Take these chains from my heart and set me free -- from that office

photo "chain links" by abery (creative commons via flickr)

Still chained to a desk? To spending hours in traffic to get there? Why?

Maybe if you sing this song you can be set free to sing an unchained melody of more productive, happier work.

Business Week Online asks these important questions about time and place of work, and "face time" obsessions:

"Face Time: The New Assembly Line; In this era of the 'knowledge worker,' why do so many managers still insist on long office hours?"

It's wonderful, slippery stuff, this knowledge work. Its tools are facile minds that think and brainstorm nonstop -- morning, evening, and suppertime, on the job or off. So, why do we so often manage knowledge workers as though they were assembly line folk?

Issue being that we can -- and do -- work 24-7 using our cells, email, internet, remote access, etc. So why do we need to make that drive to the office every day? The article continues:

CHAINED TO A DESK. Why do we insist on what, in the current vernacular, is known as "face time"? I define it as the love some managers have for the sight of workers sitting dutifully at their desks hour after hour.

Face time made perfect sense for factory workers, who literally had to stay on the line to do their jobs. But today, many of the people who are encouraged, prodded, and shamed into staying at the office from sunup to sundown could work -- probably more productively -- from almost anywhere.

More productively, and with more leisure time, since all that commuting can be cut down or eliminated.

The author concludes:

Am I anti-face time, then? No way. I think teamwork is essential, and time together as a group makes for a wonderful way to move ideas forward quickly. I just don't think it's an everyday essential, like Vitamin C or calcium.

Many companies balance face-time requirements and human requirements with something called core hours. They'll say: "We all have obligations outside of work, but we also need to see one another for some period every day. So let's all agree to be in the office from 10 to 3 Monday through Friday, while putting in a full week and getting lots of great stuff done."

Sounds like a good compromise for some workplaces and workers.