Working for the Weekend

As the Labor Day weekend that is now (sadly) behind us loomed, Joshua Foust, a fellow at the American Security Project, pondered a report in the Los Angeles Times that Defense Secretary Leon Panetta plans to spend many of his weekends at home at his 12-acre walnut farm in Carmel Valley, Calif.

Panetta's decision, Foust said, shows an admirable absence of workaholism:

At the Pentagon in particular, work performance is often judged by time served, not mission accomplished -- that is, if you are at your desk, busily writing or signing things or attending marathon six-hour coordination meetings that don't actually do anything or making powerpoint presentations and drafting snowflake memos... then you are, obviously, a strong worker and good leader.

The thing is, that's just workaholism, and workaholism is actually bad. Despite the requirement of a secure environment to handle any immediate crises, Panetta has a secure Blackberry he can access at his home in California, and considering how much he spent there as CIA director I'm almost certain he has his own Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF) in the basement (and if not, they can take as little as six months to build and certify). In other words, there is no reason why spending the weekend at home has to prevent Panetta from doing his job, or even being available to do his job should the need arise.

A few weeks ago, I asked the question on this blog, "Is the 40-hour work week dead?" The answer seemed to be a resounding yes. But that doesn't mean the weekend has to go, too. And if senior officials feel the need to be on top of every detail of how their organization is operating 24-7, that's a sign of organizational weakness, not strength.

Or, as Foust puts it: "If the demands of the job of Secretary of Defense require Leon Panetta to be up to his eyeballs in the minute details of operations at all hours of the day and night, then his agency is not actually being led; it is being managed, barely."