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Marriott International for many years had a deeply ingrained culture of face time--if you weren''t working long hours, you weren''t earning your pay. That philosophy didn''t seem totally off base in an industry that provides 24/7 service, 365 days a year. But it had a price: By the mid- 1990s, Marriott was finding it tough to recruit talented people, and some of its best managers were leaving, often because they wanted to spend more time with their families. "Our emphasis on face time had to go," recalls Bill Munck, a Marriott vice president for the New England region. In this article, Munck describes how Marriott transformed its "see and be seen" culture by implementing an initiative dubbed Management Flexibility at several of its hotels. This six-month pilot program was designed to help managers strike a better balance between their work lives and their home lives--all while maintaining Marriott''s high-quality customer service and its bottom-line financial results. Munck explains how he and his leadership team took the first, relatively easy, step of eliminating redundant meetings and inefficient procedures that kept managers at the office late. The tougher task, he says, was overhauling the fundamental way managers thought about work. Under the pilot, Marriott''s message to employees was: Put in long hours when it''s needed, but take off early if the work is done--and don''t be shy about doing so. As a result of the program, managers are working five fewer hours per week with no drop-off in customer service levels; they report less stress and burnout; and they perceive a definite change in the culture, with less attention paid to hours worked and a greater emphasis placed on tasks accomplished.