Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It: No Schedules, No Meetings, No Joke--the Simple Change That Can Make Your Job Terrific | 
 enlarge | Authors: Cali Ressler, Jody Thompson
Publisher: Portfolio Hardcover
Category: Book
List Price: $23.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  30 reviews
Sales Rank: 14680
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 224
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.6 x 1
ISBN: 1591842034
Dewey Decimal Number: 658.314
EAN: 9781591842033
ASIN: 1591842034
Publication Date: May 29, 2008
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Product Description
Do you hate cramming all of your errands into the weekend?
Do you resent having to beg permission to watch your kids weekday soccer game?
Are you tired of seeing people who arent very good at their jobs get promoted because they arrive early and stay late?
Theres got to be a better wayand there is! Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson show that everyone benefits when we change the focus from hours to outcomes. Its just that our traditional definition of workMonday through Friday, nine to fivedoesnt 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 isnt a place you go, its 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!
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| Customer Reviews: Read 25 more reviews...
 A little too much 'why work sucks' and not enough 'how to fix it' January 6, 2009
Good stuff, I work in a pretty progressive environment already, so this was interesting for me.
I think Cali and Jodi spend far too much talking about what's broken, and gloss over the issues on how to resolve it.
A revolution within the form December 21, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
For advocates of such a profoundly significant -- and potentially liberating -- change in the way we do business, authors Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson have produced a book that I found, frankly, not nearly as exciting as the idea itself. Certainly given that blurbs from Tim Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich (an author, and a book, I much admire) are prominently displayed on front and back dust-jacket covers, I had hoped "Why Work Sucks..." would display some of the energizing, inspiring prose style that makes Ferriss' book so memorable. Sadly, it doesn't.
But then, maybe it shouldn't. After all, "The 4-Hour Workweek" is trying to persuade individuals to break out on their own, transforming their approach to "work" -- and therefore to life. "Why Work Sucks..." on the other hand advocates what Garet Garrett, in a very different context, called "a revolution within the form": continuing to work for someone else, but utterly transforming how that company relates to employees. Given that bosses will be freaked-out enough by the thought of a "Results-Only Work Environment" as it is, these authors' restrained, even somewhat jargony, approach to advocating revolution perhaps makes more sense.
There's at least one other area in which "Why Work Sucks..." brought Tim Ferriss' book to mind for me: the way in which it skips over, or shortchanges discussion of, one of the central points of implementation. In Ferriss' case, it's the question of how exactly you set up and get running the largely self-sustaining business that funds your life among the new rich. In Ressler and Thompson's case, it's the question of how someone who reads this book can begin making the transition to a ROWE in their own workplace. Certainly, I can think of about a dozen senior leaders at my company or various friends' to whom I'd like to send this book as a Christmas present. But were I to hand one of them their copy and say "Here, let's try this!" I don't imagine all the pages spent addressing "Yeah but..." objections would begin to get them to give this idea serious thought. Then what?
Still, a ROWE is an excellent approach to work arrangements and relationships, one I dearly wish I worked in, and certainly the best approach I've seen recently (why have I been reading so much about fixing what's wrong at work? Hmm.) for people who don't want to bail on the traditional workplace but instead stick around and make it function as it should. The book was a little dissatisfying for me, but the fundamental idea certainly strikes me as very sound indeed.
 It isn't that hard to get! Really, it isn't! November 19, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
It is telling that the reviews seem to be of two camps. One side enthusiastically embraces the concept, the other is mired in doubts and resistance. This is essentially the reaction predicted in the book by the authors themselves!
To address two complaints:
First, the book has little in the way of practical details. Of course it has little detail. The book is there to give you an idea and for YOU to implement it. My organization functions in almost no way like Best Buy, yet I was able to come up with how this could apply to my company. People have been questioning "Oh, how in the world will we be able to tell that our employees are getting it done?". Clearly you have no idea at this point, so I don't foresee this changing in a ROWE, either. That is a problem for you, the skilled manager, to figure out! This isn't a book about management skills or productivity measurement. If you're already charged with the oversight of employees, you should ALREADY know how to do this. Frankly, it frightens me that there are so many reviewers who don't know how they would measure the results of their employees' work!
Second, the complaints are about the length of the book and the manner in which it is written. So strong is the backlash that someone even registered a domain name in order to complain! Here's the story: the book isn't for upper-management types because ROWE isn't strictly for upper-management types. You've already gone through years of thoughtlessly churning through employees with your mindset. The change has to come from the employees demanding the change. That's why it was written for that level. It's a bit cheerleader-ish, sure, but excitement generated among large groups of employees will get this done, not convincing a couple of ossified managers. And, the length is a bit much. It would be a "better" read at 25 pages. But, in the book's defense, when is the last time someone handed you a pamphlet that you took seriously? Besides, even after 200 pages it is clear that some readers still don't get it.
In closing, I want to note one thing. As a young manager and employee myself (under 30) I think we had all better get used to this idea. This, or something very similar, is coming along the pike very soon to your company. People my age and younger simply will not tolerate the old way of doing things. You will find yourself unable to locate good workers who are willing to sit in a cubicle for their designated period of time anyway. They'll simply cease to exist. Good young workers know their value and won't compromise until they are happy. Even if you do find a group of good little worker bees to sit in their box during their required times, it will be because they are the ones who aren't good enough to demand more out of their work environment and life. If you think managing results in a ROWE is difficult, try doing it instead with low-skilled and unhappy drones because all of your good employees left for firms that treat them like respected adults and colleagues.
Absolutely true, but not much new in it November 13, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Yes it is absolutely true, we should look at the results not at the hours worked. In fact I never understood the concept of hourly wages in my profession (computer science). The guys who are lame have to put in more hours and even get rewarded ... Everywhere else we get rewarded if we get things done faster (i.e. runner: who gets the medal ?). So my take on this is: give those a reward coming in at 10 and leaving at 4 :)
Anyway I would love to see ROWE more often applied.
For Upper Management Only! November 6, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
I was irresistibly drawn to this book due to its cheeky title; I am embroiled in a workplace situation that sucks, and hoped that this book would have some humorous tips to cope as an employee. This isn't that kind of book. Targeted mostly to CEOs and upper-management types, it presents the concept of the "Results Only Work Enviroment" (ROWE) implemented by the authors at the Best Buy corporate offices. The ROWE model, where the emphasis is placed on flexible productivity rather than the regimented time-clock watching norm gives many reasons now to be envious of Best Buy corporate employees (though presumably their less-fortunate counterparts in the retail sector are still forced to adhere to classic time/management protocols), but as a low-level employee in a more traditional sucky corporate structure there is nothing immediately actionable here to make my job suck less, short of convincing my director and board to adopt the ROWE model. (Ain't gonna happen, in my lifetime or ever!) In order to implement ROWE at your workplace, you'd have to be either the owner or part of the senior management team. This could be useful for business students or those high enough in the power structure to implement ROWE at their companies. For the rest of us, it's a whole lot of wishful thinking, and the title is more than a tiny bit misleading. Refer it to your boss (or his boss) but don't expect to get anything out of this yourself . . .unless, of course, you own the company.
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