Dec 11, 2006

ROWE: Oh Best Buy, You Better Not Be Teasing Me Now!

Tags: Best Buy, Corporate America, Trends, Peon Employees, Grass Roots, CultureRx, ROWE, Brad Anderson,

Somebody pinch me!  A major company has woken up and started acting human!  What does this MEAN?  Does this mean things are finally starting to change around here? 

The nation's leading electronics retailer has embarked on a radical--if risky--experiment to transform a culture once known for killer hours and herd-riding bosses. The endeavor, called ROWE, for "results-only work environment," seeks to demolish decades-old business dogma that equates physical presence with productivity. The goal at Best Buy is to judge performance on output instead of hours...There are no schedules. No mandatory meetings. No impression-management hustles. Work is no longer a place where you go, but something you do.

RIGHT FREAKIN ON!

Now granted, decisions like this are often financially motivated.  But they can also motivated by a genuine desire to improve the way people work and improve employee morale and loyalty.  In Best Buy's case, I'm pretty sure it's a 60/40 split.  Whatever the case, it only means good things for people like us oppressed JobSchmobbers.  

After reading the awesome story about how this new environment came to be, (you really have to got to read the whole article to appreciate it) my only disappointment is that the whole thing has gotten "corporatized". An acronym, ROWE (Results-Only-Work-Environment), and something called CultureRx was born out of this new attitude.  Leave it to Corporate America to slap a buzzword on an employee-driven grassroots movement.  But hey, I'm not complaining!

Guys, here's the part that I think should shine like a big ass 10,000 watt beacon for us:

[The new policy] wasn't imposed from the top down. It began as a covert guerrilla action that spread virally and eventually became a revolution. So secret was the operation that Chief Executive Brad Anderson only learned the details two years after it began transforming his company...."ROWE was an idea born and nurtured by a handful of passionate employees," he says. "It wasn't created as the result of some edict.

Doesn't this inspire you?  Doesn't this make you feel like we can make a difference if we stick to our guns and spread the word both by example and by word of mouth?  Take those opportunities to take back what's yours and help your coworkers do the same. I'll tell you, it renews my faith and reinforces what I have aways thought.  Us peons have power if we use it.

Visit Link » ( http://biz.yahoo.com/special/allbiz120606_article1.html )