Is Your Workplace Results Oriented or Time Oriented?

by Celine Roque

June 26, 2008 at 8:50 am · Filed under AppGap Tips, Collaboration

Sometimes it feels like the company owns your time, and that usually means that you work in a time-oriented office. Usually this is the regular 9 to 5 job where you log in and out of the office and your supervisors need to see you actually working. This type of work environment is traditional and comfortable - since this is how we’ve been doing things from the Industrial Revolution onwards. But a new type of workplace is emerging, one that is more results oriented and focuses on what you accomplish rather than how many hours you log in.

Having experienced both approaches to work, I noticed some key differences and made the following list based on my observations:

Time Oriented (TO): You must work hard. Maximum input produces maximum output.

Results Oriented (RO): You must work smart. Maximum output from the minimum input possible is desired.

TO: You are seen as diligent if you are the first one in the office and the last one out of the office.

RO: It’s not about when you arrive and when you leave, it’s about what you accomplish during your stay - no matter how long or short it is.

TO: Let’s have long, regular meetings so we know we’re discussing things in depth.

RO: Let’s have meetings only when necessary, and make them as short as possible.

TO: Use email to communicate as it is short and saves time.

RO: Use the appropriate communication tool for the situation - whether it’s email, instant messaging, a collaboration platform, or a phone call.

TO: It’s about when you work that matters.

RO: It’s about how you work that matters.

TO: You must adapt your working style to the needs of your company or supervisors.

RO: You must find a way to satisfy the needs of your company or supervisors within your own working style.

TO: Show up and offer your time.

RO: Step up and offer your ideas.

Is your workplace time oriented or results oriented? What makes you say so? And have other items to add to this list?

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9 Comments »

A very interesting list. Here in France, I think we are champions about calculating work based on hours. Which is fine for an industrial economy (the relation between time and output is rather linear in such an economy), but much less efficient in a knowledge economy.

Thanks for pointing that out. It is true that an industrial economy or even any job where time is directly proportional to output (like if you’re a laborer manufacturing physical products). I guess what we tend to forget is that it shouldn’t always be like that across all businesses and job descriptions. Because even knowledge workers are required to fill those “presence=performance” standards.

The old-school values of “how much time you put in” doesnt cut it in today’s knowledge worker landscape. The shift you’ve identified from Time orientation to Results is all about execution. And it’s not just about activities and being busy - it’s about getting results that were planned and measure.

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