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Subscribe to RSSAfter the leak of an internal memo telling Yahoo employees they will no longer be allowed to work from home, CEO Marissa Mayer is receiving intense criticism, particularly from fellow working mothers. NBC's Kristen Dahlgren reports.
Maybe Yahoo should have done its homework before banning work-at-home.
For millions of American companies large and small, telecommuting has become a critical force in boosting worker productivity and growing profits in the information age.
Take the case of Dallas-based Ryan, LLC, the seventh largest corporate tax services firm in the U.S., with more than 900 employees in 45 locations in the U.S., Canada and the U.K. In August 2008, the company realized it had a problem. Voluntary turnover was roughly 20 percent. Some employees who quit said the long hours at the office left them little time for a personal life.
“We had a policy that required people to be physically present,” said Delta Emerson, the company’s chief of staff. “If you were not seen, you were questioned as to whether or not you were working.”
The solution: a flexible work schedule that allowed employees to work remotely and set their own hours. Though the transition had its bumps, the results were surprising.
Not only did the work all get done, the company became even more productive. Revenues went up. Client satisfaction went up. And turnover went down.
Emerson said the lesson was that there’s more to productivity than just showing up at the office. Ryan workers know that their job performance is now being measured on how much work they get done, not how reliably they show up at the office, she said.
“Everyone knows what they have to do to cut it,” said Emerson. “But people treasure this flexibility to the point that they will give their all to continue to work in an environment that allows that.”
By focusing more on measuring how well employees are doing their job, and worrying less about where the work gets done, companies with flexible work policies are seeing productivity go up, according to human resources experts.
That may be one more reason American companies are adopting flexible work policies. As of last year, nearly two-thirds of employers offered flexible work rules to at least some of their employees – up from about a third in 2005, according to a national study by the Society for Human Resource Management.
“We don’t see this trend going away,” said Michael Aitken, SHRM’s vice president of government affairs. "This is the way that work will get done in the future. I spend a great deal of time and energy in educating our members about the value that it offers.”
But old perceptions about the distractions of the home office persist. In her now widely-read memo explaining why Yahoo now forbids its employees to work from home, CEO Marissa Mayer explained that “speed and quality are often sacrificed when we work from home.”
The vast majority of companies who support flexible work practices, however, disagree. Employees who take advantage of telecommuting and other flexible policies often are more productive than if they worked only at the office, according to SHRM research. Some 97 percent of human resources managers at companies with those policies said that productivity is “the same or better” than with office-only work rules.
By skipping the travel time required to get to the office, telecommuting boosts the number of productive hours each employee can devote to work. In a 2010 study, American Consumer Institute economists Joseph Fuhr and Stephen Pociask calculated that roughly 1.7 trillion minutes are spent commuting every year – at a cost in lost work time and transportation expenses of roughly 7.2 percent of U.S. gross domestic product.
The economic benefits of expanding telecommuting could be huge. The authors estimate that, over 10 years, a 10 percent increase in telecommuting hours would save nearly $100 billion in lost time and expense.
We would all also breathe a little easier. Fuhr and Pociask calculated that by saving 4.4 billion gallons of gasoline, along with the energy savings from reduced office space, a 10 percent increase in hours worked form home over the next decade would reduce greenhouse gas emission by more than half a billion tons of carbon dioxide.
To be sure, not all occupations are well-suited to telecommuting. Waiters and barge pilots aren’t ever going to be very productive working from a home office. But as more occupations become tied to a computer screen for much of the day, it matters less where that screen is situated.
As many home office workers can attest, some work is better performed in a group setting – especially dull, menial tasks where the urge to goof-off and ready distractions are ever present.
That was also the conclusion of a 2012 study by economist Glenn Dutcher at the University of Innsbruck, who found that while telecommuting “has a positive impact on productivity of creative tasks” it has a “negative impact on productivity of dull tasks.” So if your job involves a lot of copying and collating, you’ll probably get more done chatting with co-workers while visiting the water cooler in the copy room.
Mayer also cited those kind of chance encounters in defense of her “everyone back to the office” mandate.
“Some of the best decisions and insights come from hallway and cafeteria discussions, meeting new people, and impromptu team meetings,” she wrote.
From TODAY: KLG sticks up for Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer
But for every serendipitous encounter that sparks the creation of a winning new product, there are many hours wasted sitting in someone else’s unproductive meeting or listening to a cube neighbor justify their picks in the Oscars pool, said Aitken.
“(Telecommuting) allows for less interruption at the office,” he said. “No people swinging by and wanting to talk about what happened over the weekend.”
And while detractors argue that a home office present too many productivity-killing distractions, workers who telecommute are better able to juggle their work and home lives. That helps reduce absenteeism.
“I may want to go to a doctor’s appointment or pick up the dry cleaning or go to my son or daughter’s school play,” said Aitken. “Telecommuting allows that worker the peace of mind to be able to do the things they may need to do for their life side and still meet their work obligations.”
Supporters of flexible work policies say the key to making the transition work is the development of better ways to measure how well their employees are doing. Being the first in the parking lot in the morning and the last to leave at night usually has little to do with how much actual work gets done in between.
“We used to measure people based on hours worked, and the person who worked the most hours was like a hero,” said Emerson. “There was frequently no tie-in related to what else they had done. So people who put in the hours could get away with a lot. Now, we don’t even pay attention to hours anymore. We’re looking at results.”
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Amen! If I had to go work in an office, I would get little done. Mainly because working from home I do exist in my own zone and work flows freely. The only thing that interrupts me is more work! There are several smaller reasons it is better, like the fact that I do not have to waste time and gas driving to and from. I also do not have to be beautiful by 8am (my favorite)!! There are days that I roll from my bed to my desk and stay on full blast till way past sundown, and I dont even make it out of my PJs until 9pm. Personally, I could do it no other way, at least not to very long!
Yahoo responded today that this ban is their internal matter. I say, even if its just pertaining to Yahoo's own remote employees, still they need to consider any alternate solution. Research studies have shown that remote workers are more productive. And this is the best way to hire top talents from all across the world. The benefits of telecommuting is not just limited to cost savings.
An example of an alternate solution could be a cloud-based solution? Here's something interesting on how cloud technology can help addressing such issues pertaining telecommuting or remote employees:
dincloud.com/blog/what-is-telecommuting-and-how-cloud-supports-remote-employees
Hope you'll find it interesting!
The article is stupid and unfair. Yahoo did say that the decision is internal and Yahoo makes not comments on broad industry trend. I think it was a smart decision. Working from home 100% of time is a sure productivity and quality killer. The law of diminishing returns kicks pretty soon. I think onsite child care gym etc combined with 5 flex days per month could be the right balance.
Working at home means less productivity period.... I know, I removed tele-commuting from our company 2 years ago and it solved allot of malarkey and cost overruns.
Also if you do not like it when your company says "work in the office" then tough crap... you are NOT the boss nor run the company.
Working from home WILL NOT BE THE FUTURE as this is just a denial to what the executive of Google has done.
It's only human nature to love staying at home while still receiving your salary.
Those with this luxury will go to extremes in order to justify their working at home vs the office.
I am embarrassed for the CEO. I had such high hopes for her. This is just bad business and backward thinking.
My husband , who works for a large software company has been telecommuting for two years. I have a small silly job where I also telecommute. We love it!
We don't have a million interruptions like at the office. We haven't taken a sick day or PTO day ever. If one of our kids are sick they simply stay in bed and yell ( or text) if they need something. The company uses less money on over-head for its employees including energy because most employees now telecommute ( profits for my husbands tech company have only increased even in this bad economy) If we need to speak to a co-worker in person we simply video them in.
Every time I see my husbands boss I tell him how grateful I am! Our whole family is committed and loyal to this company. Telecommuting has changed our whole life! We eat dinner together as a family for the first time in 10 years, we never miss a child's daytime performance since the work is project based. We don't waste money on clothes, food out or Gas! ( gas is the big thing)
There are issues working from home you have to plan for. You have to have a designated work space with a lock on the door. You have to teach your kids to respect the work time. Our dog barks at little old ladies walking by so we have to put her in the den during work hours ( but hey, we are home to walk her at lunch and right away after we close up shop) It took about a week to work out the kinks but now everything runs smoother than it ever did at the office.
As for the company's bottom line ---there is really no need for middle management. People are happier and more productive and it is easier to manage them remotely. There really is no need for a heavy management team weighing down the company.
I think its time yahoo gets a new CEO--another woman would be great but one that is progressive.
kkwilson, what you are saying is just untrue!!!! There is no other way to say it.
Luckily, my husband's CEO relys on ACTUAL NUMBERS ( not gossip) and sees that profits are only going up now that employees are telecommuting.
People are significantly more productive now that they work from home.
Maybe you don't like your job so you can never imagine doing it from home. We LOVE our jobs----sometimes too much. Sometimes its hard to stop for the day.
Some jobs tend to have to be located in a single location, but many jobs just don't need to be in the office. they can be done remotely from home or really anywhere. Really the biggest problem with telecommuting is that you at times run over your standard 8 hour day...you may be working to complete things 10 or 12 hours.
Personally it drives me up when new people come up to me wanting to chit chat, or bother me during lunch if I happen to eat at my desk or in the caffeteria.
Telecommuting requires self-discipline on the part of the worker and a manager that can manage (I could stop righ there) based on results.
Telecommuting IS the future. Yahoo has no future so it doesnt matter.
The purpose of most jobs is to get a set amount of work done. If you can do it from home, why not avoid paying a ton for gas, a second car, work clothes for every single day, work lunches, and waste time with all the talking, parties, etc., that make up a decent part of the day at an office. Our company has telecommuting and our employees are happy. Since we don't sell a product and we don't need face to face meetings, why would we insist that people show up at an office every day? The work gets done, the employees are productive and happy, and it's all good. No one gives anyone the flu, if a person isn't well enough to travel to an office but can still sit at home and work we get less sick days (not saying one can't say s/he is too sick to work), and if we need to see each other we can meet in person or Skype or something. It makes sense to keep cars off the road and people from commutes so they can enjoy life more, take care of kids, and still be productive at work. It wouldn't work for all companies, but for many it does.
I love that a woman and a mother, as CEO made this decision. If a white guy did it the entire story would be how a chauvinist old guy was taking another piggish shot at women. The truth of the matter is the science shows working at the office is more productive then a worker who only works at home. So sayeth the Harvard professor who talked on this for an hour long radio show. Knowing all this, Yahoo may be looking to unload some people. And by retracting the work at home policy many will get themselves all twisted up and quit. The company will then save severance payments, lighten their headcount, and when their business goal is achieved may actually re-instate a stay at home work situation. Thus achieving their goal. If a white guy were CEO this maneuver will not be possible. The discrimination lawsuits would be as deep as the snow in the rockies. So, another benefit from diversification - business decisions not challenged as discrimination because the decider is a minority or woman. Let's get back to business.
That's what they said in the 80s: Telecommuting, the Virtual Office is the future. FF to present, management is too insecure, if they don't eyeball u, better yet if they see that you are too relaxed, they are thinking, "John is not stressed, he must be milking it, give him more work!"
You took the words right off my laptop! Well, some of them anyway....
Management is paranoid and 60% of the workforce make them that way. There are studies that confirm that 60% of the work force is disengaged. That's including the ones going into the office.
Depends on what you do. A lot of what I do is BRAIN and fingers only. So I don't need to be in the office 5 days a week
Speak for yourself. When we post a job offer, we list 6 cities as where the job could be performed. Great for recruiting.
Big mistake Ms. Mayer! Millennials want work/life balance, particularly women. No more giving up raising your kids and having a life to move ahead at the office. She will not attract the best workers. Print that.
Who gives a @!$%# what the cry baby millennials want. Go into work or find another job. The employer doesn't care about your work/life balance slacker - that is your problem.
You must be the waiter the article talks about. Don't be jealous if you can't work from home, old timer! Most technical jobs are done better from home than the office. I own a company and 40% of my employees work from home at least 3 days a week. I have nothing but productive employees. They are happy so am I.
Geez, mmm. You must be pleasant to be around. An employer who doesn't give a crap what his employees want and thinks of them as crybabies isn't going to have a very productive company, and calling them slackers is a great way to end up doing all the work yourself.
Like all new ideas when started "work life balance" is used pretty much as intended and is fine. Then the gamers show up. Remember dress down Fridays ? Terrific for a good long time, then people showed up dressed like they were going to the beach, or had just mowed the lawn. Many Dressdown programs were then outlawed. It'd be a mistake to think that cheaters are not using "work from home" privileges. It's why "honor systems" don't work for long. The cheaters think the rest of you are chumps, and they simply take your stuff. It is a shame that a few always spoil things for the majority, but that has become the theme in Merica, hasn't it.
Hey Marissa; I'm in your camp on this one.
Productivity cannot be measured for people who work at home. Same pay but less hours and how about those adhoc naps; love em.
Just think about the poor schmucks who actually come into the office. They attend the meetings, get all of the work assignments, look you in the face when deadlines are missed; get the picture?
Before I retired, I managed a group of 750 people and they constantly hammered me about more flexible schedules and work hours. The union even asked for it in labor negotiations. I could not give in: in good conscience it was a major compromise to the core business and the need to stay focussed on the needs of customers v/s needs of a few people.
If working from home was really fruitful, why do employers have such large buildings? Why not take advantage of the space provided for "free" by the employees? Sooner or later they are individually going to ask for some compensation for the space they are providing you!
If working from home is so important then these people should open their own business, pay their own medical costs, fund their own tenant improvements, create a cash reserve for slow months and just enjoy their brainless freedom.
Don't let up Marissa !
Jim, your so full of $hit it's coming out of your ears. My proof your full of it by your own admission:
"If working from home was really fruitful, why do employers have such large buildings? Why not take advantage of the space provided for "free" by the employees?"
You idiot, building rents/leases cost money... it isn't free you moron, it erodes the corporate bottom line by having buildings ! It also erodes the employees income...i.e. costs for fuel, tolls, transit fares..etc. You are truly a complete dolt, think before you speak.
Oh and my final thought... geez you just couldn't help dragging unions into this could you ? Do yourself a favor and stop watching Fox News and come up with some original thinking !
All those needless insults make you feel like a man? Who even cares what your point was? Grow up.
It is pretty clear that you don't know what you are talking about and were not a good manager because your own words hang you! Companies that allow telecommuting not only monitor your keystrokes and if you time out while connected, but have you forgotten that all important question about did the work get completed on or before the deadline?
"Productivity cannot be measured for people who work at home" - you know NOT of what you speak. We don't make hamburgers or TV commercials. Not even sure how to deal with an idiot like this. Tim and John L know.
Yes, you can measure what employees do. If you get your work done for my company I don't care if you heat up your lunch or even take a short nap. And yes, I do own a business. If you do the required work and you are at your computer when work comes in, get it done, and the customers are happy I don't care if you are in your pjs munching chips or leaning back in your recliner with your laptop on your lap. Just do what is assigned, do it in a professional manner, and if you don't get it done you won't work for us. If you need to come to an office and be told what to do all day you don't fit our company. If you can do your work at your home that is great and it all works out.
I cannot believe that his woman is head of a technology company. To have people clog roads and transit systems to do work in an office that can be done remotely is mind boggling. Working remotely and working on flex time is the best option in a 7 X 24 X 365 tech world. I guess the price was right for the Yahoo board and now they see what they got for that discount.
† Every highway in this nation is 'clogged', as transit systems are over burdened. Apparently, you believe that Marissa would have others using our roadways, which are certainly not hindered now. That is truly a work of art.
I'm not even sure what you are saying, syn. If you don't think roadways are clogged you must live in a small town. It makes sense for most jobs...not all, but many.
Making it easy for China to get our trade secrets should be the last thing we want. If keeping our work at work and off the internet then I say it's a good trade. It might be this will be only the first company that tries to keep its business at the business. Which would you prefer, working for China or an American company? Even if China steals all our trade secrets and creates the companies to implement those secrets I doubt those companies will be any where near our border so don't plan on working for China.
God !!! By your logic we should bring back the PONY EXPRESS to communicate.. you are beyond confused, your brain dead.
Actually, we should bring back the Pony Express....the USPS can't even deliver Priority Mail on time as promised. Someone's gotta start doing actual work or we may as well just sell this country to China.
How is working at home giving anyone our trade secrets?
† Let us just separate ourselves from society, and be as gods, in which each think they are.
Hey... Marissa, look at it this way, at least if you don't have to report to an office you don't have to worry about some stressed out, end of the rope, nut bag loser coming in and blasting their co-workers with a gun...
of course I'm joking, but does this overpaid, inept CEO have a clue ?
No, she doesn't. And quite frankly, there is no saving Yahoo. It's dead... In the 90's and even early 2000's, it was up there. But hey, she'll still get her millions per year of operating a company on the verge of death.
Moving work and schooling to the Internet would get all sorts of cars off the road, reducing fuel consumption and pollution. It would save loads of money on not maintaining and providing HVAC etc to workplaces and schools. It's what we will end up doing, we should go there sooner rather than later.
I once worked from home and traveled a lot. If you want to be forgotten about when it's time for a raise, home office is the way to go. Visible people in the big office in the city get a raise, you get nothing. Out of site, out of mind is how it works. Eventually you'll be working for someone who you've never met and eventually you'll be looking for a job.
depends on the job of course. In a diversified global workplace, its very possible for you to work in the corporate environment and your boss work in another location or time zone. Then what? He/She can't see you, or even other members of his/her team. Thats where the seeing your employees fall apart.
BooHoo
Not really. I work remotely from my chain of command in that I'm in Dallas and they're all in Chicago (I do work-from-home one day/week, in the office the other four). And yet when it comes to recognition and recompense, I've always gotten good reviews and raises even though I can count on one hand the number of times I've see my manager face-to-face.
Phones, email, IM-style chat: I'm in contact as much as I need and the work gets done. The same is true for working-from-home.
This will no doubt be the death nail of YAHOO. Where in the F... do they get these people. I am not impressed with business catch phrases which seem to be the only thing that these types can re-use over and over again. Delete comes to mind when cleaning out favorites...Good bye Ya.....whoever.
Wow... We caught a couple of goldbrickers and lazy folks...And the solution is to punish EVERYBODY... That's called "lazy management."
Congratulations. While building a private childcare area in your office, you've just set all of the working-mothers in your company back at least 10 years. How proud you must feel.
I used to work for a company that stupid... Our CEO ultimately went on to be the loser that took HP down the tubes. Perhaps you remember her?...Carly Fiorina?
Tim T-Chicopee,
Not all jobs can be done remotely. Information Technology (IT) jobs are more productive when done remotely compare to sales person. They don't need to be in the office to get the job done. It could be done anywhere and anytime. It gives employees more flexibility to get a project done.
Not for most people. This is the most insulting article ever.
Oh, tromboner, I disagree. Verrry interesting dialog. Truth is -- though many of us don't really think about -- people who happen not to work in an office already work in a great variety of settings and keep wildly different schedules. Nurses, truck drivers, store clerks, restaurant and catering wait staff, lifeguards, musicians... Truth is, the variety of offices and office-work objectives are equally broad. Working from home is a perfect fit for many fields and jobs and a very bad fit for others. What's neat is that more employers are considering its fit for their business. And it's great that there's good data available now to help them form some opinion. Everyone has more choices.
Have to add that the (happily few) people here saying that care for one's work-life balance is nonsense are a screw short in my opinion. Along with a paycheck, we all need what anthropologists call "social capital" -- family, friends, community. For one small example, how can you measure what it means to a child to have a parent attend a school show? Show kids you care about them, and they’ll grow up to be caring people. Gross simplification for sake of being brief here and not writing a whole essay, but this is profound stuff. Point is, investments in social capital shape who we are as people and as a society. More people making considered lifystyle choices – and having choices -- is all good.
This just proves she doesn't have the experience to be a CEO.
I worked at a place right when "casual Fridays" started, and the division VP said (on his own) that t-shirts would not be allowed. He happened to be visiting the next Friday, and EVERYONE wore their company t-shirts. He rescinded his policy the next Monday morning.
(The funny thing was he didn't know we actually had "casual Monday thru Friday").
No work from home? Fine. No work after leaving the office...
I work from home for a large tech company with offices scattered all across the U.S. and in other countries. Our customers are scattered in a similar fashion. During a typical day, I have an average of 4-5 meetings, all of which are conference calls. Some are internal to the company, and some include customers. It doesn't matter where I am physically located - I can participate in these conference calls anyplace where my computer resides. I also have certain deliverables that I need to produce. If a manager sets appropriate goals and expectations for his employees, then he should be able to tell whether or not that work is getting done. If he can't, then there is a management problem. I have been on both sides of the management coin, and as a manager, I have always been able to tell what work my employees have accomplished.
I've worked from home for 8 years, the last 2 of which have been full-time work@home. As a mom, I am eternally grateful to my company for putting me in a position where I never had to choose between career and my kids. It's lovely that Marissa Mayer was able to build, at her own cost, a nursery next to her office at Yahoo! but that's just not feasible for 99.99% of working mothers; Now the working mothers at Yahoo! who have previously worked from home will have to make the kind of choice that Mayer can't even begin to fathom, and I think that's incredibly unfortunate.
We moved to another state, to a dream town we could have only previously dreamed of living in, one year ago and it is ONLY because I work from home that the move was possible. I have been able to witness my kids first steps, put them down for every nap, been present at every school play, made every parent-teacher conference, all while nurturing a career that continues to flourish. I am aware every single day how lucky I am to have been given this opportunity and -- this is where Marissa Mayer really gets it wrong -- I would (and often do) move heaven and earth to keep this job. My motivation to do my work well would be drastically diminished if I was toiling away in a cubicle, feeling absent from my kids' lives, feeling resentful of my employer, and watching the clock tick down to 5 o'clock every day. Sorry, Marissa Mayer, but this is an epic fail by you.
Always amusing...
If you can stay home and "work"... you're not working...
Amazing how the term "work" has been applied to fat cubicle dweebs who've never done a hard days work in their lives...
And now the geeks get to stay home... and call it "work" LOL!!!
We need to come up with a new term in this country, for lard @ss geeks who get paid for an activity.. but who don't in fact, do any real work....
Any suggestions???
I take it YOU don't work in high tech. Let me guess - McDonalds?
Sorry herron... It had to be said....
lard @ss cubicle geek perhaps?? LOL..
McDonald's????
I like to think of it as burger "construction"
You are bitter my friend. Should have gotten a good college degree.
K1200RS - LOL!
Those lard @ss cubicle geeks are the ones that keep the systems up so you can post your bilge. Somehow that doesn't seem important at this moment though.
I have been working at home one day a week for the past couple of years. Much to my surprise, I missed interaction at the office.
Some people can telecommute 5 days a week; others can't do it at all. For me, one day a week at home works.
I know people who do 2 or 3 days a week at home.
How much you wanna bet that she will be working from home when the baby comes? Hmmm, that must be an executive perk!
She already had the kid, and she's brought it to work.
why y'all applauding the work at home thing is beyond me. if the company want the productivity to go down and i dont do no work if i'm not at the office then it's all fine by me. all these working from home thing is making me work day and nights and weekends too for more than a decade.... i welcome it if they dont have me in the office things go to sh1t.
"y'all" isn't a word.
Yes, it is. It is a contraction for "you all", and is not used exclusively in the South or by uneducated people. It is in the Merriam-Webster dictionary, along with other words of which you would surely disapprove such as "ain't".
If you would like to argue with the dictionary, please take that up in another forum.
Yus were you trying to say something? I need a translator if you were.
It was a great move. The people that don't like it can look for employment elsewhere, or need not apply here. She was hired to turn a flailing company around, going to assume she doesn't care what all the critics say of her decision, or if people are throwing a tantrum over not being able to work in their pj's anymore. Seriously. Most of the comments on here sound like spoiled brats... assuming from the "everyone gets a trophy" generation?
Sounds more like you are a bitter person with a suck ass job who needs constant monitoring to be even remotely productive.
I give her a lot of credit. I am sure she took a hard look at this and found out it wasn't working. Sure all of the work from home people are going to claim they are more productive. If you are what does that say about all of the people who go to work. They are not prductive. Give me a break. Why wouldn't they say they are more prductive? It is a great perk. It is a great perk but does it really help a company run better when everyone is at home. Again I give her credit! She has a hard job and she is making hard decisions. I hope it works out for her.
Uh Ind....THEY don't say they are more productive. Studies do. And what that says about people such as you that go to work is you are a group of cranky people who are miserable and jealous of others. It's pretty apparent in your grumpy post.
I will say it again good for her, is that grumpy enough for you. I give her credit, is that grumpy enough for you. Not all compaines can give the employees what they want. but with the next generation coming up am I sure what is going to be most important to them is what makes them happy. Not if where they work can stay afloat. You know against China who i hear everyone works for home every day,
Take time to accurately measure productivity. Judge the results from a trial. Manage in real-time. If productivity dips, adjust the system. Sometimes, a business can go through stagnant cycles, and there are so many contrived solutions, that it makes me sick! Yes, telecommuting can be a GREAT thing for many companies. But, like an office, it must be managed. Some people may be better at home, than at a building!
Yahoo has been on such a decline over these past years they are desperate to try and keep up (not just with technology but with profits/cash flow). This is NOT a way to do it. As a person who worked for a much larger tech company for 15 years where you worked 70 hours a week easily I worked from home quite a bit. My work, nor any of my staff's work suffered from this.
It has been my experience that people in management/leadership positions who oppose telecommuting - particularly part-time telecommuting have been ones who have abused the option and were not actually doing any work during the times they said they were working from home. It should be noted that most companies can measure exactally how much you are working when you work electronically remotely. So I wonder how much she abused the telecommuting option during her career.
This will end up being another blow for Yahoo as they are going to loose talent.
The article completely misses the point. This has nothing to do with productivity and everything to so with INNOVATION! Yahoo was taking it's last breath a year ago and everyone had written them off. Now they are coming off a very strong quarter and have another chance at surviving. In order to do so though, they need to innovate or they will be irrelevant. Innovation happens best when people interact, share ideas, do brainstorming, and share best practices. Sure, most of this can be done remotely, but the pace of innovation is much greater when you get great minds together in a room and talk about the tough issues together. In this case, Yahoo has no time to waste - it's all hands on deck.
If Yahoo was an accounting company, did IT support, or something that didn't require the level of innovation that they need to do in order to survive, then sure - telecommuting is good. They have to reinvent themselves though - or perish. That can be best accomplished when people come together.