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Engaging tip 5: Stop measuring time, abolish holidays

In my post on Pixar, I said: “If ideas are important, create a mechanism that says they are important.” This is a logical implication:

  • Ideas are important => we have a mechanism that shows this.

In most organisations, though, the mechanics aren’t about great ideas. One mechanism that is prominent nearly everywhere, is the time policy. On your first day, you get lectured what the expected working hours are. You can request holidays with your superior, at least three days in advance. And when you are ill (in other words, you spend time not at work), you should announce it by e-mail to HR. A highly visible mechanism about time has an impact on the organisation, which works in the opposite direction of the Pixar example:

  • We have a mechanism about time => time is important

Not surprisingly, many of the discussions about somebody’s performance are actually about time. You should work more, or you shouldn’t work so much. You should take your holidays before the end of the year, or transfer them to next year, or you should stop taking every Friday afternoon off.

Think about what you want to achieve with your organisation. Where do you want to get? A mission statement usually says: “We want to produce market-leading products and services…” It doesn’t say: “We want employees that start working at precisely 9:00AM and switch off at 5:00PM.”

So why don’t you replace policies about time with policies about market-leading products and services?

There are several examples of companies who have abolished all forms of time measuring, including holidays. As an employee of MassRelevance describes it, employees get “the freedom to reach deadlines and complete projects their own way, and that they have the flexibility to create their own schedule.” The underlying idea is the Pygmalion effect. The more you trust your co-workers, the more they prove that they earned your trust.

Abolishing holidays may seem like a big step. But it’s all about respect and trust. Your co-workers know what’s important and they can organise themselves. There are plenty of stories about the strange sleeping habits of some of the greatest inventors. When somebody’s on to something, you can’t stop him at 5PM. But don’t expect him to show up at 9AM the day after.