December 1, 2009 4:30 pm to 6:30 pm
The fall line up of the CGO Distinguished Scholar Speaker Series, continues on Tuesday, December 1, 2009 with Leslie Perlow, Konosuke Matsushita Professor of Leadership,Harvard Business School
Topic: Creating Predictable Time Off in a 24/7 World
Speaker: Leslie Perlow, Konosuke Matsushita Professor of Leadership,Harvard Business School
Time: 4:30pm – 5:50pm, Reception to follow 6:00pm – 6:30pm
Place: Simmons School of Management, M-222
*Validated parking is available on site for $9
Creating Predictable Time Off in a 24/7 World
Service professionals work long hours and are expected to make work their top priority at all times. If something comes up, they stay late. When not at work, they check their BlackBerries. Of the 1,000 professionals we surveyed, 92% worked 50 or more hours a week and nearly half that group turned in 65-plus-hour weeks. If you add time spent monitoring work while not actually at work, nearly a quarter of the sample was spending 100-plus hours a week on the job.
More than the long hours, though, it is the unpredictability of the work that takes a toll. Individuals find themselves unable to make personal plans. Yet they put up with the demands, believing that to be successful in a professional service firm, you have to be accessible and willing to jump into action whenever called. 80% considered this responsiveness necessary for the firm’s success and for their own.
But, is being “always on” fundamental to client service work? To explore this question, I chose a “hard” test case—one of the world’s leading consulting firms. Over the past four years, more than 75 teams have participated in a predictable-time-off experiment: Each team member is required to take one scheduled day or night off per week for the duration of the client engagement (usually 3-6 months). During their time off, individuals are expected to totally disconnect, neither working nor checking voicemails or emails.
The results have been powerful. The participants benefit, often more than they expected. Moreover, the team effort to ensure the highest quality work and 24/7 client coverage, even while members have predictable time off, has generated a range of second-order benefits for the work process. These findings have important implications not only for individuals’ lives outside of work but also for firms striving to provide the highest standard of client service.
The 2009/10 Speakers Series is sponsored by
The TJX Companies, Inc.
