Finding Balance

Every one of us has learned how to send emails on Sunday night. But how many of us know how to go a movie on Monday afternoon. You’ve unbalanced your life without balancing it with someone else

Ricardo Semler 28 Sep 2007

One of the greatest benefits of a work-from-home ROWE (Results Only Work Environment) is that it allows you to have the tools to balance the other way.  For example, let’s say you want to eat lunch with your kids a few times a month at their school.  If you live 30 minutes from the office this means that one day a week you need to spend either an extra hour in the car or a few hours away from work (working from home for just that morning).  Eventually, this means that everyone would know that “David eats with his daughters at school on Wednesday and isn’t around” which, depending on your company culture, might turn into a Big Deal.

When you work from home chances are good that you live very close to the school and can pop in easily on days where your schedule allows it.  This same logic holds for doctor’s appointments, lunch with friends, and any other child activities.

Outside of a strict ROWE environment, this arrangement also gives you tools that you can use to better manage heavy workloads.  I have worked with startups in the past where I was working the type of hours that made everyone around me worried about me.  But when I do this in a remote situation nobody does because I can work very late at night and on Saturday/Sunday for a half a day each without truly affecting my family and social life.  This is a superpower that can only be given to you through a flexible work environment.