Yahoo tells employees they can no longer telecommute (2013, home)

[18Montclair]

I can see the logic behind this...especially since they are 'rebuilding' their company.

Marissa Mayer ends Yahoo's work-from-home policy - Feb. 25, 2013

[Senno]

People still Yahoo!?

[sonarrat]

I understand. We're a small high-tech subsidiary that employs about 35 people. Only a few of us are in the office full-time, software engineers, IT and myself, in logistics; the rest work at field sites. Production and all the warehousing is in Europe. 80% of the engineers and customers I work with are in other states and mostly other time zones. You would think that telecommuting would be a no-brainer. After all, almost all of our activity happens somewhere else, so it doesn't matter where I'm working from, right?

Not so. Not even if it was just me in the office. If I was at home, it made people feel as if they couldn't reach me or as if I wasn't working, so they put me on the back burner and put my issues last. That really started to hurt after a while. As soon as I started coming in early to call my European counterpart before she left for the day, and to get ahead of the issues on the East Coast, everything changed. Things started to get done that were like pulling teeth before. And I didn't change anything else. I was still the same guy, and my work ethic didn't suddenly improve.

[dragontales]

Marissa Mayer is on to something here.

[ccm123]

I believe that it will affect morale negatively at Yahoo. Telecommuting is usually offered as a "perk" to improve and sustain morale.

If remote workers get the job done, why not?

[Mack Knife]

Originally Posted by ccm123

I believe that it will affect morale negatively at Yahoo. Telecommuting is usually offered as a "perk" to improve and sustain morale.

If remote workers get the job done, why not?

Those that don't like it can quit.

Since when is telecommuting a perk to improve and sustain morale? It was never designed to do that. Telecommuting or teleworking was designed to afford businesses a way to reduce resource use and maximize work periods of employees. If employees benefited at the same time, that is nice but purely coincidental.

Employee work hours and locations should be optimized to benefit the business. If businesses need to compete for workers, businesses will reorganize their operations to allow telecommuting and employees will also benefit but never forget that the priority is the business. Without the business, just where are those teleworking employees going to get their paychecks from?

Let the employees at Yahoo quit if they think they can get a better deal somewhere else. There are a lot of people willing to replace them. Time to cull the herd. Those that don't like it can start their own business and lets see which ones want their employees to telecommute.

[luau]

Originally Posted by Mack Knife

Those that don't like it can quit.

Since when is telecommuting a perk to improve and sustain morale? It was never designed to do that. Telecommuting or teleworking was designed to afford businesses a way to reduce resource use and maximize work periods of employees. If employees benefited at the same time, that is nice but purely coincidental.

Employee work hours and locations should be optimized to benefit the business. If businesses need to compete for workers, businesses will reorganize their operations to allow telecommuting and employees will also benefit but never forget that the priority is the business. Without the business, just where are those teleworking employees going to get their paychecks from?

Let the employees at Yahoo quit if they think they can get a better deal somewhere else. There are a lot of people willing to replace them. Time to cull the herd. Those that don't like it can start their own business and lets see which ones want their employees to telecommute.

I don't know what you do for a living but as an engineer I can tell you the climate now is different. While it's true that it's about the business, there is more demand than supply now. Given that yahoo is still considered a good company(though significantly weakened) they will be able to replace people that left. Will they be as good? I'm leaning towards no. Telecommuting is seen as a perk by engineers and the best and brightest usually know what they can get. Recruiters are banging at the door of at least decent engineers so businesses need to be as competitive as they can now to attract top talent, which is what I believe yahoo and mayer strongly prefer.

[Stephen1110]

Originally Posted by Senno

People still Yahoo!?

Thats my question

[andyadhi01]

Great way to get rid of slackers!

[socalinnorcal]

Originally Posted by ccm123

I believe that it will affect morale negatively at Yahoo. Telecommuting is usually offered as a "perk" to improve and sustain morale.

If remote workers get the job done, why not?

It's viewed as a perk because these people can avoid work and do what they want during the day while getting paid I think this is a good move and if it upsets you, you can leave. The working from home thing, I believe, is slowly becoming a thing of the past. Imagine the dread-- going to the office FIVE.DAYS.A.WEEK. Aaaaaahhh!