TERRI SCHLICHENMEYER The Bookworm Sez Advertisement

The dread starts to kick in sometime in late afternoon; by dinner at the latest.

By the time the kids are in bed and the late news is done, the sadness is full-blown and you feel a depressing sense of let-down. You're frustrated, too, mostly because this happens every weekend and you're powerless to stop it.

Sunday night is way too close to Monday morning.

If you're an employee, you know the feeling. If you're a business owner, you might've been there once. But with the economy as it is today, it's as imperative to keep a job as it is to keep skilled employees. In the new book, "Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It," by Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson, you'll find a business idea that could revolutionize the way we work.

Every day, in millions of businesses, people are goofing off. They have meaningless meetings. They surf the Internet, play computer solitaire, and try to "look busy" because their work is done but office hours are a mandatory eight to five.

Ressler and Thompson have a solution to all this time-wasting. It's called ROWE, which stands for Results-Only Work Environment.

ROWE takes away the focus on a clock and empowers employees to make the best use of their day, both personally and professionally.

In ROWE, the employee decides where and when to work. Nobody cares as long as the work is finished and projects are satisfactorily completed.

Nobody cares because they enjoy the benefits of ROWE, too.

"Each person is free to do whatever they want, whenever they want, as long as the work gets done," the authors say.

Energy at the office is spent on what's important to the company, not on "looking busy" or on empty meetings.

Employees learn to communicate better and become more efficient. Slackers are naturally weeded out and "problem employees" often turn around when given responsibility for their own time.

ROWE eliminates what the authors call Sludge (counterproductively snarky comments). And ROWE is meant for everyone, from the CEO to the mailroom.

Will it work for every business? Admittedly not yet, say the authors.

But soon.

I don't think I've ever been more intrigued by a business idea as I was with what's in "Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It."

Ressler and Thompson, former employees of Best Buy, created the Results-Only Work Environment at the behest of their former employers, and ROWE is still going strong.

Productivity is up at Best Buy, as is employee retention.

What I particularly liked about this book is that the authors address almost every concern I could think of. If you're a business owner, you may still be skeptical but remember that this kind of change will take time and will meet with some resistance and, in certain cases, may be against government regulations.

Still, if you value your employees or your job, "Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It" should be mandatory reading.

Grab it before the Sunday Night Dreads hit your house this weekend.

"Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It" by Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson, Portfolio, $23.95, 208 pages, includes index.