The death throes of an obsolete company?

I think CEO Barbie @!$%#ed up.

"And a good way to reduce staff and save money without actually do layoffs"

I've seen people say this a number of times and I don't really understand what's so bad about layoffs. Do they want to avoid layoffs because they would have to give severance packages?

If they are just trying to avoid loss of morale I think this change is just as damaging.

I did the telework thing because of limited mobility after a major surgery. It was so burdensome I went back to the office because it was easier and I was able to be more productive.

so coop - in your esteemed "intelligence" you seem to feel that there is no work done while telecommuting? As far as "butts" goes - get your HEAD outa YOURS.

I have friends who currently or did telecommute and most hated it. The found out it was not the easy way to do work. One, for example, ended up having to work 24/7. It was figured that since he never had to leave his home he was able to work, work, work. Projects were thrown at him and he was expected to complete them in an unreasonably short amount of time. He would be called at two in the morning and told to take care of some problem. He could never take a day off, even on weekends, and was expected to work no matter what - he did it when deathly ill (no sick days) and missed the funeral of his grandfather (no family leave). He ended up constantly getting sick and being exhausted from sleep deprivation. Finally, when he was able to return to the office, he did so and went back to 40-hours-a-week, weekends off, vacation, personal, family and sick days.

No surprise. Its not like yahoo is a modern company or anything. Now they're going to need more hitching posts out front for all the workers who ride their horses to work. ;)

It very much depends on the situation. I was mostly (about 90%) telecommuting for 3.5 years. It worked great! I was always available by phone, I was about 3 times as productive as I would have been in the office with constant interruptions (previous time in the job proved that, BTW) and I could schedule my work time at my most productive times of day. It also benefited my private life, as I could run laundry while I worked, could take my lunch hour at 2PM and go grocery shopping when no one else was in the store, etc. The job got more out of the time I put in and I had more time in my personal life, not to mention the savings in commuting cost.

However, it is also true that I could not have worked on a close-knit project team making decisions on a daily basis in this situation. I have to be honest enough to admit it was because I was in a situation where I got input to the software I was developing in a meeting with users every few weeks that allowed this to work. I does very much depend on the situation. I don't think IMs or chats are a substitute for close communication in a team where that is required. It also takes someone mature enough to actually put in the work hours when working at home rather than slacking off. I also expect it helped that no one else was home during the day to interrupt me.

I am 27, and work in an office but have worked remotely. To me, it would be awesome to have the flexibility, but I wouldn't want to 100% anyways. You lose that social aspect of a job, and dealing with problems on the spot and having easy access to the person you need. Plus, way more distractions at home.

People are so less stressed, when tele commuting, they do not have to deal with the stress of actually driving to work, especially, in one of our major metropolitan areas. The time saved from driving enables more time for actual living of life. The biggest thing to me and I feel is one of the reasons that telecommuters have longer job retention is that you are not in an office enduring others personal idiosyncrasies, or having others exposed to yours! There is also the usual office politics, gossip etc., that is avoided. You are hired to do the job, if the job is getting done, what difference does it make where it is done at?!

Jerry, I telecommute, and I have core work hours. If we need to get something completed on schedule, I work a few extra hours, but it is documented on my time sheet which shows how many hours I worked on each of the projects I'm assigned. I log off my work laptop at 4:30pm. I also turn off my work cellphone. I did my 8 hours, so there is no reason to leave them on. There is no way for anyone to contact me to do any extra work.

We use collaboration software and conference calls to work together on projects. I have lots of weekly conf calls. We do all our brainstorming then.

We also have messaging software to talk to each other, which is the same as walking over to someones cubicle. Along with email, we can convey ideas and learn from each other.

My job involves setting up large systems for clients on large platforms. These servers are spread all over the world. If I was sitting in a cubicle, I would be connecting to them remotely. I can do the exact same thing from my home. The company hires people who want to work this way. They save on having to provide office space, which would be quite extensive since everyone lives all over the country, and some overseas.

I telecommuted two days a week for a couple of years and loved it! I got three times as much work accomplished and I actually worked more hours. Meetings and face time were more productive on the days I was actually in the office. You have to stick to a work routine and have a dedicated office space at home to make it work best. I loved sitting at my computer in my jammies.

Reality is most people are not as productive when they work from home 5 days a week. They are doing laundry, taking care of the dog, etc...

Heya......Isolde Raftery (author of this article):

ANY CEO can dictate company policy.

So, just what is your problem with that ???

I work for myself (home-based), but the last time I worked for a company I worked flex hours. which brought me to the office on Saturdays when everybody else was off. Working alone I got more work done in four hours than anybody else got done in forty. Unless you're hiring slacker kids, most adults work better and more productively without the distractions of others around. Out of a 8 hour work day I'd be surprised if the average office worker produces 4 hours work. When I sit down at my desk at home every minute is spent working. Add to that the company not having to rent office space and support staff (cleaners, etc.) and it's a windfall for employers. This woman will surely regret this move, and so will Yahoo.

Most companies that would agree to let any worker work from home, should agree if they will accept 1/2 of their salary in return. That, in most cases, is the amount of work that will be performed at home vs the office.

BS. I work from home 100% and I end up working 10-12 hour days because the work/life boundaries are so blurred. In addition, I don't spend 3-4 hours on the road physically commuting. So should my employer be paying me time and a half instead?

It depends on the person, my ex "worked" from home. More like woke up at 10am, took a shower, worked from 11am - 12:30, lunch from 12:30 - 2pm, work from 2pm-3pm, take a nap, pretend to be working in his office ie napping until dinner was done at 6pm. Laziness at its finest.

I worked at home for over 5 years and loved everything about it. My stress level was significantly reduced with not having to drive over an hour each way on one of the most heavily traveled interstate in the country. You must have a dedicated room and family/friends have to understand that though you're home, you're WORKING. Most of my coworkers also worked remotely but we actually got to know each other much better because of the telecommuting because we HAD to be productive or we'd have had to go back to our offices. Telecommuting saved our company (gov't contractor) big bucks due to the need for less office space (saving your tax dollars, people). We had regularly scheduled project and team meetings... and were able to brainstorm and make assignments for workloads with no problems. When our team did get together face to face we were thrilled to get together to catch up and our working relationships were greatly improved... the sabotage and backstabbing became very minimal. Our (awesome) boss always had the policy that family comes first, so if something came up we would just contact him or our team lead to let them know what the situation was that needed dealt with and if we were going to flex our time or use PTO. In addition, I was able to negotiate a flex schedule of 10 hour days, 4 days a week... how awesome is that? It was wonderful to not have to listen to someone chewing, slurping, crunching, or having an extended personal conversation in the next cubicle, making you nuts when you were trying to concentrate on developing or refining work assignments. Why create more pollution, waste valuable resources, have employees stressed and exhausted from additional commuting hours?

This CEO is clueless and doesn't value her people at all... she just wants her workforce to think of her as being a harda$$... that will NOT get her or her company any loyalty. The second former telecommuters get an offer from another company they'll be running as fast as they can for opportunity to enjoy a much improved quality of life.

You know, what does she have to do spell it out for you? China is hacking our computers like no one can stop them and you people think you should be able to access classified information from your home. What happens at your place of business should stay at your place of business! Get real people!

no one is safe from hackers .. to work at home may be fine for the worker but the company could suffer if the worker can not keep company secrets from hackers .. it is much easier to hack a pc than a company computer with multiple layers of protection .. I believe that with the explosion of technology there is no home computer safer than the one at work

Whether she's in the right or not, she has the power in this economy. For everybody that quits because they cannot telecommute, there will be 50 to 100 people more than willing to take up cubicle space.

Some people work better alone and allowed to direct themselves, some work better when they can interact with others and some need constant supervision. People are different. Personally, I would like to telecommute on Mondays and Fridays and be at work Tuesday through Thursday. Get some office interaction but save some gas and environment in the process.

Nice way to rightsize.

Let's order the drones back to base.

Did you notify them or just us? Do you really think they will notice your absence?

LOL......

The "Lone" Ranger strikes.

Yep, your ONE dissension is really going to work.

BTW: A CEO can dictate company policy. So, what is the issue ?

Do you think they care if one person notified them? Posting through social media and trying to set an example is probably more effective but in this case next to useless.

Your absolutely right it shows us how ignorant some people can be when it comes to security and access to someone else's property. You do not own Yahoo and you sure as H#ll don't run it. You are going to find more companies that deal in cyber products taking the same steps to keep information out of China's hands. Pay attention to the news before you make an @ss of yourself.

Yahoo's CEO does not seem to understand technology. It is not PC's that are being hacked, it is servers which run 24/7. Creativity comes from the individual. Being in a group does not make one more or less creative. It is there or it is not.

I telecommute 100%. No office politics for me. I stay connected 8 hours a day and do my assigned work. I am trying to get the company to use its very expensive video conferencing equipment for meetings. That is the future.

That being said, the CEO makes the rules.

The new page really suck. Just waiting for Hotmail to become Outlook and MSN will now be my new homepage.

Hotmail has already become Outlook, you just have to make the switch. I did it accidently when I logged into my workplace's remote outlook node from home, then suddenly my hotmail became Outlook as well.

thats what the uninformed said about steve jobs .. now at apple all work is done in office

I have never used a portal as my home page and never will. Find yourself a decent utility that aggregates the information you need and stop being a slave to the tech companies. Yahoo, for most intents and purposes in my life, is utterly useless. I can get my sports and news firsthand from a sports or website, get my financials direct from my broker, and my emails from my ISP, all without having to look at the ads and spam that Yahoo (or the other portals) want to shove down my throat.

Not really. Creative people will work where they can be creative. If someone thinks they can have a more fulfilling work life somewhere else, they will leave. Unfortunately we have a couple of generations who think they should be able to dictate the terms of their employment and the employer should just cave in.

Unless the job requires doing something physical like baking bread, assembling widgets, repairing vehicles, building houses, painting cars, performing surgery, doing dentistry, styling hair, representing clients in court, driving a bus, flying an airplane, engineering a train, operating some type of manufacturing machine, and so forth, then for the most part driving to a building which is used only as a place for people to sit and work on a computer or to have mindlessly boring staff meetings is not just ignorant but also vastly stupid for the following reasons:

(a) it wastes time on often excessive personal hygiene, hair styling, general grooming, and dressing, which includes either uniforms or a wardrobe specifically of work clothes . . .

(b) it wastes time and energy commuting, which includes vehicle acquisition and maintenance, fuel, vehicle insurance, providing parking spaces, car washing, and so forth . . .

(c) it wastes time, money, and space providing an elaborate maze of cubicles, including building costs, maintenance, and so forth . . .

(c) it generally promotes a Draconian management style where small-minded bean counters judge productivity by time cards, looking busy, and probability of never rocking the boat by having actual ideas . . .

(d) it promotes treating adults as if they were fifth graders . . .

(e) more than anything it perpetuates and sustains the arbitrary class distinctions of aristocracy, bourgeoisie, and proletariat, where no matter what the form of government and economic model nearly nobody in the proletariat ever has the opportunity to be anything else . . .

At the dawn of the early-21st century, it treats everyone whose work is done primarily on a computer as if it were the dawn of the 20th century and they were operating a machine in a textile factory essentially as human automatons . . .

It also makes it easier for the "suits" to get a glimpse of what you do, which is all they need to move forward with their plan to replace you with a foreign worker who is glad to come to America and work for peanuts in hopes of someday getting permanent visa . . .

And when it travels hand-in-hand with a threat--work at the office or quit--the message is as clear as it is Draconian, really . . .

Really! :-o

I would love to work at home...eh, well I would outsource the work to China or India and pay them 100 dollars per month and keep the rest!!!

You make an excellent point. My former employer made a huge stink over all the telecommuting, which had been a formal policy of the company they bought out. They said you can't supervise people who are working from home, collaboration is impossible, and team work non-existant. Yet, our director lived in another state, fully half the work was sent overseas, and much of our work was done after hours by groups of folks located all over the globe, coordinated by a conference call. When asked to reconcile the logic behind making people come into an office under those circumstances, mgt stated that as many people as possible must be in the office, working together, and that the team in India all came to work in their office. So of course, when they gave us telecommuters new offices, you think they were even all on the same floor?

its all about control

My butt IS sitting at my desk. I work from home everyday. I meet or exceed all my deadlines. I'm available to our clients almost 24/7 (a double-edged sword). In the time it would take me to commute to work, I could have gotten in a lot of work. Telecommuting isn't for everyone. It takes self-discipline and dedication, but for those who don't need Simon Legree looking over their shoulders, it's a great work environment. Buh-bye office politics!

Haha....nice Deb. You are sooo productive on the message boards while at "work".

Actually, Steve, I am. Even telecommuters are entitled to breaks. What the heck are you doing on the message boards?

I am working right now, remoted in... I work in IT and I can do my job from anywhere. There are positives to being in the office and working from home. I do find that when I am at home, I am more focused, less distractions. Also, where I work we can have radios, iPods playing music, etc...so at home or at work, I can still listen to Mike and Mike, etc and do my job. I am at work at this very minute, and like Deb P. I am on a "break" so I can do what I want. Oh yea, did I mention that many of the people that work "remote" are also on call 24/7, I am. Just an IM, Facetime or cell phone call away from work, regardless of day of the week or time of day.

Some people can work remote, others can't. Responsible, creative managers learn to recognize these aspects in thier employees and how to utilize these talents to get the most out of thier employees. Break is over, back to work.

Some people can work remote, others can't.

But those that can't still think they should be able to, and thus screw it up for everyone.

The funny thing is...when you look at Deb's posts on the vine, she is pretty active throughout weekdays, but does not have any posts on the weekends. Seems to me like you take an awful lot of "breaks" to make sure you get caught up on all the articles you did not take time to comment on over the weekend while on your time.

Me? I am at work posting this, but I never claimed to be productive.

An interesting twist on Enron's 5% system.

If your telecommuters are 50% less productive and virtually 100% in missing deadlines, that's a reflection on YOUR management skills. Fire a few of them for not being productive and you'll quickly see things improve. That's the tacit agreement you make with employees when they work from home - Produce or get fired.

Well said JJ.

JJ, if you are their manager perhaps you could actually MANAGE them!!!! If they are less productive and miss 100% of their deadlines then it sounds like you are doing a pretty poor job of managing your employees.

I have had employees that do not work well at home, and no one should work 100% from home. However, allowing it as an option is a great way to get and keep really talented people and not have to pay top wages.

When the last company I was at was sold all of my employees that left to find new jobs (they did not want to wait around and see if they would be "given" jobs in the new company) left and made at least 20% more! I knew they were underpaid for the area we are in, but the work environment, and flexibility made them stay.

Try actually managing people, setting expectations, and not being such a total dip wad and I'll bet your employees are more productive. "Work" is a four letter word..... wow, are you a real winner!

Sounds like someone can't manage their own monkeys. Maybe a return to night school, for modern management skills? Peter Principal in action...

I'm dying to work at home. Our company is consolidating 3 locations into one, doubling my commute. As a graphic artist, my concentration wouldn't be broken by constant interruptions and errors would be drastically cut down. My only diversion would be to let the dogs out. American companies could save huge dollars by eliminating leases on brick and mortar buildings and concentrate on keeping the level of their technology up to date. I've been in this business for 23 years and I don't need some manager breathing down my neck to get work out.I'm a production machine when I work at home. Every business situation is different. JJ's statement doesn't apply to me. Oops! gotta get back to work!

suggestion, JJ: Have your employees put their phones on mute. You ARE the manager, after all.

Sounds like somebody should have hired adults. We have people across 6 offices in 3 countries and if you dont look them up in the address book, you cant tell who's where.

Everyone is more visible when working remotely. Everyone is assigned projects, and if they don't get completed, then that person is a slacker. We have several collaboration conference calls each week to get status, so if you are having difficulties, there is someone to help you get up to speed. The only way you blow deadlines, is if the PM isn't doing their job. I have weekly milestones to meet. And since I have new ones the next week, I can't afford to miss this weeks. The PM will know if you are one week behind, so there is no way possible that the project will be delayed. Someone will help that person learn what he needs to know. If they aren't capable of that, then they will be replaced.

JJ - sounds like you need to take a good look at your team (and yourself). I have been working from home for 3 years and I never, ever miss a deadline, a conference call or anything that may impact a project or my greater team. Yes, it requires discipline and motivation. Personally, I get all the motivation I need from having a family to feed. I am not sure what would happen if I missed deadlines or became less productive and I am not about to go find out.

JJ - since you're in management I bet you would like all of those employees working from home to go back in the office under your control so when your review comes up you can ask for that big raise because of all of those employees you have to manage.... lol

don'tlikehypocrites, you've got it 100% backwards. Managing remote employees requires 40% more effort per employee than a local one. Dealing with a problem remote employee moves that number up to 100%. I've managed both. Superstars are easy no matter where they are, average players are a bit more difficult remotely, and problem children become an even larger time drain when they are remote--particularly when you work for a company that doesn't want to fire someone for fear of reprisal lawsuits.

Bottom line--it isn't all about the manager, it is about the corporate culture, but anyone who thinks someone is a bad manager because they have bad remote workers just plain doesn't get it.

Can you say CONTROL FREAK?

"Theory X" has been shown to be the failure that it is a long long time ago. it works for the MILITARY - business doesn't necessarily NEED the regimentation. Some rather stupid "non-manager managers" have chimed in supporting the change in policy, but for straight "techie" jobs, the necessity to physically BE IN AN OFFICE went out with BUGGY WHIPS

For reference, this is what wikipedia says about Theory X, really . . .

In this theory, which has been proven counter effective in most modern practice, management assumes employees are inherently lazy and will avoid work if they can and that they inherently dislike work. As a result of this, management believes that workers need to be closely supervised and comprehensive systems of controls developed. A hierarchical structure is needed with narrow span of control at each and every level. According to this theory, employees will show little ambition without an enticing incentive program and will avoid responsibility whenever they can. According to Michael J. Papa, if the organizational goals are to be met, theory X managers rely heavily on threat and coercion to gain their employees' compliance. Beliefs of this theory lead to mistrust, highly restrictive supervision, and a punitive atmosphere. The Theory X manager tends to believe that everything must end in blaming someone. He or she thinks all prospective employees are only out for themselves. Usually these managers feel the sole purpose of the employee's interest in the job is money. They will blame the person first in most situations, without questioning whether it may be the system, policy, or lack of training that deserves the blame. A Theory X manager believes that his or her employees do not really want to work, that they would rather avoid responsibility and that it is the manager's job to structure the work and energize the employee. One major flaw of this management style is it is much more likely to cause diseconomies of scale in large business.

[SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_X_and_Theory_Y#Theory_X ]

Really! :-o

Vegetarians make lousy butchers. ;)

Just wait.

Let's see how many Americans who quit yahoo because they can no longer work from home are replaced by foreign workers either on a work visa or working on line from across the ocean. This is just a big @!$%#ing scam to downsize and outsource more American jobs. Thanks corporate Barbie!

And that's why alot of outsourcing is being insourced back. Quality falls through the floor at the "savings" starts to work against you.

Shlt, they all look same...seen one, you've seen them all !

Spoken EXACTLY like someone that should NEVER be allowed to work from home!! Oh, it's scary and I don't understand it and if I were home that's what I'd do.... it MUST be bad!!

Not everyone is a complete slacker like you apparently are!!

What Beaker1 said!!

Nothing like a big ol' bitchslap of reality!

Whenever my best people were really tasked with a short window and I needed the impossible I used to send them home to work. No phone ringing, no employee "visits" to chit-chat and kill time, no chance another "emergency project" could pull them away from what I really needed done. And I found that they tended to work longer when at home and usually worked through lunch as they would eat while they worked.

Perfect example; we used to schedule 3 weeks for us to get a new customer set up and fully EDI capable. My boss came in on Tuesday and said we needed a new one LIVE by Friday. I sent one of my guys home and he had them up and working Thursday night at 10:20 pm. He worked from home 2 1/2 days straight and put in more than 40 hours in those days and we were ready Friday.(And he was salary so No, he did not get overtime! He did it because he was a great employee and understood the need to service the customer and I managed him well)

All these people that are whining about productivity when working at home are just bad managers. Manage your people whether at home or in the office and then you will have good employees who are productive.

If they cannot be managed, either fire yourself and get a real manager who can actually do the job, or fire them and get a real employee!(However, since I suspect the complainers are the real problem in this formula, the outcome won't change!)

Sounds like you @!$%#ed that employee to me. Typical, must work for a publicly traded company.

The fact that you are bragging about forcing an employee to cram a full weeks work into two and a half days at no additional compensation is @!$%#ing disgusting!

To think, I actually agreed 100% with your post #22.1. I had you all wrong.

And she just sliced her own foot open, with a big dumb shiny smile on her face.

I don't start work until 8am, when I work remotely. I also turn off my laptop at 5pm. I don't do any extra work unless we are all trying to make a deadline. I get compensated for any extra hours, so that is the failsafe. The company doesn't want to pay extra dollars, so urgent matters wait until 8am the next day.

Most IT workers are paid in salary. It's also "known" that you may have to work longer hours to meet a delayed project deadline, work on a support issue, handle some emergency situation. That's the life of IT. However if someone is having to constantly work more then 40 hours a week then you have someone who doesn't know how to manage projects or their department is working in fire alarm mode. Either way, bad management.