Topic: When your boss allows you to leave early

I think if I worked until 10 pm, I wouldn't even come in the next day. If the work is getting done, there's no sense in coming in - especially if you're burned out.

i used to work at a place that had the same deal.in the summer the boss would let us go home early on friday and it was supposed to be a huge treat and we were supposed to tell him how nice he was.

If you are working in a ROWE environment there is no “letting someone go early”. You need to remember that you are flexible enough in a ROWE environment to work from home on a Friday, or Monday, or not at all if you choose. What does leaving work early look like when you don’t even have to be there?

We had a hard time getting ROWE of the ground in our department because managers just didn’t get it. It took a lot of balls to just get up, look around, and walk out of the office around noon for the first time.

I suggest you pick a day when you have a project that is easy to work on from home or a coffee shop. Stay on top of the incoming email that day and make good headway on your project. Through time as the work is continually getting done you will build trust. We are at a point in our department where I couldn’t tell you where people are working from. Emails come in and go out, projects come and go and our cubes remain empty.

Sounds like he is pretty nice to me. He's letting you get out and enjoy the summer weather as opposed to making you stay in your office, which he is paying you to do.

I'm in full support of a ROWE, but lets not get spoiled by the idea. Just because we aren't in ROWEs doesn't mean we are mistreated. It is a privilege, not a right.

"making you stay in your office, which he is paying you to do" - to me, this would seem to be anti-ROWE.

I don't think of it as a privilege or a right, just an enlightened way to run a business versus an unenlightened way.

It is anti-rowe, but regardless it is his money and you are his employee. Are you seriously suggesting that we not be greatful when our bosses let us off early? If it is out of the norm for you to get off early on fridays, then it IS a treat for him to let them off.

Yes, in a ROWE that wouldn't be anything to talk about because no one cares what you do and when you do it, but that isn't a ROWE, and the guy who let them off most likely won't get that time back.

We seem to be on two different wavelengths here. No, I would not be grateful for getting off early on a Friday. I would be grateful for an employer to say here's the work that needs to be done, and then they would leave the employee to do it as they wish. Time does not equal productivity. Plenty of people show up every day to work and do very little.

You should tell your boss that... since your not greatful, it wouldn't matter if he didn't let you go early on Fridays, you'd be just as content as you were without them.

What does this have to do with ROWE?

I'd say this highlights the buy-in issue with ROWE. If you're boss doesn't talk about and embrace ROWE then you need to recognise that he has a an old school system for running his/her department. Just because you put in extra hours doesn't mean you're owed anything if there isn't an up-front agreement about flexible hours. It's possible even that your boss thinks you're crazy for staying late when the deal is that everyone gets to leave at 6!

I'd say thank your boss for letting you out early (since he's evidently still running things by the clock, in which case he is actually doing you a favour) and put your energy into introducing ROWE to your boss and showing them that there's another, better way. Getting mad at your boss for not realising there's a better way to manage his team isn't entirely reasonable. If your boss claims to be running a ROWE department but still 'lets you out early' then there definitely is a problem, but that doesn't sound like the case here.