ROWE’s Obituary

At least some version of telework is still available for some!

Although I suspect that for the same reason(s) that ROWE experiment failed is PROBABLY the reason that Telework will continue to struggle to gain traction. Although Teleworking can still show some economic benefits for those organizations which provide more than lip service to teleworking.

From Federal Times:

Why you don’t have flex schedules: OPM’s failed 1-year experiment

When Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry launched an unprecedented experiment in flexible work
scheduling two years ago, he had high hopes it might ultimately transform the federal workplace.

“If flexibility can succeed in the federal government,” Berry said, “it can succeed anywhere.”

OPM’s experiment was called the Results-Only Work Environment program, or ROWE, a unique management style first piloted at Best Buy in 2003. The ROWE method gives employees complete control over when and where they work, as long as they get the job done.

But in the end, the inability of managers to hold employees accountable for their performance scuttled the project.

…