Freedom is the ability to set your schedule, to decide on the work you do, where and how you do the work, and the ability to make decisions.

Responsibility is being held accountable for your actions.

In a strict rules-based environment, where all behavior is dictated and abnormal behavior punished, there is little need for individual responsibility. The rule-maker assumes the responsibility and the individual suffers the consequences, for better or worse.

In an environment of freedom, workers feel they are free to make choices in the workplace, and be held accountable for them. In these enviroments, workers are happier and more productive than employees who are more restricted.

Expand that coupling to working from home, flex time and larger issues. Freedom can only exist in an environment of individual responsibility. It is in the absence of individual responsibility that freedom becomes limited, by rules, and authoritarian institutions.

Some organizations adopted very innovative policies of remote work, flex time,, sick days and personal time off days, shifting the entire responsibility of attendance to the individual. This works only if the individual assumes that responsibility and behaves accordingly. Problems occur when, given that freedom, individuals do not respond to that responsibility.

With freedom comes responsibility. The two really go hand in hand. And of course, it’s all built on trust. You have to earn the trust of your superiors, you have to prove yourself as a responsible employee and show that you can produce quality work no matter where you sit.

Summing-up: Responsibility and freedom go together. If you don’t want to take responsibility, you can’t have freedom either. The two come together or they go together.