Maybe the next step after that would be to keep the results-only part but ditch the top-down corporate oversight, letting everyone work on whatever they wanted and keep nearly all the upside. Oh, wait...
This sort of thing should be an "industry standard" among programmers. We'd all be happier if we had the freedom to dice up our work and play time (and locations) anyway we wanted.
It looks like some people at Best Buy have been reading (or should be reading) Paul Graham's "What Business can learn from Open-Source" essay. It definitely makes the list of my favorite readings.
This is almost exactly what happened in a Brazilian company called Semco. Ricardo Semler discusses it in his book "Maverick!" about how they developed a completely new corporate culture. Great book and I highly recommend it.
"... At most companies, going AWOL during daylight hours would be grounds for a pink slip. Not at Best Buy. The nation's leading electronics retailer has embarked on a radical--if risky--experiment to transform a culture once known for killer hours and herd-riding bosses. The endeavor, called ROWE, for "results-only work environment," seeks to demolish decades-old business dogma that equates physical presence with productivity. The goal at Best Buy is to judge performance on output instead of hours ..."
When I read that I think someone is working out the cost per person per square meter and saying to themselves we pay for that floorspace and nobody is using at night or it can be done cheaper. Lets get rid of all but the core and let them work elsewhere.
There's a balancing act here -- trying to maximize your output today can cost you in your output tomorrow. Everyone knows you can overdo things physically; you can also burn out mentally.
If I stay up until 6 am chasing this one bug, either tomorrow I will be too tired to concentrate or I'll sleep in and mess up the rest of my schedule... been there a lot.
"Achen says he would never go back. Orders processed by people who are not working in the office are up 13% to 18% over those who are. ROWE'ers are posting higher metrics for quality, too. Achen says he believes that's due to the new office paradox: Given the constant distractions, it sometimes feels impossible to get any work done at work."
