Maynard Webb, CEO of LiveOps (News - Alert), says that while all this happy talk about flexibility is great, and that hey, flexibility itself is great, flexibility "comes with a cost. The cost is accountability, which is necessary to gain the opportunity to work where you want, when you want, and how you want."

Webb is excited by "what accountability yields: a work environment ruled by meritocracy." Would that it were always the case.

You certainly can't argue that Webb doesn't practice what he preaches. "I came out of retirement to work at LiveOps because of the opportunity to support and promote such a culture," he says, adding, perhaps superfluously, that "meritocracy is at the heart of LiveOps' business."

Their technology platform "tracks real-time information about our independent agents' results," he explains: "All of the freelancers who use our platform for work have access to this data. The technology also provides access to information about how each freelancer compares to other independent agents, creating a healthy sense of competition and providing incentive for improvement."

All companies, not just contact centers, Webb is convinced, "can benefit from fostering a more flexible environment -- creating a place where the most talented, industrious, and entrepreneurial people want to work -- and relinquishing hierarchical control to favor a results-oriented meritocracy."

In addition to Best Buy's ROWE initiative, highlighted in the book Work Sucks, Webb mentions "early adopters like Accenture (News - Alert), BT, Gap, Google, and Unilever -- each of which has explored more flexible work practices to allow employees to work anytime, anywhere."

And with a worldwide shortage of qualified workers coming, according to Webb, wouldn't you want to render your workplace more attractive to top talent by letting them be as flexible as possible?

Webb hits the nail on the head: "Today, many people still fear the instability of freelance work. But there's instability with traditional work too. If you consider the current state of the economy, I would question whether any job is truly safe."

Indeed. In reality everybody's a private contractor, and there ain't no such thing as job security. So embrace flexibility because, hey - your employer sure does.