NINETEEN

Space
GIVE IT

Ponder this: Are your employees on a short leash?

—NOTE—

If you’re wondering how to hold on to your younger workers, read this chapter!

Anyone who has raised a teenager (or remembers being one) knows the phrase “Give me some space!” People who feel fenced in, overcontrolled, or frustrated by their lack of power over their own situation usually say it. Dilbert, the cartoon spokesperson for office workers, constantly profiles managers as control freaks who give their employees little or no space, either physically (cubicles) or figuratively (space to control one’s own day-to-day existence).

Think about the last boss you had who dictated your every move, held stringently to the policy manual, or was never open to new ways of doing anything. How long did you stay in that job? (We hope you are not there now!) That boss didn’t understand inner space or outer space. Employees will leave if they don’t have enough of both.

What Are inner and Outer Space?

By inner space, we mean the mental and emotional space your employees want and need to feel like creative, productive members of the team. It includes space to

• be self-directed,

• manage their own time, and

• work and think in new ways.

As a manager, you can give your talented employees the inner space they want and increase the odds that they will stay on your team. (It usually costs you nothing.)

Outer space refers to the physical world and primarily to employees’ work environment. It includes space to

• design their own work area,

• work from different places,

• take a break, and

• dress as they wish.

GO TO
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Question
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Managing your employees’ outer space requests might require some boundary-pushing behaviors for you, especially if your organization has never done it that way. Before we tell you what some other managers are doing to give more space, take this short quiz to determine your own space-giving tendencies. Keep score.

Answer Box

The list of requests you just considered will give you a clue about the kind of space giving we are talking about. The first five have more to do with inner space, and the remaining seven relate to outer space.

1. Count the number of scenarios where you said, “Sure, no problem, as long as you get the job done.”

2. Now count the number where you said, “No way,” “It’s never been done that way,” or “Our policy manual forbids that.”

3. Finally, count the number of times you said, “Let me see what we can do,” “I will need to take this to my boss,” or “Tell me more about what you need, and let’s talk about ways it could work.”

How Did You Score?

“Sure, no problem.”	8 or more	You are space-friendly. Keep doing what works!
“No way.”	3 or more	You are space-unfriendly. Try the “Let’s see” response next time!
“Let’s see what we can do.”	Any number	You are space-aware. Your employees will appreciate your efforts!

In some organizations, every one of these requests would receive a positive response. But the opposite is true in far too many. Would you be surprised to know that those organizations are not on anyone’s preferred employer list and that they are having greater difficulty recruiting and retaining their employees? We believe that no matter how well these organizations pay, they will ultimately lose their talented people, simply because they do not give them space!

So how can you give employees the space they need?

Give Outer Space

Space to Work from Different Places at Different Times

President Barack Obama, speaking at a workplace forum, said, “Work is what you do, not where you are.” How do you feel about that? Does your organization support flexible work arrangements? Do you?

In some parts of the globe, flexibility is becoming the norm. The “right to request flexible working” law in Great Britain was enacted in 2002 and extended in 2012 because of its success. “With 96% of employers providing flexible work arrangements to at least some employees, 7 out of 10 employers report flexible work supports employee retention, motivation and engagement. Almost two-thirds of employers believe flexible work supports their recruitment activities and one-half believe it has a positive impact on reducing absence as well as on boosting productivity.”⁴¹

A Eurofound survey reports that remote working (telecommuting) is an option open to 93 percent of employees in Netherlands, 43 percent in Romania, 51 percent in Sweden, and 24 percent in the UK and Italy.⁴² And the Tele-work Research Network (United States, Canada, UK) found that the number of employees working virtually grew by 61 percent from 2005 to 2009, and it is estimated to grow to 69 percent by 2016. Seventy-nine percent of survey respondents said they prefer to work virtually, and 61 percent would take a pay cut to do so.⁴³

Many managers who’ve tried it say that telecommuters tend to work longer hours because they feel telecommuting is a privilege and they want to make sure they don’t lose it. Productivity and morale go up, while turnover and real estate costs go down.

Job performance of employees working at least partially from home is clearly increased. Employees working in company offices are interrupted from their work on average, every 11 minutes—and then need 8 minutes to regain full concentration.

—Hartmut Schutze, professor, University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Switzerland

But what if your organization does not allow flexible work arrangements?

My company had never allowed telecommuting, and I believed it probably never would. One of my top employees asked me if she could work from home two days a week, and my immediate response was no. A month later she sadly handed in her resignation and said she had found an employer who would allow her to telecommute. I simply could not afford to lose her, so I went to my boss and asked if we might bend the rules on a trial basis, offer her telecommuting two days a week, and see how productive she was. She stayed with us, increased her actual productivity by 10 percent, and is a grateful, loyal employee. Since then we have loosened our policy substantially and consider telecommuting on a case-by-case basis for any employee who requests it.

—Accounting manager, city government in Switzerland

This manager not only bent the rules (probably after reading the Q chapter) but also realized the importance of space.

Telecommuting is not an option for jobs that simply must be performed at the work site. (Consider a nurse on duty, the landscaper at your home, the factory worker on the line.) If the work site is the only place an employee can perform that job, think about other ways that you can give your employees space.

Sometimes the organization has no rule about working from another place, but the manager says no anyway. If you are one of those managers, ask yourself why. Is it a lack of trust in your employees? Is it concern that they will “goof off” or not be productive without your ever-vigilant eye? If so, consider managing based on results. Be clear about your expectations: what do you want them to produce or create? By when? Consider letting your employees get those results from whatever location they wish.

Give Space to Take a Break

A talented young engineer in a large aerospace firm asked his immediate boss for six weeks off work (without pay) to begin building his house. His boss said okay, even though the engineer’s absence would certainly be a hardship. After the six weeks, the engineer asked for an additional four weeks, as he just hadn’t done as much as he had hoped on his house. The boss pondered the request, thought about how valued this employee was, ran the request up to the division engineer, and came back with the okay. The engineer remained a loyal, committed employee for another 24 years. He later became a member of the senior management team and helped lead his company to tremendous success. When asked what he would have done had they turned down his request, he said he would have quit the job and found a new one after completing his project.

Seldom do we find managers who value their employees enough to allow them the space to take a real break from work. Yet in many countries and in certain fields (such as college teaching), sabbaticals are actually encouraged. Employers support valuable employees in their decisions to travel, learn something new, or simply go to the mountains and meditate. The next time your talented employee asks you for a break, get creative (with the employee) about finding a way to make it happen. Your employee will feel supported, and the odds of your retaining that talent will go up.

Me:	Where are you going?
Seatmate:	I’m taking a leave of absence. My wife and I are traveling to New Zealand, Australia, and Indonesia. We’ll be gone for two months.
Me:	Wow. Who do you work for?
Seatmate:	Boeing.
Me:	Hmm. Is Boeing pretty good about that kind of thing? Giving that kind of flexibility?
Seatmate:	It’s all about your individual manager. My manager says, “If you can swing it, you can do it.”

Give Space to Dress How One Wishes

We have all read about the high-tech environment in which people with creative, brilliant minds dress in all kinds of bizarre outfits. Some wonder if it is appropriate or professional or conducive to productivity. The results seem to speak for themselves. Just take a look at successful companies where there are no dress codes in many departments. How productive have they been over the years? Managers in those environments say that their employees often work long hours (sometimes 70-hour weeks) by their own choosing as they strive to complete a project or get a new product out the door. Allowing them to dress as they wish seems a small concession, considering the commitment and high productivity.

I don’t feel I need to dress up to meet an equation.

—Mathematician

Think about where you can offer flexibility in dress. Is it Friday-casual day? Summer attire? Different dress codes for those who never see a customer? Challenge the rules a bit. Are they reasonable? If business wear is truly necessary, then you will want to support the rule—but think about the requirements realistically and with a creative eye. It is truly amazing how favorably many employees view a flexible dress code.

Give Space to Design One’s Space

Should all work areas in your organization look alike? Anyone who has studied personality differences knows that one way we express our uniqueness is in our surroundings. Our homes, our offices, and our cubicles will reflect our style if we have the freedom.

Many organizations today hire interior decorating firms that design beautiful, perfect work areas. In some of those workplaces, the decorating rules are quite explicit, and there is no room for personalization. What about your organization? If the rules allow for some flexibility, then you as a manager have room to allow space for your employees. Let them bring in their favorite pictures and organize their desks the way they wish. Do not demand that everyone have work spaces like yours.

Workers’ cubicles could be their castles—with a little help. One manager gave his employees a small decorating stipend for personalizing their workplaces. They were thrilled and have done some very creative things to make their cubes their castles. With a little bigger budget, workers have opted for changes like these to their workspaces:

• Cubicle walls that hold oxygen-giving plant life, complete with built-in irrigation

• Adjustable desks to accommodate the shorter or taller employee

• Shorter walls and privacy shields to allow for more or less interaction

• Noise canceling speakers to facilitate concentration

• Fold-out chairs to welcome guests to a small space

Giving inner Space

Give Space to Be Self-Directed—to Work and Think in Their Own Unique Ways

Giving inner space requires that managers let go and trust their talented employees to manage and continuously improve their work.

Leaders at a large retail store know a lot about giving employees space and empowering them to make decisions and manage their own work. In fact, managers credit their corporate culture for one of the highest retention rates in the retail industry. The primary rule, stated in the employee handbook, is this: use your good judgment at all times.

Space-friendly managers have

• pushed for nap rooms for employees who need a midmorning or afternoon snooze to reenergize;

• said “sure” to their younger employees who wanted to work while listening to their iPods;

• allowed an employee to work on his laptop on the lawn (where he could think!);

• agreed to a webinar instead of a classroom;

• purchased a standing desk for an employee who asked.

You probably have plenty of leeway as a manager to give inner space to your employees, and the payoff is tremendous. If you cannot offer telecommuting or casual dress codes, you can offer the power to manage the way they do the day-to-day work.

Give Space to Manage One’s Own Time

All the research points to the fact that emerging workers (of any age) want flexibility in work schedules.

So what are organizations doing in response to these wants?

A large medical center found the job market for medical professionals like nurses and pharmacists, was, in part, driving flexible scheduling. Offering schedules to fit various lifestyles and needs made the organization more competitive. For example, one emergency room nurse chose to work a “power weekend,” which has her on duty for 12 hours on Saturday and Sunday, with time off during the week to pick up grandchildren at school and attend their sporting events.

—Director, Human Resources

What if yours isn’t one of these flex-friendly employers? This may be another area where you say, “I have no control. Our organization has strict policies about work hours and how and where they are spent.” If that is true, then you will want to consider other ways of offering space to your employees. However, we encourage you to see where there might be some flexibility to offer your employees space to manage their work time according to their own unique needs.

One supervisor we know allowed workers to arrive 10 minutes before their shifts began and leave 10 minutes earlier or vice versa. He realized that this 10-minute window could substantially reduce driving time during rush hours, making a huge difference in his employees’ stress.

Oh, and consider the “B-Society,” a group in Denmark lobbying for businesses to be flexible and accommodate people who just can’t get going before 10 or 11 in the morning.⁴⁴ Accommodating the B-Society late-sleepers is gaining popularity—worldwide. Can you find a way to harness the energy of your talent when they’re at their best?

What About Fairness?

Our readers have asked us about fairness. “How do I give one employee time off on Friday afternoon and not give it to everyone?” Being fair does not mean treating everyone identically.

Do you have more than one child? If so, do you give them all identical holiday gifts? Probably not.

The answer is mass customization (sounds like an oxymoron, doesn’t it?), and it offers a new kind of institutional fairness. The workforce is more differentiated, and one policy simply does not fit all. (Who said management was easy?) Listen to your talented employees’ requests, and brainstorm with them to create innovative solutions that are fair, both to them and to their talented teammates—the ones you also want to keep!

Of course, there’s a catch. Sure, you can take Friday off to train for the Iron-man Triathlon or to attend your kid’s soccer match. Just make sure you do your job—and figure out how to do it better than anyone else. With freedom and flexibility come responsibility and accountability—lots of it.

—Paula Lawlor, MediHealth Outsourcing

Bottom Line

Allowing job sharing, flextime, telecommuting, or working on the lawn on a laptop are not pampering. They are ways to meet your business goals. That means listening to what people want, going to bat for their needs, and ultimately giving them options and opportunities to do things differently. Truly listen to the unique requests your employees bring you. Ask them to provide ideas for how this change might work—for you, the team, the organization. Make an honest attempt to win flexibility and improved work conditions for your people.

Enjoy space to play, have a good time, take breaks, celebrate successes, creatively attack problems—all of this makes for an engaged, productive workforce. Your reward will be loyalty and commitment from your best people.