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In the morning, in my hotel room in Geneva, I started to get into the flow of work.

You know how that happens when sometimes it's hard to find your way to get stuff done, and then suddenly, you feel like you're pedalling downhill, and you keep going faster and faster.

I thought that I'd go for a walk this morning to see the old town in Geneva, which would be wonderful, or go to the park that Vincent and Irena had recommended, but all of a sudden, I was in it getting a sh*t tonne of stuff done that I've been trying to do for ages.

So, with the door open to the balcony in the hotel room, I just stayed there and ran late to get to the hospital because it was going so well.

I decided to have a quick huddle on Slack with Marie in the middle of that. If you're not familiar with Slack, you just click a button, and it opens a double video call with you and whoever it is. If they're around (and you can see by Slack that they're working), you can have a chat, share stuff, share screens, look at things, and direct each other as you go along.

And so, I clicked the button to see if Marie was on, but what if she wasn't?

What if she just logged in but decided to go and put her washing on or had a phone with her in case she got a ping from me? Therefore, she could just jump back in front of the screen and make it look like she was working.

Would that be stealing?

What if she was sitting in her back garden with her phone because she wasn't feeling the love for getting the work done then but would come back to get it done later (a little bit like I was doing)? What if she just needed a break and had gone for a quick walk and then clicked Slack on her phone so she could speak to me?

Would that be stealing, too?

I don't believe that Marie was doing any of this stuff, but we've worked together for long enough and know each other well that we know sometimes we're on it and sometimes we're not, and sometimes we can get it done, and sometimes we can't, and that's the same as everybody else.

So, you can sit in front of your screen for eight hours, log in and log out like some sort of lab rat, if you want, but the trick is the results-only work environment.

I got a load of sh*t done, and then I sent it to Marie electronically.

I've got no idea what time she'll do that today.

I have no idea whether she'll have a two-hour break in the middle so she can go for a walk to clear her head, do some ironing, sort out her kids' washing, or generally do the stuff that she needs to do to be a brilliant mum.

I have no idea.

It doesn't matter because that work will get done and it will be really high quality and we've been working together like that for years.

If you don't trust the people you work with enough to open up to the results-only work environment, then change the people you work with, or just go and work for yourself.

Blog Post Number - 3784