Monday, April 28, 2008
Most of the time spent at a knowledge worker job is spent on two things -- communication and the creation of work product. Each task you do requires a different level of synchronization and location dependence. For example, a meeting must be synchronous and is location dependent (the participants must be at the same time and location). On the other hand, answering emails can be done asynchronously and from any location.
The problem with most companies is that they enforce 8 hours of synchronous, fixed-location work, while most of the tasks do not require both of those things. This leads to a huge amount of inefficiency, which can be seen by voluminous email forwards and links I get from my friends who are clearly spending large swaths of the day not working.
A better solution to making your employees sit in a fixed location for a fixed period each day would be to identify the activities actually require that, and schedule them appropriately. This would basically be meetings, which could be scheduled for three weekday mornings.
Other events, such as conference calls, can be scheduled, but you would be able to dial in from any location (such as the OTB phone booth). And tasks that don't require presence or scheduling, such as emails, document creation, programming, or filing out TPS reports could be completed by the workers at the time and location of their choosing, while meeting defined deadlines.
Under this system, I believe most people could get their jobs done in 2-3 hours a day, while producing the same amount of output. The firm that implemented this would have happier employees, and thus would either get the best employees or be able to pay them less, either way enjoying an advantage in the market.
The downside, is that this system requires bosses to switch from judging the workers' inputs (how late they stay fixing their fuckups and jerking around), to judging their output, which is way more difficult.
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Table 1: Boss's Opinion of Worker Productivity vs. Separation Distance
10 Ft (you're neighbors) = GOOD
1000 Ft (you're on different floors, still almost never meet in person) = GOOD
10 Miles (you're at home/starbucks/bowling alley) = HORRIBLE
1000 Miles (you're at a branch office) = GOOD
10000 Miles (you're in India) = GOOD
The problem with most companies is that they enforce 8 hours of synchronous, fixed-location work, while most of the tasks do not require both of those things. This leads to a huge amount of inefficiency, which can be seen by voluminous email forwards and links I get from my friends who are clearly spending large swaths of the day not working.
A better solution to making your employees sit in a fixed location for a fixed period each day would be to identify the activities actually require that, and schedule them appropriately. This would basically be meetings, which could be scheduled for three weekday mornings.
Other events, such as conference calls, can be scheduled, but you would be able to dial in from any location (such as the OTB phone booth). And tasks that don't require presence or scheduling, such as emails, document creation, programming, or filing out TPS reports could be completed by the workers at the time and location of their choosing, while meeting defined deadlines.
Under this system, I believe most people could get their jobs done in 2-3 hours a day, while producing the same amount of output. The firm that implemented this would have happier employees, and thus would either get the best employees or be able to pay them less, either way enjoying an advantage in the market.
The downside, is that this system requires bosses to switch from judging the workers' inputs (how late they stay fixing their fuckups and jerking around), to judging their output, which is way more difficult.
-----------------------------
Table 1: Boss's Opinion of Worker Productivity vs. Separation Distance
10 Ft (you're neighbors) = GOOD
1000 Ft (you're on different floors, still almost never meet in person) = GOOD
10 Miles (you're at home/starbucks/bowling alley) = HORRIBLE
1000 Miles (you're at a branch office) = GOOD
10000 Miles (you're in India) = GOOD
