The Autonomy test

"If I take this job, how much autonomy will I have?"

How important is autonomy to you in a job? If you are an entrepreneur, chances are, it's fairly important. If you are considering employment options, then this is about what to look for if autonomy is important to you.  Most people don't like to be micromanaged, but I think it is a bit more nuanced than that.  Over two decades ago, I was having a conversation with my then thesis adviser about why he had decided to work in academia as a research professor rather than take an industry job. His rather lack-luster response was simply, "I didn't want anyone telling me what to do." At the time, I didn't make much of him saying that, but now I realize it must have stuck with me for a reason.  Over the years, I've worked for several managers in different work environments and realized, I too don't care much for people telling me what to do. More broadly, I've found that Daniel Pink's description of autonomy in his book "Drive" resonates with me.  There, he describes four facets of autonomy - autonomy over task, team, time, and technique. By this measure, how much autonomy you have is determined not just by what you can choose to do, but where, how, when, and with whom you do it.

How much autonomy you have is determined not just by what you can choose to do, but how, when, where and with whom you do it.

So, how do you know how important autonomy is to you? Here's a simple test.

Autonomy Test

Respond to the following five questions on using a scale of 1 to 5 where 1 = Strongly disagree, 2 = Disagree, 3 = Neutral, 4 - Agree, and 5 = Strongly agree.

1. Deciding what I do at work daily is very important to me

2. Having the freedom to accomplish the job my way is very important to me

3. Setting my own work schedule/hours is very important to me 

4. Selecting the people I choose to work with is very important to me 

5. Deciding where I work is very important to me
   

Any total score higher than 15 suggests to me that having autonomy is very important to you.  Mind you, you could place high importance on autonomy in one area and not another. For example, selecting the people you choose to work with may not be very important to you, but deciding what you do at work and/or where you do it could be very important. In cases like this, pay special attention to the facet(s) where autonomy is important to you (4 or higher). 

If you have confirmed that autonomy is important to you, before seriously considering accepting a job opportunity, there are several things you will want to inquire about to before accepting. Here's a brief recount of the recent experience I had that inspired me to write this about this.

I took a job a some time ago where the manager asked if I would have a problem being onsite between the hours of 8 and 5. My response was "No." I then asked if it would be a problem if occasionally I had to get in a bit later after dropping off my son at school. He replied, "No, but if you get in at 9, you'll need to be here until 6." In addition to that, he suggested that on days I worked later in the evening due to periodic events required for the job, that I "bank" those hours in a spreadsheet so I could redeem them later if I needed to leave early on a Friday or take a day off. (By the way, this was not a job where anyone needed to bill hours to a client, nor be onsite daily to execute the work.) I should have known that I was going to have to account for every hour, half hour, and quarter of an hour that I worked.

After taking the job, I learned quickly that's exactly how it was. While I did not have to physically punch a clock, I was questioned about my time and expected to be in my office. In fact, it was standard practice to email the team if you were arriving 15 minutes late or leaving even 15 minutes early. This was not even a job where team members were routinely dependent on each other, nor one in which clients could not be easily notified if and when a meeting needed to be rescheduled. For the 6 months I worked there, I found the micromanaging of my time and location excruciatingly stressful and unnecessary.  I've come to realize that that manager just needed to feel in control and that I needed more autonomy over my time and where I conducted my work. 

While it's obvious to me now that all the signs were there that I would be working for a micromanager, here are the questions I could have asked and what I could have looked for that may have helped me make a different decision. 

Question for Time Autonomy

Who and what determines my work hours and when they are scheduled?

If this question is met with surprise, resistance, or anything, but flexibility, either you are working in a job that requires fixed hours for legitimate reasons, or you are looking at work for a micromanaging organization/manager. If it's not clear to you if or why fixed hours are required, probe deeper as to why.  Again, if met with resistance, that's telling. 

Questions for Team Autonomy

How is who I work with determined? Who or what would cause this to change?

Responses to these questions should be pretty straight forward, but they are questions I suspect few job seekers ask. 

Questions for Task Autonomy

How is what I do from day to day determined? What factors influence where I do my job? 

If the responses are anything short of that you decide what is needed to get the job done, then you do not have full task autonomy. Of course, jobs in which you do may be somewhat limited, but there is a spectrum and it's up to you to determine what you are comfortable with. Depending on what you are doing, this next question regarding how you accomplish the work can be more critical.

Question for Technique Autonomy

Who determines the methods I use to execute and accomplish my job?

This is another question where responses live on a spectrum in which some jobs may require the use of specific techniques vs. one that allows you to choose. 

An example of a job that requires a pre-prescribed specific approach or technique would be an assembly line worker. Jobs like these are becoming obsolete with increasing advances in AI and robotics.

On the other end of the spectrum, an example of a job that (in most cases) does not require the use of a single specific pre-prescribed technique to get to the finished product would be that of a dance choreographer.  The choreographer may use one or several techniques, most likely chosen by the choreographer, to get to the finished product.  Like me, your profession most likely falls somewhere in between a job requiring a fixed mechanized like execution versus free-form art. 

To get more accurate answers to these autonomy questions, you may have to go beyond the manager and ask these of others who work in the organization, preferably for that manager. In that case, I recommend changing the pronoun from "I" to "you" with some questions.  For example, the task autonomy question, then reads "How is what you do from day to day determined?"

As a full-time executive coach at a firm, I feel fortunate now to do work that gives me autonomy across all four facets - time, team, task, and technique. I'm in charge of my work schedule except for group events and team workshops. While I did not select my colleagues, I do have input into who I coach. While the primary tasks I execute are coaching and facilitation, I have a great deal of freedom to determine where I work from and how to execute the task to produce the best results for my clients. 

In conclusion, I'm convinced that the level of autonomy you experience in your job will be influenced by three primary factors -

1. Your choice to give yourself autonomy by selecting work and an environment that is flexible

2. The requirements to successfully execute the job

3. Your manager 

In my experience, if you get the first one right, then the last two are taken care of.  So, ask the right probing questions, listen to the answers, ask for what you want, and follow your instincts. 

Oh, and if you want more autonomy in your current job (flexible hours, working from home), you're going to have to take the risk and ask for it, even if it's for a "trial period." If it works, no one can argue with success. 

Happy hunting.