Where I Do Want to Work

Best Buy. Not in their stores, mind you. My knowledge of electronics consists of plugging things in and hoping they work. But, for their corporate offices (in HR, of course). Why? They have a Results Oriented Work Environment.

What this means, in practical terms, is that no one cares when you work or how much you work, only that your work gets done. Doesn't that sound heavenly? Some examples:

In employee relations, Steve Hance had suddenly started going hunting on workdays, a Remington 12-gauge in one hand, a Verizon LG (VZ ) in the other. In the retail training department, e-learning specialist Mark Wells was spending his days bombing around the country following rocker Dave Matthews. Single mother Kelly McDevitt, an online promotions manager, started leaving at 2:30 p.m. to pick up her 11-year-old son Calvin from school. Scott Jauman, a Six Sigma black belt, began spending a third of his time at his Northwoods cabin.

Of course, one of the comments on the article is from an actual employee, he explains:

I work at Best Buy headquarters and I live ROWE everyday. This article makes it sounds like the meeting rooms are empty and the lunch room is echoing at noon. That is not the case at all. From my experience, the vast majority of people still work a fairly regular schedule, but they may come or go during off peak rush hour times, or may spend an extra day at the cabin, etc. In general, people are still around the office, but with the freedom to choose when to leave. I love ROWE, but it really does blur the lines between work time and free time, which is both good and bad. I find it difficult to not check my emails throughout the evening, even after a full day at the office. I know other poeple are working and I could get a response to my email anytime. At the end of the day though, I will never work for another company that does not offer ROWE.

Just give some people the flexibility they want and they'll pretty much work normal hours anyway. This, of course, makes sense. You want to be in the office when your kids are at school and your friends are at work. But, if you want to take piano lessons, you can because you can leave early on Tuesdays.

This would be an ideal work environment for me. Now, I just need to get a job there. And, they'll need to provide full relocation, since I don't live in Minnesota. Plus, I'll probably need a new winter coat. Hmmm, do I really want to do this?