Junk my Car Blog

"There are two kinds of people in the world: those who make excuses and those who get results. An excuse person will find any excuse for why a job was not done, and a results person will find any reason why it can be done. Be a creator, not a reactor."

The above quote by Alan Cohen, says a lot about the kind of people that the environment we work in at Junk my Car requires.

Prior to joining the Junk my Car team, I worked in your average “Corporate America” style call center for about 4 years. It did not take me so long to realize how rigid this call center environment was, as if a constant game of micro-managing and “babysitting” adults was the real job of managers and supervisors.

After proving to be able to contribute to the company as a whole, I found I was still being scrutinized for signing into my phone 20 seconds late, and threatened with being fired for being out sick because I did not pre-plan my “time off”. As absurd as this seemed, it very quickly became part of my normal life. I soon became accustomed to the constant whirlwind of work-related stresses, referring to them as the “norm” for all call center employees.

At that time, I remember talking to an employee of “Junk my Car” and being completely perplexed that this call center he worked for took into consideration the fact that he had children and a family, and was complete with bonuses, growth opportunities, and a bunch of co-workers who were actually EXCITED to come to work every day!

Still I kept drudging along, until somehow my resume crossed the path of the owner of this company. I came in for an interview, and was surprised that I sat, not with some supervisor who had never even met the CEO of the company,but with the owner himself. There was something different about this place…The break room had video games, popcorn machines, and actually looked inviting. Was this for real?

A year and a half later, I can tell you it IS real. I've been working at Junk my Car since March of 2008, and can tell you, I am STILL excited to come into work every day.

In February of 2009, The CEO rolled out this new and even more exciting reason to come to work – R.O.W.E.—the Results Only Work Environment. What did this mean? This meant that the era for micro-managing and baby sitting was GONE… I would actually be working for a company that treated adults like adults. No more rigid schedules or getting written up for being a minute late. ROWE meant that if I wanted to come in at 8am today, and at 11am tomorrow, I could do that! All that mattered was that my customers were serviced, my tasks were completed, and I did everything in my power to see to it that no one was falling off the “boat”. This was a dream come true.

Right now, the R.O.W.E. principles are starting to be used in companies like GAP, Best Buy, and each day more and more companies are turning to this new-world approach to work.

What I’ve learned since Junk my Car went “ROWE” is that it takes more than one motivated person to make R.O.W.E. possible. It takes a bunch of employees that believe 2 things: First, That they work in what is, hands down, THE best company there is to work in, and second, that what they do matters.

You see, Corporate America teaches people to make excuses—R.O.W.E. teaches people to GET RESULTS. I encourage every person reading this to adopt a R.O.W.E. attitude. Not just for work, but for life. Don’t focus on how you can explain why you didn't measure up, find a way to get where you need to be. If you want something from your life, go for it full force, and MAKE it happen. It’s not those who have good dreams that get us far in life, it’s those who are willing to do what it takes to turn those dreams into reality.

Be a creator, not a reactor.

It’s more than what it takes to be a R.O.W.E. employee, it’s what it takes to grab hold of your own destiny. I don’t know about you, but I want to be a results person!

Labels: Call Center, Corporate America, How to Junk my Car, Results, ROWE

It’s one of my favorite key points in the interview process, and believe it or not it’s one of the most baffling ideas most interviewees encounter.

I understand the confusion, because it was only after working under a Results Only Work Environment (R.O.W.E.) myself that I was able to truly get it:

Allowing employees to work when they are most efficient in turn creates efficiency and happier employees.

It allows people to be treated like individuals instead of being forced into some standardized schedule, regardless of what type of person they may be.

Chaining people to their desk and requiring that they stay from 9-5, regardless of what they accomplish or if the “work” is done, does not necessarily promote productivity, and surely doesn’t guarantee eight hours worth of work. It is also an inflexible way of working, during a time in which flexibility is becoming increasingly important.

R.O.W.E. changes the entire way we handle our work here and the whole thing has the feeling of college. Where you know that you have classes to go to and that to get through you have to make the grade.

If you miss class or an assignment because sometimes life happens, well, you know that to get the grade, you have to get the information and make an impact the next day or maybe even the day prior.

Is it risky?

Sure, R.O.W.E. isn’t for everyone; it’s for adults, for the people with the where-with-all to understand how to schedule their lives to be 100% functional for them.

Most people have a hard time imagining an environment where it is entirely possible to catch an afternoon movie and still get the job done with a high level of customer satisfaction. But I’m here to tell you that it does exist.

It’s about understanding that work isn’t necessarily some place you go, it’s something that you do. And, it’s a concept with broader reaching impact if other companies could use it as well.

Imagine a day when rush hour traffic wouldn’t exist, or where pollution reaches an all time low because more and more people are working remotely.

Sound like a dream job? It is. But don’t take it from me; join us and you’ll have the opportunity to dream BIG too.

Labels: Job, Junk my Car, ROWE

So the first post on this blog was a shameless plug. Can you blame me? I did not think I would be using blogger as our main company blog but let's see how it goes. There's a few choices I need to make regarding the template design and integration with this blog into our site but for now this will do.

Labels: iT, Junk my Car, ROWE