofounder MomsRising.org and Moveon.org

Product Description
Do you hate cramming all of your errands into the weekend?

Do you resent having to beg permission to watch your kid’s weekday soccer game?

Are you tired of seeing people who aren’t very good at their jobs get promoted because they arrive early and stay late?

There’s got to be a better way—and there is! Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson show that everyone benefits when we change the focus from hours to outcomes. It’s just that our traditional definition of work—Monday through Friday, nine to five—doesn’t make sense in the always-on global economy.

So, Ressler and Thompson created the Results-Only Work Environment. In a ROWE, you control when, where, and how long you work. As long as you meet your objectives, the way you spend your time is entirely up to you.

Suddenly, work isn’t a place you go, it’s a thing you do. In a ROWE, there are no mandatory meetings or fixed schedules. You stop doing any activity that wastes time, and no one criticizes you for “leaving early” or “coming in late.” If you do your best work at midnight or on Sundays, go for it!

ROWE sounds like a fantasy, but Ressler and Thompson have already made it a reality at Best Buy, a Fortune 100 company. They have proven that ROWE not only makes employees happier but also delivers better results. And now the authors are helping companies implement ROWE nationwide.

Infused with passion and common sense, Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It will change the way you think about your job, your company, and your quality of life. Read it and join the revolution!

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Portfolio Hardcover (May 29, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1591842034
• ISBN-13: 978-1591842033
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #140,808 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I can not recommend this book highly enough, June 3, 2008

By	Joseph Wehr (Ellington, CT USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I can not recommend this book highly enough.

Cali and Jody have a done a wonderful job of sharing with us what the "work environment" should and can be.

I had the good fortune of starting my own consulting/training at 25. My three partners and I grew the company to 180 employees. Like in Cali and Jody's Results Only Work Environment (ROWE), a key was TRUST. My partners and I trusted each other, we trusted our employees, and our employees trusted us and each other. Everyone worked hard, had fun, and, for the most part, thrived professionally and personally. We were a family.

At the beginning of the book I thought a ROWE sounded wonderful, could work in small entrepreneurial organizations, but I was skeptical a ROWE could develop in larger organizations. As I progressed though the book my skepticism diminished.

Cali and Jody clearly state their case;
* the importance of RESULTS over time worked
* the power of INDIVIDUAL CONTROL
* the impact of negative comments, aka SLUDGE
* the 13 GUIDEPOSTS that make a ROWE
* stories and insights from Best Buy employees working in a ROWE.

You owe it to yourself, your coworkers, company and family to read this book. I suggest you read it with a "why not" attitude. You may want to read it quickly, think about it for a week or two assimilating the benefits of a ROWE and then read it again when the concept seems less radical.

As Jody and Cali point out, a ROWE can't be mandated from the top down, it comes from the bottom up and grows organically throughout an organization. You could be the Jody and Cali in your organization.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Cool Productivity Concept, Quick Read, June 15, 2008

By	EM McDaniel (Long Beach, CA) - See all my reviews

Solid concept, well-written in an entertaining style, but the content is pretty straight-forward and could have easily been 25 pages versus 180 pages. For those from the traditional workplace, you'll find fear and reassurance alternately as you make your way through the stories of the ROWE environment. Ultimately, the book provides emotional reassurance to people ready to take up the mantle of this new style.
The book is simply 'Work wherever, whenever and however you want as long as you produce the desired results. The hardest part being Sludge, the desire to judge co-workers by how long or how much they are in the office working.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ROWE is the ultimate solution to a broken workplace!, June 9, 2008

By	Maryanne Perrin "Balancing Professionals, LLC" (Raleigh, NC) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Best Buy's journey to a Results-Only Work Environment is a provactive real-life story that shatters our assumptions about how work gets done (assumptions that might have made sense for an industrial-age workplace, BUT not today's knowledge-based economy). Ressler and Thompson make the case with humor by showing us how ingrained and outdated some of our work notions are and they provide powerful stories from Best Buy employees about how their lives, both professionally and personally, improved dramatically under ROWE. But that's not where the story ends. Not only did employees' lives improve, but so did Best Buy's bottom line (through increased productivity and retention).

At the end of the day ROWE is not a corporate program or package, but an effort to challenge our notions through "Eradicating Sludge" (as Ressler and Thompson fondly call it). Many companies have taken small-steps to address the challenges of the 21st century workplace (experiments with telecommuting, flexible work hours, etc.). This is the story of a quantum leap to where the workplace needs to be. A place where all businesses will ultimately be when our old notions of work are shattered. Best Buy shows that companies that lead this transition have lots to gain!