When you hire a accountant or a lawyer or someone who charges by the hour, do you really want those hours? Does it make sense that if you ask a question they don’t know, and need to research you should pay more than if you ask one they know off the top of their head? Does it make you wonder if they take longer than they have to? More importantly does it keep you from calling them because you wonder if your call will be worth the $150?

There are other ways to structure your relationship – value based billing, a set fee for retainers etc. But that’s not really why I’m writing this.

I’m writing because of your employees.
Are you buying their time? Do you really want to? Wouldn’t you rather have productivity than hours on the clock? But how do you pay for only that? At the extreme, it’s probably impossible. You can’t make every job a piecework job, nor would you want to. But if you think about your rules and policies, you can come a lot closer to your real goal. Here are some things to think about.

Personal calls and other business.
Are employees “stealing” from you when they make personal calls at work? Only if you’re buying their time. After all you make them don’t you? What if the call to arrange child care, or car repair actually puts their mind at ease and makes them more productive. Maybe they’re doing you a favor.

Sick Days
This includes mental health days. Do you really want someone at work when they’re sick – especially if they’re contagious? Which is better – take a day off, get better quicker or “work through it” at half pace for several days in the office?

Coming in late and leaving early
If their work is done, does it really matter? In some cases, yes. The phones have to be answered and customers served at posted business hours. Some meetings and such have to be done on schedule. But if someone is finished, why should they sit around looking busy till closing time? Back in the 80′s when on-site gyms and company barbecues were all the rage at high tech companies, one employee of such a firm told me how it worked at her place. She said people would spend 80 hours a week or more on the premises. But with the work-outs and socializing and stuff, they never really got any more done than folks who worked a normal work week. More is not always better, less is not always worse.

Won’t people take advantage of you?
If that’s the case, something’s wrong. Either you have the wrong people, or the wrong environment or both.

Takeaways:

• How about treating people like adults?
• Have as few rules as you can and if you think someone’s not being fair, talk to them about it.
• Of course you have to be open to them talking to you about fairness from your end.
• But isn’t fairness a good thing? Otherwise you may be buying time.