Sunday 21 January 2007

The seven-day weekend

I just started reading a book called The seven-day weekend (excerpt from chapter 1) by Ricardo Semler. Looking forward to see the thoughts behind the success of his company Semco. So far I've read alot about responsible adults and how people use their time differently when employed by Semco. The have really taken the idea of flexitime to another level. Semler mentions that one of the important goal is to have motivated employees. The example that is often referred to is answering emails on Sunday's and watching a movie on Monday afternoon. Freedom to think and to enjoy life, be it while working or fishing. It reminds me of what I read from Peter Senge when doing my masterthesis. Senge proposed an idea of work being meaningful to yourself and be connected to your own personal goals. Work is integrated, your life and your time not divided into spare time and work time. It also seems that Semler have ideas similar to those from Peter Drucker about workers are able to manage themselves without supervision and control.

I will come back with a full review and more thoughts when I have read the whole book. While waiting you should head over to CIOinsights and read an interesting interview with Semler here.

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