ROWE revisited…

ROWE — results-only (or results-oriented) work environment — is an idea whose time has come, in my opinion. Instead of paying people to look busy while trapped in a cubicle, you pay people for producing the results you want, and you don’t worry about where they do the work or how long it takes them.

I first learned about ROWE from the highly successful experiments that Best Buy, of all places, has been doing. Since then, I’ve been following news about the concept wherever it pops up, because it makes a lot of sense to me, particularly in the information economy. ROWE, if implemented well, offers a tantalizing promise of freedom — from the office, from commutes, from pointless meetings, from having to decide between work and life.

Michele over at The Bamboo Project Blog has also written quite a lot about ROWE and provided some good links on the subject. Her latest article, “ROWE Revisited,” has a good summary of the concept plus some more resources. Check it out.