Get Flexible

By Rebeldad Brian Reid

This should be a golden age of flexibility. Not only do most of us have the tools to do our jobs from anywhere, at any point in time, but today's modern "knowledge workers" also have enormously powerful technology that helps us do those jobs far faster than could have been imagined a decade or two ago.

But it's not a golden age, and that appears to fly in the face of basic logic and economics. Post writer Shankar Vedantam had an interesting Labor Day piece that argued that the absolute inability of most companies and bosses to measure productivity is what keeps flexibility from really taking off.

It's hard to figure out when a guy like me is really firing on all cylinders and making things happen. You can't measure the number of widgets I create every day/week/hour. And judging me on the quantity of my work is tough, too. I could write 10 times more words every day, but it wouldn't be much fun to read. So, according to Vedantam, employers are reaching for what they think is a proxy for productivity: hours worked.

This is incredibly unfortunate for everyone. It sets up an inter-office competition to log the most hours. Those who ask for flexibility can't play the game, so they lose. And it does nothing to ensure quality work. Or any work at all. I'd wager that a healthy percentage of you have once spent an entire day in the office without accomplishing anything other than Web surfing. And I'd further bet that no one noticed. After all, you were at your desk all day, typing away.

I don't know of any grand policies that would fix that on a societal level. But on an individual level, there are some ways out of the trap. Any job hunter serious about flexibility should go to their would-be boss and hammer out some solid, measurable metrics of productivity. These might end up being lousy measures, but it's something to start with. At a minimum, document everything you do, and make sure you share all of that information with your boss (and if you're a boss, demand it of your workers).

Is all of that a pain? You bet. But it's worth the price if it leads to greater flexibility.

Or, perhaps, you have even better solutions -- let me hear 'em.

Brian Reid writes about parenting and work-family balance. You can read his blog at rebeldad.com.

By Brian Reid |  September 14, 2006; 7:00 AM ET  | Category:  Flexibility , Tips
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