Saw someone say "she has nursery in office for her child"....well she is the CEO of one of the best companies in the world.....u know how brilliant u got to be to reach there....if all the labor gets that privilege.... (What does he want US to be a failed COMMUNIST style stupid country?)
Richard Milito - 11 years ago
Spelling is terible!
ap - 11 years ago
I beleave the same, bud rules
op - 11 years ago
i beleave working at home and smokeing is rad
Duke - 11 years ago
why do Duke Blue Devil fans where blue at home games? it's called Team Spirit. the decision by Mayer promotes just that. those advocating working from home are thinking of themselves and family first. although family comes first, loyalty to your job is very important, too. being non-social with others in your company does not promote unity or Team Spirit.
John George - 11 years ago
If you are Marissa Mayer you can bring you child to work. She had a nursery built next to her office. She paid. But who can do that? Will Yahoo put up a childcare service at their offices?
It's an absurd policy. I work from home part time, on a flex basis. My productivity is greater than when in an office full time.
I've been working from home for years. There's a period at first where everything's distracting and you have a harder time immersing. After a couple of weeks though, focus returns and you're actually as productive, if not more so, than when you're sitting at a cube (yes, I have metrics that prove this for me). You realize the work has to get done, and it just doesn't matter where you're at when you do it. Productivity measurement software abounds, so lack of metrics is a poor excuse for painting all telecommuters with a broad brush.
It's been my experience that being unproductive at home is usually a management issue. Poor communication and processes are amplified when remote workers are in the mix.
I worked with lots of people who drive into work and are substandard performers. I've also worked on a project with 200+ team members working remotely and it was a success.
Bottom line: If Mayer wants to pull the plug on telecommuting, she has a distinct lack of confidence in her staff. That's entirely a management issue.
puzzled - 11 years ago
How many of us, if we had our own company, small or large, will trust our employees to work from home? I shall say none! Just because corporations are not owned by indivduals is no reason to think differently, especially if those corporations are struggling to recover. Is it possible that the working from home policy has contributed to the difficulties corporations are having in recovering? Strangely enough, working from home accelerated just about the time that the economy tanked. Just saying! Erin should conduct a poll to see how the shareholders, who are everything to a company, feels about Mayer's decision. Think of this: workers hate jobs being outsourced, but shareholders are trilled to death. And those same workers shop for the cheapest products, which are the result of outsourcing. Life Sucks! Let's not forget that a company's priority is shareholders first, customers second and employees last. Furthermore, there are some similarities between working remotely and outsourcing. Everyone wants to have their cake and eat it too. What else is new? Branson said that he has never worked out of an office. What an idiot. Yes Branson, everybody's a freaking billionaire. Is Mayer going backward, or just going back to what worked. Brilliant woman! I work for an idiot company that decided to fix everything that wasn't broken, and now everything is broken. Yes, they are all men. Juust saying.
Stormi - 11 years ago
In my opinion, I think it is a reasonable decision because when I read Yahoo news articles, I notice errors in the articles that discredit Yahoo as a reliable news source. I like to read comments on the articles and I find people called out Yahoo journalists for their bad grammar or accuracy errors. I get that working from home is more convenient for some people but I think if Yahoo wants to keep up with other news blogs, they need their journalists to be on their top game. I always hear from my Journalism professors that 98-99 percent accuracy is unacceptable and as a reporter, you lose credibility.
Dan from Chicago - 11 years ago
Working from home is a model that is open to distraction and a strict discipline is required to stay focused and effective. I've seen this benefit abused costing companies money and in this case, maybe costing Yahoo stockholders money.
I believe it also depends on what type of work you do. IT Tech Support? stay home, I get it, but if you're a software developer for a company like Yahoo, then your brain needs to be in the same creative boiling pot with the other programmers like yourself. That interaction; like Erin said, is priceless to the company. That's how money making ideas are born.
There's also the fact of work from home moms and dads, that want to spend more time with their kids, but then, are they working or watching their kids? I don't have kids, so I won't shoot myself in the foot on this one, but if you're a single man, working from home in the same city your company is and you are taking pictures of your cat when you should be working, then you need to re think what you're doing with your life ,put on some pants and go back to the office before a computer replaces your job.
JD - 11 years ago
I have been working full time from a home office out of state for the past two and a half years. In that time, I have taken on EXTRA responsibility and continued to be successful and contribute. Have we forgotten that we live in an age where we can be face to face through video conferencing, skyping and teleconferencing and still share ideas that way? I routinely sit on conference calls and contribute and get things done.
In addition, I think that many have forgotten that those of us who work from home often work MORE HOURS than our in-the-office counterparts...I know for certain I put in more time (both before and after 'work hours') than most of the employees who work in the office and I work until the job is done. For five years while I did work in the office I can tell you that I got in when I was expected, and left as soon as my hours were put in - the place I work for is getting more out of me now than they were before.
Those commuting hours are all cut out - and most often they are donated back to the organization in the form of me working through them. This is an important distinction in this whole discussion that no one seems to be discussing.
cookejjc - 11 years ago
YaWho?
When's the last time you thought about YaHoo?
Mayer's decision at least got the company's name back into print.
david - 11 years ago
I've worked at a Fortune 100 company for over 20 years and have managed people for more than 15. I've found that everyone who works from home says how much more productive they are, but generally don't cite metrics. What I do see is that those who come in the office are the ones who will pick up the little tasks that are required to make a business function effectively. They are the ones who you happen to see in the hallway and say, "hey, I've been meaning to ask you...". Or, when something needs to be done right away, it is still less efficient to seek out the remote coworker than it is to pop your head over a wall and ask someone sitting right next to you. When someone is physically not present, they are not developing personal relationships, are not part of a team and are acting as a contractor. I've also seen extensive abuse of the privilige. Often they are not immediately available by phone or e-mail, when I do talk with them, there may be screaming kids in the background, or they're in their car running personal errands.
If your job can be done more effectively by working remotely, remember there are a billion equally educated and talented individuals in emerging countries who would be happy to take your job for 1/5 the salary and benefits.
Rick - 11 years ago
I have been working exclusively from home since 1999 for the same company (50k+ employees). I do believe there is a period of time where you need to prove your work from home effectiveness before anyone can claim that working from home is more productive. I also believe that you either can work from home effectively or you can not, there is no gray area. The ones that think they are more productive by working from home but truly are not is the group of employees that spoil much of the work from home attitude or support from any company. Once you have proven your worthiness, then those employees should be able to work from home. Be prepared to be available anytime, anywhere if you attain the ability to work from home. Working from home will always have you thinking about work in the background, if you are productive and want to be able to retain your work from home status. With the wirless carriers promoting a mobile workforce with their mobile data products and have spent billions to ensure their networks can support such a mobile workforce, I doubt that Yahoo's new edict will place any real impact to the world of telecommuters, those occassional work from home employees or those employees that have proven themselves productive to work from home fulltime.
Claudia Arevalo - 11 years ago
I think that working from home allows many of us to really tap into our true callings and at the same time take care of our families, specially when we have children.
A person who works from home usually works harder and longer hours than others do. In our case as coders/ translators we get paid for what we really produce not by the amount of hours we spend sitting on a chair.
A great manager can make sure that his/ her team is productive without having to see them face to face every day.
I feel blessed to be able to work from home. I have the best of both worlds.
Anon. - 11 years ago
Often people who are productive at the office are just as productive at home, with time management skills, etc. Obviously there are a myriad of ways to communicate without an employee's physical presence. Mayer obviously lives through her office, hence the 2 weeks to care for her newborn before returning to the mother ship.
Maybe the issue is hiring competant people instead of feeling a need to micromanage employees and watch what they are up to at the office. I think possibly Mayer is herself incapable of understanding people who are that capable because she herself is incapable and possibly has trust issues and envies people who do not live at the office. Her inadequacies will stir up issues that most people have overcome in a progressive world.
Claude - 11 years ago
I fully agree with John's comment. It all depends on what your job's requirements are. If you need to be in touch with others regurlarly or if you are just lost in a city of cublicles whith no need for working face to face with others. I can identify totally with John for telecommuting from few days to full week, starting my work at 7, 7:30 and most of the time finishing my work day at 7:00 pm with 20 minutes break for lunch and few more for health breaks. I also know that colleagues of mines also telecommuting had similar schedules and behaviors. In a distributed working environment I was working with folks in the West coast, East coast, Chicago, Texas, Wisconsin and I could have been in Paris or Sao Polo. In those cases Telecommuniting is a win win solution with significant advantages economically, (productivity increase, resources saving), also contributing to greater safety for large companies with distributed organization and for employees living in a better and appreciated working environment without the stress of commute, waste of time, pollution, and commute expenses. However, I also agree that telecommunting is not suited for everyone. It requires a great sense of self empowerement, responsibility, integrity and a great deal of work dedication.
anonymous - 11 years ago
It's odd that Yahoo/Mayer is saying traditional education is going to end as we know it and distance learning will be the new form of education. While in the same breath, Marissa Mayer exclaims that it is vital for people to work together, face-to-face. I think this view from Ms. Mayer is hypocritical if she doesn't hold education to the same standard she's holding her staff and that speaks volumes considering distance learning will suffer in her opinion of needing to work face-to-face.
John - 11 years ago
This is a rediculous conversation to have. Whether running company or a division, thereof, Mayer has a one size fits all approach. Before I retired in 2011, I flexed from my home for 15 years ranging from a day to the entire week. But prior to my being allowed to flex, I was evaluated and deemed trustworthy and would be more productive flexing from home. Others were not. This what she should have had her department heads do. But given the fact that she returned to work 2 weeks after giving birth to her own child, I wouldn't expect any less from a woman who has an all or nothing approach. When I worked in the office, my hours were 8:30 to 5:00. It took me 45 minutes to commute, and a half hour to recover from that commute. By the time I got coffee and sat down, I was already depressed. Then there the a holes who walk buy laughing and gossiping. You walk by the water cooler and snack stand, they're all there bullshiting. The phones are ringing of the hook and it's a big distration. Unless you have a quiet corner office, the damn workplace is full of distractions, with idiots coming up to you and asking you about Joe Blow dating Mary Jane. When I flexed from home, I got up at 5:30, turned on the coffee maker, put on a pair of jean, cleaned up and turned on my laptop and before 7 AM I was on the job, heated my lunch and was done with it in 20 minutes and again got to work finishing up between 5 and 7. When I worked from home, I was happy to get up, I was upbeat and ready to roll. Didn't need to dress up in my suit and tie, didn't need to get frustrated comuting 45 minutes each way, didn't need to listen to all the nonsense in the office, and I had all the tools, my entire workload and schedule on my laptop, all the research material on Lexis-Nexis. My situation may not fit some or even many of the employees at Yahoo, but the best approach is to have the employees evaluated, look at past performance, look at their circumstance in terms of commuting, and make a common sense decision in respect to each employee, not this nonsense of one size fits all.
Eddie - 11 years ago
For all of you that thinks everyone is self-motivating and capable of working from home, let me ask...do you think Marissa Mayer would be able to lead by example and make Yahoo competitive again by working 5 days a week from home? I doubt it. You can't run a large company if the CEO is invisible (or virtual). By that same token, can Yahoo be productive if everyone worked from home? Absolutely not. Yet a company can absolutely be productive when all employees work in the office.
Working from home is a privilege for those that are self-motivating and trustworthy. If you come into a company that have employees abusing such privilege, it is a difficult and time-comsuming process to correct such abuse...and potentially liability issue if you lay off such workers without proper documentations. I don't know the exact situation for Yahoo, but this may be Marissa's best hope to thin out the herd. Good for her to be able to make tough decisions.
hellothere - 11 years ago
Looking at some of the comments here makes wonder just how many people actually worked from home? I've found that the most talented people in IT business work from home, last time I've checked, Yahoo is an IT company isn't it? I also found it funny that in this day and age of which talent is the most valuable asset in the world is not treasured at yahoo. One could only wonder what the outlook for them will be in the coming years or is there coming years?
Jan Burgess - 11 years ago
I had to Google (hee hee) to see how old this CEO was. Sounds an awful lot like a baby boomer with that old-school work mentality. Am of Gen X, and have worked with Millenials, and can honestly say that the cheese has moved in terms of how work is accomplished. Piss-poor communication between teammates must be the problem with any organization who is looking to make wholesale changes like this without regard to job function. I'm guessing the organization will be back in cubicles and private offices soon.
Robert - 11 years ago
I've had something similar happen to me. I worked at home two days a week. I was also on call 24 hours a day to fix issues. My productivity dropped when I was forced to stop working at home. Quite often in programming and the extensive validation testing you will run into tasks that require waiting or monitoring, but not necessarily every minute. Working at home allowed me to multitask and get some things like housework done and if in doubt I'd simply work longer to make sure my hours were correct. That doesn't work if you are punching a time clock. I already drive for more than an hour a day. Basically its an issue of trust. If it seems my employer doesn't trust you, then it is difficult to justify going the extra mile. Working at home also helps a great deal when you have a programming task and you need to focus without interruptions. The office environment is full of them. Headphones help, but not nearly as much as silence. Whoever thought cubicles were the best way to be efficient is of questionable sanity. There is also the matter of it being a lot better on the environment not to be doing another 5000 miles of pollution a year and around $750 dollars in gas a year. The larger loss, is by not trusting your employees, you get less effort from them, or possibly lose some of them, which can have a large impact to a development program. I have a different job now in an area I'm interested in. In my original job we only had a couple other of the same employees for the entire time I was there, while we had lost eight or so over time. Two employees left not long after the new policy was announced and went onto other jobs in the same company, although to be fair, they had already planned on leaving. The new policy was simply an additional straw. When you lose the core of your team, for whatever reason, it becomes very difficult to do much more than patch and try to keep things going on a lot of things.
If a manager has no idea what an employee is doing, then they may need to ask more from time to time, or insist on demos or other metrics periodically so progress can be measured and people can remained focused on the goals of the company. The best employees will always look for the best position they can get, and to some of them, the ability to work at home part of the time is a very valuable benefit. I, myself, found myself more rested, more focused, and better able to do my job on days I could work at home. Instant messaging, desktop sharing, and phone calls work to resolve most issues. They don't eliminate the need for face time, and sometimes you need resources that are only available at work. When you do not need the resources, what is truly the problem with working at home, if it works well for everyone involved? The main key is for managers to have some way to keep track that the employee is making satisfactory progress and not just billing the company, but then that is their job, whether or not the employee works virtually part of the time? Sometimes I think policies like stopping virtual work is more about making it so you don't have to trust the managers so much to do their jobs. If that is the case, then the company has additional problems.
DB - 11 years ago
I'm an IT professional for a Fortune 50 company - and as stodgy and old-school as it is, even IT allows telecommuting. This decision is foolhardy and short-sighted. If it is indeed a way to "weed out" weaker employees as some have surmised, then it is a silly approach. I too am shocked at a younger exec making this decision. Telecommuting provides the company with MORE work from its employees, not LESS as there is less travel overhead - particularly in hugely congested areas like where I live. Further, it saves on corporate resources (in terms of those occupying offices at work) and engenders LOYALTY among employees. Highly motivated employees (with other job options) MAY even consider working for LESS money in order to stay telecommuters. I can only hope that the "weed out" hypothesis is right for the sake of the Yahoo employees . This would just be yet another dumb decision for that company in a LONG line of them.
What nonsense - 11 years ago
Dumb idea. My wife and I both work from home - she for a Fortune 100 company, me for a smaller firm. We both receive and answer emails, texts, & phone calls early morning, in the evening, and on the weekends. We are more productive & effective than we were when working in an office. Everyone I've talked with who works from home makes the same claim. This is a 1950's idea - shocking for a 30 something exec.
Globex - 11 years ago
She recently bragged about Yahoo voted #8 best place to work. Watch that fall off the list next year. #FAIL
Globex - 11 years ago
She recently bragged about Yahoo voted #8 best place to work. Watch that fall off the list next year. #FAIL
Globex - 11 years ago
She recently bragged about Yahoo voted #8 best place to work. Watch that fall off the list next year. #FAIL
B - 11 years ago
First question should be what makes Yahoo inferior to Google and other search engine, what Yahoo has been lacking, being unattractive and feels depressed, not the first choice in people's mind? Instantly, without legitimate reasons for a harsh decision is too myopic a person is thought to be. Why out of sudden we need to sabotage existing members in a company? Remotely working employees do not imply laziness. Sitting in office does not guarantee dedication to company and increase in productivity either. (Some sit in employees use company's online service for private uses, texting, surfing webs which are absolutely wasting resources and causing possible hacking in the computers.)In a situation, mandatory decision (without prior investigation and careful consideration) might arouse negative impact. Like, stress from transportation, disharmony in families etc can provoke unhappiness which can lead to more gossips, conflicts, disharmony in groups of workers. Why aren't adequate information, investigation and simple suggestions collected at first? If data pin down a problem existing in remote working which jeopardizes Yahoo's benefits, appropriate actions can be taken and employees also understand the future in the company they are working. Dedication is not made of face to face, physical contact every second. Instead it is from how people understand their boss's faith in them, respect given and boss's insight. Pointing fingers and authority fail in gaining loyalty todays.
Secondly, connectivity between groups and groups, departments and departments is seen more effectively picking out problems, adopting new polices and regenerating productivity. Trailing individuals to individuals can be too clumsy and too slow; bean counters are useless. Therefore, if necessary for office working, is it referring to the executives, department chiefs, supervisors who take responsibilities for managing and handling issues collectively?
I am not if this memo is genuine action applied on the employees or it is just an advertisement. Either, it does not help Yahoo.
She is cutting the fat, silently ending all the foreign jobs of people that yahoo " Just can't control " people saying they work at yahoo in foreign companies collecting wages and really in all honestly just hanging about on yahoo answers all day wasting all of our time.
Yup shes doing the right thing disguising this mass layoffs of people pretending to be yahoo! employees overseas and abroad.
Good for you lets get rid of all this foney balonge payroll
John Walles - 11 years ago
What isn't being said is how bad previous mgmt at Yahoo was. What you find is people hiding in Tele-Commuting. I predict that telecommuting at Yahoo will be back in a year after getting rid of about 1/3 of the workers who were a waste of space and should be fired. Also need to get better mgmt tools in place to manage and to track productivity metrics.
Tim - 11 years ago
I have worked in both an office and from a home office. My experience is that the home office is much preferred on a personal basis but is much less efficient in work related matters. I completed my work but found myself very removed from the "company" goals. I completed tasks but was outside of the overall agenda.
Joe Goldman - 11 years ago
Hurrah for Marissa. One thing these lackadaisical, hipper-than-thou dot-com-ers should learn is that the boss is the boss. This ain't no charity program. It is a job. And when you have a job, you do what the boss says. It ain't a democracy. If these hip dot com types don't like it, Yahoo can find plenty of folks to replace them. They're lucky they have a job. I can already hear the groaning from all those who are indignant because Marissa Mayer put profits first, not the comfort of the spoiled Gen X-ers and Gen Y-ers employed there.
#2, who doesn't know in their heart of hearts that working from home is easier....simply because it is home. You can go down to the kitchen, you can read the paper on the couch, you can do anything. Anyone who doesn't realize that working from home is easy as hell and relaxing as hell must have his/her head in the sand. I should know - I work from home. I own my own business, so the consequences are mine. But what a cushy situation it is for me, and all the other flakes out there who do it. Got errands? Do 'em. Got a cute dog? Play with him, etc., etc., etc.
Russ - 11 years ago
Erin really needs to do her homework here. Working from home is proven to be more effective and workers who are comfortable doing it actually are MORE productive and work longer hours. It's a fact, not an opinion. There are people who abuse anything and like everything else, their work output shows it and they get let go. The "office" is just a HUGE way for groups of people to get together and "feel good" that they had a meeting or 10 or 20 meetings on some subject and actually didn't accomplish anything, plus they got to get out, have lunch with friends, take coffee breaks, catch up on gossip, have affairs, flirt and on down the line. If a real study were done I know it would show that 1 good remote worker is worth 3 in the office workers. Yahoo is dead and this CEO is just trying drastic measures, probably on the advice from some older "mentor" who just doesn't get technology and is old school business, probably from a soda or retail company.
Jim - 11 years ago
I am totally agreed with Mayer’s decision. I have been working in the IT industry for 18 years as a technical support, and I have talked to thousands (yes 1000s) of remote workers at many large corporations, and I can tell you that 9 out of 10 remote workers are not productive when they work from home. Working from home requires strong self-discipline and self-motivation to avoid distractions at home and technical knowledge to be able to use today’s technologies.
BTW, I love your TV show Erin! Keep up the good work.
Michael Lee - 11 years ago
I've been in the IT Industry for over 30 years now in every role and capacity. Believe me, with this decision Marissa Mayer is on her way to being a wanna be. Sure, there is always going to be those that abuse working from home ... just like there are people who abuse working in the office. This decision tells more about Marissa than it does about the Yahoos who work for her. If she can't lead and motivate skilled, talented people to embrace the challenges of Yahoo whom happen to work from home, then I doubt she can lead and motivate skilled, talented people whom work in cubicals and closets disguised as offices. Marissa is guiding her company using 1980's business mentality and that says a lot about her vision ... 30+ years old. I bet a lot of people did what I did ... Changed their home page from Yahoo to something else ... Yahoo is dead!
Rajesh Kumar - 11 years ago
I have worked from home and at work place for long time, I don't think you and your team suddenly become a wizard when you are at work. I think enforcing a work from office will be a mistake as driven and intelligent people will leave. Raising family is harder in bay area and this is one more step in wrong direction.
Now mom and dad can leave their young child at daycare and work for yahoo for 12 hours to afford a tiny condo in Sunnyvale or Cupertino . Good old American dream achieved.
Dame Makedonski - 11 years ago
Marissa Mayer has a mission to revive Yahoo, and this move will certainly help her goal. Go girl ...
Victor - 11 years ago
I have worked from home for nearly 4 years. On the rare occasions when I travel to my companies office (it is over 150 miles away from my home) I find myself engaging in social conversations. Also, lots of people (me included) tend to spend their time chitchatting with each other and not doing actual work. My employer uses Lync which allows me to share my desktop with coworkers so we can work on problems together as if they are looking over my shoulder at my screen. There is an argument that I have seen many times that it is easier to walk over to someones desk and ask them a question. However, I couldn't disagree more. Microsoft Lync which also has an Instant Message capability which allows you to IM questions to your co-workers with ease and best of all the decisions/answers given are recorded in case you need to look back at what was decided/discussed. And yes Lync does have a very easy way to do a voice call. Just click the person and say call...actually Lync calls are preferred over traditional phone calls at my employer.
Prior to working from home full time I used to travel every week on business. Monday through Thursday I was physically in the office and the day that I would actually generate output (i.e. tangible artifacts) was on Friday when I worked from home. Monday through Thursday was just generally meetings and mostly interruptions.
mike tighe - 11 years ago
I think its a great idea. The environment in yahoo probably needs a face lift . The most productive employees are the most passionate and the most motivated. The quickest way to build that passion, motivation and trust is to bring people together and work towards a common goal. Any volunteers for an online/webex trust fall? Some things are better in person/face to face. Finding agreement wcan be solved quicker if that person is across the hall as opposed to sitting at home.
mike tighe - 11 years ago
I think its a great idea. The environment in yahoo probably needs a face lift . The most productive employees are the most passionate and the most motivated. The quickest way to build that passion, motivation and trust is to bring people together and work towards a common goal. Any volunteers for an online/webex trust fall? Some things are better in person/face to face. Finding agreement wcan be solved quicker if that person is across the hall as opposed to sitting at home.
mike tighe - 11 years ago
I think its a great idea. The environment in yahoo probably needs a face lift . The most productive employees are the most passionate and the most motivated. The quickest way to build that passion, motivation and trust is to bring people together and work towards a common goal. Any volunteers for an online/webex trust fall? Some things are better in person/face to face. Finding agreement wcan be solved quicker if that person is across the hall as opposed to sitting at home.
John Mellor - 11 years ago
Having done both over the years, working from home is just not as productive as working from work. Erin is correct those interactions with other workers to spark ideas, solve issues, and make your more productive.
Gustavo - 11 years ago
This is a poor business strategy. What Mayer is not realizing is that the best will leave and the not so great will stay. She decided to become part of the problem by creating a retention crisis.
People who work from home are generally more productive when compared to people who work in the office. Erin you jokingly made reference to a cat in the background and 20 minutes of cleanup and making up time for unexpected interruptions. Well, that equates to coworkers walking over to your desk, several trips to get coffee amounts to more than just 20 minutes on a daily basis. People who work from home feel that they have to constantly prove themselves and they do so by working more than 40 hrs work week and not get paid for the overtime. Frankly, Ms. Mayer is making a huge mistake. What was the underlying reason employees were allowed to work from home to begin with? Are these reasons no longer valid? I am shocked that a woman executive made a decision like this. Awful! Just awful!
People who work from home are generally more productive when compared to people who work from home. Erin you jokingly made reference to a cat in the background and 20 minutes of cleanup and making up time for unexpected interruptions. Well, that equates to coworkers walking over to your desk, several trips to get coffee amounts to more than just 20 minutes on a daily basis. People who work from home feel that they have to constantly prove themselves and they do so by working more than 40 hrs work week and not get paid for the overtime.
Frankly, Ms. Mayer is making a huge mistake. What was the underlying reason employees were allowed to work from home to begin with? Are these reasons no longer valid? I am shocked that a woman executive made a decision like this. Awful! Just aweful!
RP - 11 years ago
I work for a corporation where every decision made by the leadership in the past 7 years has been grossly counter-productive. It does not surprise me that a woman will make the tough and right decisions that require balls that the male idiots don’t have. Anyway, working remotely is not for everyone, and therefore should not be for anyone, in order to keep a level working field, except in special circumstances. Working remotely requires loyalty and trust at both ends. Are we really there yet, or will we ever really be? Some corporations see their employees as liabilities, or slaves, and some employees see their corporation as an evil and greedy empire with evil, greedy and selfish masters. Let’s not forget that company loyalty and trust, for the most part, went the way of job security, i.e; the way of the do-do bird.
Remote Worker - 11 years ago
It would depend on the person and the position. I will be the first to tell you that face time is important. However, due to strides made in technology, most positions (especially those in technology) can be performed anywhere. With the evolution of such collaborative tools such as Microsoft Lync 2010, one can work from anywhere and still make their virtual presence felt in the physical office with features such as online presence info, video chat/conferencing (face time), IM and click to call. If the enterprise voice feature is enabled, calls to your office line (if you have one) can literally follow you anywhere.
One thing people have to be really honest about is that working remotely is not for everyone. There are some people who are excellent workers but get easily distracted working away from the office. Others simply cannot manage their time properly and cannot do their job without having their superior standing over them. Heck, there are some who can't manage their time properly EVEN WITH their superior standing over them.
With that being said, there are many people who don't have this issue. Most of the folks in this category actually work their best away from the office. I am one of those people. I have been working remotely for over a year now and I love it. I do not have to deal with traffic, distractions in the office, working late at the office (which means I get home very late) and then having to do it all over again the next day. One has to be careful not to get lost in their work while working from home but good time management takes care of that.
The point I'm making is that it's different strokes for different folks. Working remotely works great for some people and not so great for others. Again, people just need to be really honest with themselves. If Yahoo (or any other company) intends to keep their employees happy (which usually results in more productivity) they should not have a mandate to work from the office if they have the capablity to work just as effectively remotely.
P C - 11 years ago
Google has more telecommuters because Google is way ahead of the bunch and *does not need to catch up*.
HP? HP is major fail--before Carly Fiorina HP is like a private luxury club.
Yahoo needs to function like a startup to catch up: how many work from home telecommuters do you see at startup companies?
Explain to me how you peer code and give feedbacks if you are not face to face? Sorry Skype and messengers/video conferencing *doesn't work*: people just don't sit in front of the computer and turn on their webcams at home.
anonymous - 11 years ago
I know of people who work from home, even in overtime, and do absolutely nothing! This is perhaps the perfect way to get back at companies that think that they are smart by mistreating and demoralizing their employees. If a company treats their employees fairly and respectfully, then they have every right to demand that their employees come to work, or choose to leave. While I get twice as much work done working from home, some of my peers do nothing. But, then again, that happens in the office too. How and when was it determined that any and every one can work without supervision. If companies trust their employees that much, then they should get rid of most of their managers, who are the least productive employees, to save tons of money.
P C Haters - 11 years ago
OR ... PC, it's NOT the employees, but in direct comparison to Google, who has MUCH of their staff working from home, perhaps the lack of artistic vision it's what's lacking??? If the companies are exactly the same, and have the same goals, and they both have people working from home (Google has more), then perhaps the only difference is what you can plainly SEE. Innovation is what sets Google apart from Yahoo. So, P C, apparently you are another Control Freak, who has the limited ability to function, unless someone is right in front of you. Perhaps that makes YOU OLD, and perhaps you should retire, and let young people move in your position. Clearly your company needs an infusion of innovation too?
Anonymous - 11 years ago
I don't agree with her. She should be holding her managers accountable for making sure all employees, in and out of the office, meet their objectives and deliver.
Gerry C - 11 years ago
Marissa is really cute....But, she needs to get with it.
People against Dr. Bob - 11 years ago
Dr. Bob, you sound like Marissa. A control freak. Not happy until you can touch and control everything in front of you. When you finally understand, sometimes the problem is WITH YOU, you can finally stop blaming others, and accept responsibility for your actions, and quit trying to control others. Dr. Bob, might I suggest counseling?
P C - 11 years ago
It's about time someone have the courage to step up and mandate exactly what is needed at Yahoo: focus and intensity. Yahoo employees have been slacking off long enough--it's time for them to own up and start working like what employees at startup companies do: it's the only way they will ever get past mediocrityand catch up to rivals like Google and Apple! This isn't just about productivity, but about focus and responsibility to shareholders who still have faith in Yahoo. Mayer isn't saying employees can't take time off or can't occasionally work from home: she is reminding the employees to not forget the importance of collaboration and communication (the same ingredients with which good startup companies succeed). As an example: programmers need to be at work to pair/peer code: it's one of the most effective agile development techniques out there. Long commute? Move closer or rent a place close to work!
Peggy - 11 years ago
Really, what is Mayer thinking?
Requiring work that can be done remotely to be done on-site limits the employee base to those who are geographically local and physically mobile. Remote work expands the hiring base - which allows for greater diversity of talent and skill set. Hiring remote employees who are physically limited allows greater employment of those who are marginally employable if required to be on-site.
Remote work is green, allows employees to better balance life and work, and increases productivity by eliminating the additional time and fatigue that commuting is responsible for.
I am a partially disabled, remote full time employee of a NYC publisher that has had the wisdom to seek the most qualified staff from across the country. We hold virtual meetings, collaborate daily via instant messaging and phone, and enjoy each other's differences immensely. We are ab incredibly productive bunch.
With this decision - to require employees to be on-site - Yahoo shows the short-sightedness that has plagued the company for years.
As an online independent contractor, I take great offense at her broad sweeping (and historically wrong) generalization that people like myself sacrifice a company's speed and quality, need to be working side-by-side to communicate and collaborate, or can only "be about" interactions and experiences in an office somewhere. She couldn't have been more insulting if she tried.
I've been working online since 2005 and have earned quite a respectable reputation as a result. It's a reputation that I'm extremely proud of, and this bimbo just destroyed it with a memo.
Timothy Kulig - 11 years ago
Marissa has no idea what she's talking about. I work from home for HP. A good CEO knows "culture" doesn't mean "in person" or not. It's how you handle communications, and how you handle your company. The problem with Yahoo isn't whether people work "in the office" or not. HP, Google, and plenty of companies have people that work from home, and they succeed. Yahoo is not succeeding because they lack innovation, and that isn't their people's fault, it's the CEO's fault. This is just another CEO wanting to place blame on something else, rather than accepting responsibility. What will Marissa say when Yahoo is STILL failing AFTER this?
Mr. Bob - 11 years ago
She should be applauded !! People who say they are working from home are not really working as hard as all of us who have to answer telephones, talk to customers face to face, and deal with the daily issues at work. People who work from home are not respected by the real workers.
Liz - 11 years ago
I agree with Michael L in regards to coming in certain days of the week. Having that human contact is essential for some mind-blowing ideas that can come out...seeing someone's emotional response. However, some get more done at home with less interruptions. The argument could be made for both but perhaps a middle ground would be best for all concerned. There are some employees who will "milk the clock" regardless if they are working from home or working at the office.
Gina Brown - 11 years ago
I think it's a great thing, Marissa has shown what she's made of, she had a baby and went right back to work. She works hard so it's only fair that she'd expect her staff to work just as hard. I love strong Sisters and Marissa Mayer is definitely one strong Sister!!!!
Tom - 11 years ago
I agree and support her stand on the issue. All the reasons given are valid. People at work have access to the communication and collaboration in the workplace. It's easy to see how much time can be spent in non productive activities while working at home. I do so often on weekends, in the evening, after I've spent a day of 9-10 or more hours at work. I know how easy it is to be distracted and do something else for a few minutes or for awhile.
mwalmsley - 11 years ago
I thoroughly agree. Too many people say they work at home and productivity is not good. Comm'n skills go down the tube and employees are not available when needed. A good example is the University and College system. Students are not in contact with Instructors etc. If you have a job and a responsibility, show up at work so all colleagues know who you are and be accountable to your employer. The employer should not have to seek you out at home and then find out you are not there! To be productive, you should be in a productive setting and be accountable for the time you are at the office.
Dr. Bob - 11 years ago
Seriously? We are questioning a CEO for wanting their employees to be at work? Americans are becoming such entitled twits. The Obama culture of getting everything you want without doing anything is spreading fast. How dare she make me come to work! I should be able to sit at home and do whatever I want and get a nice check from work and the government and have all of my healthcare paid for and free preschool so I don't have to bother watching my children while I am home at work (aka watching episodes of Homeland). This nation is certainly becoming an obamination.
abiodun ifafore - 11 years ago
She must have a compelling reason for the decision, Yahoo has had a string of setbacks in the past and she has been charged with turning the hailing corporation around, this decision might be part of the problems identified, i strongly support her decision if it makes sense for yahoo corporation.
Anonymous - 11 years ago
How outdated!! People who are underperformers will be so in or out of the office. Clearly this is a company that doesn't care about morale or work-life balance. Employees who have tried to hang in and be loyal to the company are rewarded with this.
donhec - 11 years ago
I agree with Mayer's decision. Good for her. There is too much sluffing off by employees who claim they are working at home. It is bad enough in the office with frequent reading of personal emails, tweeting constantly, etc. Management needs to become serious about this issue.
Nathan Prophet - 11 years ago
She has made a huge blunder. I don't know the internal Yahoo details of course, but to come out with a "one size fits all" edict is crazy. She gives the appearance of being a monarch, a dictator. Talented tech people won't take to that approach. She may have been a tech whiz at one time, but she's no seasoned manager. Carly Fiorina all over again. Yahoo will be lucky to survive her.
Jonathan - 11 years ago
With gas prices through the roof, how about yahoo pay a wage increase to all its employees for the added cost they will endure by this change. Just one more way greedy CEOs are trying to screw middle class Americans. I hope she dies in a fire.
Michael Labayog - 11 years ago
THE MAIN reason for "telecommuting" is because of the "GREEN" factor. Now it'll cause more pollution and more cars in the now crowded freeways of the Bay Area!!! People will waste more time in TRAFFIC. She should have just mandated a few days in office will do especially for tech engineers. DUH!!!
I think it is a smart move, one for the very reason she did it, but also keeps people honest on the work they do ... no more milking the clock
Wanda Rigopoulos - 11 years ago
Probably a better ideal.. to be at work.. but wondering if more gets done at home.. I think she is a bit weird,coming to work herself only two weeks after having a baby... nice mom!! lol Living here in Canada a mother is allowed to stay home one year.. How about bonding with your baby a little!
Saw someone say "she has nursery in office for her child"....well she is the CEO of one of the best companies in the world.....u know how brilliant u got to be to reach there....if all the labor gets that privilege.... (What does he want US to be a failed COMMUNIST style stupid country?)
Spelling is terible!
I beleave the same, bud rules
i beleave working at home and smokeing is rad
why do Duke Blue Devil fans where blue at home games? it's called Team Spirit. the decision by Mayer promotes just that. those advocating working from home are thinking of themselves and family first. although family comes first, loyalty to your job is very important, too. being non-social with others in your company does not promote unity or Team Spirit.
If you are Marissa Mayer you can bring you child to work. She had a nursery built next to her office. She paid. But who can do that? Will Yahoo put up a childcare service at their offices?
It's an absurd policy. I work from home part time, on a flex basis. My productivity is greater than when in an office full time.
http://www.businessinsider.com/marissa-mayer-who-just-banned-working-from-home-paid-to-have-a-nursery-built-at-her-office-2013-2
I've been working from home for years. There's a period at first where everything's distracting and you have a harder time immersing. After a couple of weeks though, focus returns and you're actually as productive, if not more so, than when you're sitting at a cube (yes, I have metrics that prove this for me). You realize the work has to get done, and it just doesn't matter where you're at when you do it. Productivity measurement software abounds, so lack of metrics is a poor excuse for painting all telecommuters with a broad brush.
It's been my experience that being unproductive at home is usually a management issue. Poor communication and processes are amplified when remote workers are in the mix.
I worked with lots of people who drive into work and are substandard performers. I've also worked on a project with 200+ team members working remotely and it was a success.
Bottom line: If Mayer wants to pull the plug on telecommuting, she has a distinct lack of confidence in her staff. That's entirely a management issue.
How many of us, if we had our own company, small or large, will trust our employees to work from home? I shall say none! Just because corporations are not owned by indivduals is no reason to think differently, especially if those corporations are struggling to recover. Is it possible that the working from home policy has contributed to the difficulties corporations are having in recovering? Strangely enough, working from home accelerated just about the time that the economy tanked. Just saying! Erin should conduct a poll to see how the shareholders, who are everything to a company, feels about Mayer's decision. Think of this: workers hate jobs being outsourced, but shareholders are trilled to death. And those same workers shop for the cheapest products, which are the result of outsourcing. Life Sucks! Let's not forget that a company's priority is shareholders first, customers second and employees last. Furthermore, there are some similarities between working remotely and outsourcing. Everyone wants to have their cake and eat it too. What else is new? Branson said that he has never worked out of an office. What an idiot. Yes Branson, everybody's a freaking billionaire. Is Mayer going backward, or just going back to what worked. Brilliant woman! I work for an idiot company that decided to fix everything that wasn't broken, and now everything is broken. Yes, they are all men. Juust saying.
In my opinion, I think it is a reasonable decision because when I read Yahoo news articles, I notice errors in the articles that discredit Yahoo as a reliable news source. I like to read comments on the articles and I find people called out Yahoo journalists for their bad grammar or accuracy errors. I get that working from home is more convenient for some people but I think if Yahoo wants to keep up with other news blogs, they need their journalists to be on their top game. I always hear from my Journalism professors that 98-99 percent accuracy is unacceptable and as a reporter, you lose credibility.
Working from home is a model that is open to distraction and a strict discipline is required to stay focused and effective. I've seen this benefit abused costing companies money and in this case, maybe costing Yahoo stockholders money.
I believe it also depends on what type of work you do. IT Tech Support? stay home, I get it, but if you're a software developer for a company like Yahoo, then your brain needs to be in the same creative boiling pot with the other programmers like yourself. That interaction; like Erin said, is priceless to the company. That's how money making ideas are born.
There's also the fact of work from home moms and dads, that want to spend more time with their kids, but then, are they working or watching their kids? I don't have kids, so I won't shoot myself in the foot on this one, but if you're a single man, working from home in the same city your company is and you are taking pictures of your cat when you should be working, then you need to re think what you're doing with your life ,put on some pants and go back to the office before a computer replaces your job.
I have been working full time from a home office out of state for the past two and a half years. In that time, I have taken on EXTRA responsibility and continued to be successful and contribute. Have we forgotten that we live in an age where we can be face to face through video conferencing, skyping and teleconferencing and still share ideas that way? I routinely sit on conference calls and contribute and get things done.
In addition, I think that many have forgotten that those of us who work from home often work MORE HOURS than our in-the-office counterparts...I know for certain I put in more time (both before and after 'work hours') than most of the employees who work in the office and I work until the job is done. For five years while I did work in the office I can tell you that I got in when I was expected, and left as soon as my hours were put in - the place I work for is getting more out of me now than they were before.
Those commuting hours are all cut out - and most often they are donated back to the organization in the form of me working through them. This is an important distinction in this whole discussion that no one seems to be discussing.
YaWho?
When's the last time you thought about YaHoo?
Mayer's decision at least got the company's name back into print.
I've worked at a Fortune 100 company for over 20 years and have managed people for more than 15. I've found that everyone who works from home says how much more productive they are, but generally don't cite metrics. What I do see is that those who come in the office are the ones who will pick up the little tasks that are required to make a business function effectively. They are the ones who you happen to see in the hallway and say, "hey, I've been meaning to ask you...". Or, when something needs to be done right away, it is still less efficient to seek out the remote coworker than it is to pop your head over a wall and ask someone sitting right next to you. When someone is physically not present, they are not developing personal relationships, are not part of a team and are acting as a contractor. I've also seen extensive abuse of the privilige. Often they are not immediately available by phone or e-mail, when I do talk with them, there may be screaming kids in the background, or they're in their car running personal errands.
If your job can be done more effectively by working remotely, remember there are a billion equally educated and talented individuals in emerging countries who would be happy to take your job for 1/5 the salary and benefits.
I have been working exclusively from home since 1999 for the same company (50k+ employees). I do believe there is a period of time where you need to prove your work from home effectiveness before anyone can claim that working from home is more productive. I also believe that you either can work from home effectively or you can not, there is no gray area. The ones that think they are more productive by working from home but truly are not is the group of employees that spoil much of the work from home attitude or support from any company. Once you have proven your worthiness, then those employees should be able to work from home. Be prepared to be available anytime, anywhere if you attain the ability to work from home. Working from home will always have you thinking about work in the background, if you are productive and want to be able to retain your work from home status. With the wirless carriers promoting a mobile workforce with their mobile data products and have spent billions to ensure their networks can support such a mobile workforce, I doubt that Yahoo's new edict will place any real impact to the world of telecommuters, those occassional work from home employees or those employees that have proven themselves productive to work from home fulltime.
I think that working from home allows many of us to really tap into our true callings and at the same time take care of our families, specially when we have children.
A person who works from home usually works harder and longer hours than others do. In our case as coders/ translators we get paid for what we really produce not by the amount of hours we spend sitting on a chair.
A great manager can make sure that his/ her team is productive without having to see them face to face every day.
I feel blessed to be able to work from home. I have the best of both worlds.
Often people who are productive at the office are just as productive at home, with time management skills, etc. Obviously there are a myriad of ways to communicate without an employee's physical presence. Mayer obviously lives through her office, hence the 2 weeks to care for her newborn before returning to the mother ship.
Maybe the issue is hiring competant people instead of feeling a need to micromanage employees and watch what they are up to at the office. I think possibly Mayer is herself incapable of understanding people who are that capable because she herself is incapable and possibly has trust issues and envies people who do not live at the office. Her inadequacies will stir up issues that most people have overcome in a progressive world.
I fully agree with John's comment. It all depends on what your job's requirements are. If you need to be in touch with others regurlarly or if you are just lost in a city of cublicles whith no need for working face to face with others. I can identify totally with John for telecommuting from few days to full week, starting my work at 7, 7:30 and most of the time finishing my work day at 7:00 pm with 20 minutes break for lunch and few more for health breaks. I also know that colleagues of mines also telecommuting had similar schedules and behaviors. In a distributed working environment I was working with folks in the West coast, East coast, Chicago, Texas, Wisconsin and I could have been in Paris or Sao Polo. In those cases Telecommuniting is a win win solution with significant advantages economically, (productivity increase, resources saving), also contributing to greater safety for large companies with distributed organization and for employees living in a better and appreciated working environment without the stress of commute, waste of time, pollution, and commute expenses. However, I also agree that telecommunting is not suited for everyone. It requires a great sense of self empowerement, responsibility, integrity and a great deal of work dedication.
It's odd that Yahoo/Mayer is saying traditional education is going to end as we know it and distance learning will be the new form of education. While in the same breath, Marissa Mayer exclaims that it is vital for people to work together, face-to-face. I think this view from Ms. Mayer is hypocritical if she doesn't hold education to the same standard she's holding her staff and that speaks volumes considering distance learning will suffer in her opinion of needing to work face-to-face.
This is a rediculous conversation to have. Whether running company or a division, thereof, Mayer has a one size fits all approach. Before I retired in 2011, I flexed from my home for 15 years ranging from a day to the entire week. But prior to my being allowed to flex, I was evaluated and deemed trustworthy and would be more productive flexing from home. Others were not. This what she should have had her department heads do. But given the fact that she returned to work 2 weeks after giving birth to her own child, I wouldn't expect any less from a woman who has an all or nothing approach. When I worked in the office, my hours were 8:30 to 5:00. It took me 45 minutes to commute, and a half hour to recover from that commute. By the time I got coffee and sat down, I was already depressed. Then there the a holes who walk buy laughing and gossiping. You walk by the water cooler and snack stand, they're all there bullshiting. The phones are ringing of the hook and it's a big distration. Unless you have a quiet corner office, the damn workplace is full of distractions, with idiots coming up to you and asking you about Joe Blow dating Mary Jane. When I flexed from home, I got up at 5:30, turned on the coffee maker, put on a pair of jean, cleaned up and turned on my laptop and before 7 AM I was on the job, heated my lunch and was done with it in 20 minutes and again got to work finishing up between 5 and 7. When I worked from home, I was happy to get up, I was upbeat and ready to roll. Didn't need to dress up in my suit and tie, didn't need to get frustrated comuting 45 minutes each way, didn't need to listen to all the nonsense in the office, and I had all the tools, my entire workload and schedule on my laptop, all the research material on Lexis-Nexis. My situation may not fit some or even many of the employees at Yahoo, but the best approach is to have the employees evaluated, look at past performance, look at their circumstance in terms of commuting, and make a common sense decision in respect to each employee, not this nonsense of one size fits all.
For all of you that thinks everyone is self-motivating and capable of working from home, let me ask...do you think Marissa Mayer would be able to lead by example and make Yahoo competitive again by working 5 days a week from home? I doubt it. You can't run a large company if the CEO is invisible (or virtual). By that same token, can Yahoo be productive if everyone worked from home? Absolutely not. Yet a company can absolutely be productive when all employees work in the office.
Working from home is a privilege for those that are self-motivating and trustworthy. If you come into a company that have employees abusing such privilege, it is a difficult and time-comsuming process to correct such abuse...and potentially liability issue if you lay off such workers without proper documentations. I don't know the exact situation for Yahoo, but this may be Marissa's best hope to thin out the herd. Good for her to be able to make tough decisions.
Looking at some of the comments here makes wonder just how many people actually worked from home? I've found that the most talented people in IT business work from home, last time I've checked, Yahoo is an IT company isn't it? I also found it funny that in this day and age of which talent is the most valuable asset in the world is not treasured at yahoo. One could only wonder what the outlook for them will be in the coming years or is there coming years?
I had to Google (hee hee) to see how old this CEO was. Sounds an awful lot like a baby boomer with that old-school work mentality. Am of Gen X, and have worked with Millenials, and can honestly say that the cheese has moved in terms of how work is accomplished. Piss-poor communication between teammates must be the problem with any organization who is looking to make wholesale changes like this without regard to job function. I'm guessing the organization will be back in cubicles and private offices soon.
I've had something similar happen to me. I worked at home two days a week. I was also on call 24 hours a day to fix issues. My productivity dropped when I was forced to stop working at home. Quite often in programming and the extensive validation testing you will run into tasks that require waiting or monitoring, but not necessarily every minute. Working at home allowed me to multitask and get some things like housework done and if in doubt I'd simply work longer to make sure my hours were correct. That doesn't work if you are punching a time clock. I already drive for more than an hour a day. Basically its an issue of trust. If it seems my employer doesn't trust you, then it is difficult to justify going the extra mile. Working at home also helps a great deal when you have a programming task and you need to focus without interruptions. The office environment is full of them. Headphones help, but not nearly as much as silence. Whoever thought cubicles were the best way to be efficient is of questionable sanity. There is also the matter of it being a lot better on the environment not to be doing another 5000 miles of pollution a year and around $750 dollars in gas a year. The larger loss, is by not trusting your employees, you get less effort from them, or possibly lose some of them, which can have a large impact to a development program. I have a different job now in an area I'm interested in. In my original job we only had a couple other of the same employees for the entire time I was there, while we had lost eight or so over time. Two employees left not long after the new policy was announced and went onto other jobs in the same company, although to be fair, they had already planned on leaving. The new policy was simply an additional straw. When you lose the core of your team, for whatever reason, it becomes very difficult to do much more than patch and try to keep things going on a lot of things.
If a manager has no idea what an employee is doing, then they may need to ask more from time to time, or insist on demos or other metrics periodically so progress can be measured and people can remained focused on the goals of the company. The best employees will always look for the best position they can get, and to some of them, the ability to work at home part of the time is a very valuable benefit. I, myself, found myself more rested, more focused, and better able to do my job on days I could work at home. Instant messaging, desktop sharing, and phone calls work to resolve most issues. They don't eliminate the need for face time, and sometimes you need resources that are only available at work. When you do not need the resources, what is truly the problem with working at home, if it works well for everyone involved? The main key is for managers to have some way to keep track that the employee is making satisfactory progress and not just billing the company, but then that is their job, whether or not the employee works virtually part of the time? Sometimes I think policies like stopping virtual work is more about making it so you don't have to trust the managers so much to do their jobs. If that is the case, then the company has additional problems.
I'm an IT professional for a Fortune 50 company - and as stodgy and old-school as it is, even IT allows telecommuting. This decision is foolhardy and short-sighted. If it is indeed a way to "weed out" weaker employees as some have surmised, then it is a silly approach. I too am shocked at a younger exec making this decision. Telecommuting provides the company with MORE work from its employees, not LESS as there is less travel overhead - particularly in hugely congested areas like where I live. Further, it saves on corporate resources (in terms of those occupying offices at work) and engenders LOYALTY among employees. Highly motivated employees (with other job options) MAY even consider working for LESS money in order to stay telecommuters. I can only hope that the "weed out" hypothesis is right for the sake of the Yahoo employees . This would just be yet another dumb decision for that company in a LONG line of them.
Dumb idea. My wife and I both work from home - she for a Fortune 100 company, me for a smaller firm. We both receive and answer emails, texts, & phone calls early morning, in the evening, and on the weekends. We are more productive & effective than we were when working in an office. Everyone I've talked with who works from home makes the same claim. This is a 1950's idea - shocking for a 30 something exec.
She recently bragged about Yahoo voted #8 best place to work. Watch that fall off the list next year. #FAIL
She recently bragged about Yahoo voted #8 best place to work. Watch that fall off the list next year. #FAIL
She recently bragged about Yahoo voted #8 best place to work. Watch that fall off the list next year. #FAIL
First question should be what makes Yahoo inferior to Google and other search engine, what Yahoo has been lacking, being unattractive and feels depressed, not the first choice in people's mind? Instantly, without legitimate reasons for a harsh decision is too myopic a person is thought to be. Why out of sudden we need to sabotage existing members in a company? Remotely working employees do not imply laziness. Sitting in office does not guarantee dedication to company and increase in productivity either. (Some sit in employees use company's online service for private uses, texting, surfing webs which are absolutely wasting resources and causing possible hacking in the computers.)In a situation, mandatory decision (without prior investigation and careful consideration) might arouse negative impact. Like, stress from transportation, disharmony in families etc can provoke unhappiness which can lead to more gossips, conflicts, disharmony in groups of workers. Why aren't adequate information, investigation and simple suggestions collected at first? If data pin down a problem existing in remote working which jeopardizes Yahoo's benefits, appropriate actions can be taken and employees also understand the future in the company they are working. Dedication is not made of face to face, physical contact every second. Instead it is from how people understand their boss's faith in them, respect given and boss's insight. Pointing fingers and authority fail in gaining loyalty todays.
Secondly, connectivity between groups and groups, departments and departments is seen more effectively picking out problems, adopting new polices and regenerating productivity. Trailing individuals to individuals can be too clumsy and too slow; bean counters are useless. Therefore, if necessary for office working, is it referring to the executives, department chiefs, supervisors who take responsibilities for managing and handling issues collectively?
I am not if this memo is genuine action applied on the employees or it is just an advertisement. Either, it does not help Yahoo.
She is cutting the fat, silently ending all the foreign jobs of people that yahoo " Just can't control " people saying they work at yahoo in foreign companies collecting wages and really in all honestly just hanging about on yahoo answers all day wasting all of our time.
Yup shes doing the right thing disguising this mass layoffs of people pretending to be yahoo! employees overseas and abroad.
Good for you lets get rid of all this foney balonge payroll
What isn't being said is how bad previous mgmt at Yahoo was. What you find is people hiding in Tele-Commuting. I predict that telecommuting at Yahoo will be back in a year after getting rid of about 1/3 of the workers who were a waste of space and should be fired. Also need to get better mgmt tools in place to manage and to track productivity metrics.
I have worked in both an office and from a home office. My experience is that the home office is much preferred on a personal basis but is much less efficient in work related matters. I completed my work but found myself very removed from the "company" goals. I completed tasks but was outside of the overall agenda.
Hurrah for Marissa. One thing these lackadaisical, hipper-than-thou dot-com-ers should learn is that the boss is the boss. This ain't no charity program. It is a job. And when you have a job, you do what the boss says. It ain't a democracy. If these hip dot com types don't like it, Yahoo can find plenty of folks to replace them. They're lucky they have a job. I can already hear the groaning from all those who are indignant because Marissa Mayer put profits first, not the comfort of the spoiled Gen X-ers and Gen Y-ers employed there.
#2, who doesn't know in their heart of hearts that working from home is easier....simply because it is home. You can go down to the kitchen, you can read the paper on the couch, you can do anything. Anyone who doesn't realize that working from home is easy as hell and relaxing as hell must have his/her head in the sand. I should know - I work from home. I own my own business, so the consequences are mine. But what a cushy situation it is for me, and all the other flakes out there who do it. Got errands? Do 'em. Got a cute dog? Play with him, etc., etc., etc.
Erin really needs to do her homework here. Working from home is proven to be more effective and workers who are comfortable doing it actually are MORE productive and work longer hours. It's a fact, not an opinion. There are people who abuse anything and like everything else, their work output shows it and they get let go. The "office" is just a HUGE way for groups of people to get together and "feel good" that they had a meeting or 10 or 20 meetings on some subject and actually didn't accomplish anything, plus they got to get out, have lunch with friends, take coffee breaks, catch up on gossip, have affairs, flirt and on down the line. If a real study were done I know it would show that 1 good remote worker is worth 3 in the office workers. Yahoo is dead and this CEO is just trying drastic measures, probably on the advice from some older "mentor" who just doesn't get technology and is old school business, probably from a soda or retail company.
I am totally agreed with Mayer’s decision. I have been working in the IT industry for 18 years as a technical support, and I have talked to thousands (yes 1000s) of remote workers at many large corporations, and I can tell you that 9 out of 10 remote workers are not productive when they work from home. Working from home requires strong self-discipline and self-motivation to avoid distractions at home and technical knowledge to be able to use today’s technologies.
BTW, I love your TV show Erin! Keep up the good work.
I've been in the IT Industry for over 30 years now in every role and capacity. Believe me, with this decision Marissa Mayer is on her way to being a wanna be. Sure, there is always going to be those that abuse working from home ... just like there are people who abuse working in the office. This decision tells more about Marissa than it does about the Yahoos who work for her. If she can't lead and motivate skilled, talented people to embrace the challenges of Yahoo whom happen to work from home, then I doubt she can lead and motivate skilled, talented people whom work in cubicals and closets disguised as offices. Marissa is guiding her company using 1980's business mentality and that says a lot about her vision ... 30+ years old. I bet a lot of people did what I did ... Changed their home page from Yahoo to something else ... Yahoo is dead!
I have worked from home and at work place for long time, I don't think you and your team suddenly become a wizard when you are at work. I think enforcing a work from office will be a mistake as driven and intelligent people will leave. Raising family is harder in bay area and this is one more step in wrong direction.
Now mom and dad can leave their young child at daycare and work for yahoo for 12 hours to afford a tiny condo in Sunnyvale or Cupertino . Good old American dream achieved.
Marissa Mayer has a mission to revive Yahoo, and this move will certainly help her goal. Go girl ...
I have worked from home for nearly 4 years. On the rare occasions when I travel to my companies office (it is over 150 miles away from my home) I find myself engaging in social conversations. Also, lots of people (me included) tend to spend their time chitchatting with each other and not doing actual work. My employer uses Lync which allows me to share my desktop with coworkers so we can work on problems together as if they are looking over my shoulder at my screen. There is an argument that I have seen many times that it is easier to walk over to someones desk and ask them a question. However, I couldn't disagree more. Microsoft Lync which also has an Instant Message capability which allows you to IM questions to your co-workers with ease and best of all the decisions/answers given are recorded in case you need to look back at what was decided/discussed. And yes Lync does have a very easy way to do a voice call. Just click the person and say call...actually Lync calls are preferred over traditional phone calls at my employer.
Prior to working from home full time I used to travel every week on business. Monday through Thursday I was physically in the office and the day that I would actually generate output (i.e. tangible artifacts) was on Friday when I worked from home. Monday through Thursday was just generally meetings and mostly interruptions.
I think its a great idea. The environment in yahoo probably needs a face lift . The most productive employees are the most passionate and the most motivated. The quickest way to build that passion, motivation and trust is to bring people together and work towards a common goal. Any volunteers for an online/webex trust fall? Some things are better in person/face to face. Finding agreement wcan be solved quicker if that person is across the hall as opposed to sitting at home.
I think its a great idea. The environment in yahoo probably needs a face lift . The most productive employees are the most passionate and the most motivated. The quickest way to build that passion, motivation and trust is to bring people together and work towards a common goal. Any volunteers for an online/webex trust fall? Some things are better in person/face to face. Finding agreement wcan be solved quicker if that person is across the hall as opposed to sitting at home.
I think its a great idea. The environment in yahoo probably needs a face lift . The most productive employees are the most passionate and the most motivated. The quickest way to build that passion, motivation and trust is to bring people together and work towards a common goal. Any volunteers for an online/webex trust fall? Some things are better in person/face to face. Finding agreement wcan be solved quicker if that person is across the hall as opposed to sitting at home.
Having done both over the years, working from home is just not as productive as working from work. Erin is correct those interactions with other workers to spark ideas, solve issues, and make your more productive.
This is a poor business strategy. What Mayer is not realizing is that the best will leave and the not so great will stay. She decided to become part of the problem by creating a retention crisis.
People who work from home are generally more productive when compared to people who work in the office. Erin you jokingly made reference to a cat in the background and 20 minutes of cleanup and making up time for unexpected interruptions. Well, that equates to coworkers walking over to your desk, several trips to get coffee amounts to more than just 20 minutes on a daily basis. People who work from home feel that they have to constantly prove themselves and they do so by working more than 40 hrs work week and not get paid for the overtime. Frankly, Ms. Mayer is making a huge mistake. What was the underlying reason employees were allowed to work from home to begin with? Are these reasons no longer valid? I am shocked that a woman executive made a decision like this. Awful! Just awful!
People who work from home are generally more productive when compared to people who work from home. Erin you jokingly made reference to a cat in the background and 20 minutes of cleanup and making up time for unexpected interruptions. Well, that equates to coworkers walking over to your desk, several trips to get coffee amounts to more than just 20 minutes on a daily basis. People who work from home feel that they have to constantly prove themselves and they do so by working more than 40 hrs work week and not get paid for the overtime.
Frankly, Ms. Mayer is making a huge mistake. What was the underlying reason employees were allowed to work from home to begin with? Are these reasons no longer valid? I am shocked that a woman executive made a decision like this. Awful! Just aweful!
I work for a corporation where every decision made by the leadership in the past 7 years has been grossly counter-productive. It does not surprise me that a woman will make the tough and right decisions that require balls that the male idiots don’t have. Anyway, working remotely is not for everyone, and therefore should not be for anyone, in order to keep a level working field, except in special circumstances. Working remotely requires loyalty and trust at both ends. Are we really there yet, or will we ever really be? Some corporations see their employees as liabilities, or slaves, and some employees see their corporation as an evil and greedy empire with evil, greedy and selfish masters. Let’s not forget that company loyalty and trust, for the most part, went the way of job security, i.e; the way of the do-do bird.
It would depend on the person and the position. I will be the first to tell you that face time is important. However, due to strides made in technology, most positions (especially those in technology) can be performed anywhere. With the evolution of such collaborative tools such as Microsoft Lync 2010, one can work from anywhere and still make their virtual presence felt in the physical office with features such as online presence info, video chat/conferencing (face time), IM and click to call. If the enterprise voice feature is enabled, calls to your office line (if you have one) can literally follow you anywhere.
One thing people have to be really honest about is that working remotely is not for everyone. There are some people who are excellent workers but get easily distracted working away from the office. Others simply cannot manage their time properly and cannot do their job without having their superior standing over them. Heck, there are some who can't manage their time properly EVEN WITH their superior standing over them.
With that being said, there are many people who don't have this issue. Most of the folks in this category actually work their best away from the office. I am one of those people. I have been working remotely for over a year now and I love it. I do not have to deal with traffic, distractions in the office, working late at the office (which means I get home very late) and then having to do it all over again the next day. One has to be careful not to get lost in their work while working from home but good time management takes care of that.
The point I'm making is that it's different strokes for different folks. Working remotely works great for some people and not so great for others. Again, people just need to be really honest with themselves. If Yahoo (or any other company) intends to keep their employees happy (which usually results in more productivity) they should not have a mandate to work from the office if they have the capablity to work just as effectively remotely.
Google has more telecommuters because Google is way ahead of the bunch and *does not need to catch up*.
HP? HP is major fail--before Carly Fiorina HP is like a private luxury club.
Yahoo needs to function like a startup to catch up: how many work from home telecommuters do you see at startup companies?
Explain to me how you peer code and give feedbacks if you are not face to face? Sorry Skype and messengers/video conferencing *doesn't work*: people just don't sit in front of the computer and turn on their webcams at home.
I know of people who work from home, even in overtime, and do absolutely nothing! This is perhaps the perfect way to get back at companies that think that they are smart by mistreating and demoralizing their employees. If a company treats their employees fairly and respectfully, then they have every right to demand that their employees come to work, or choose to leave. While I get twice as much work done working from home, some of my peers do nothing. But, then again, that happens in the office too. How and when was it determined that any and every one can work without supervision. If companies trust their employees that much, then they should get rid of most of their managers, who are the least productive employees, to save tons of money.
OR ... PC, it's NOT the employees, but in direct comparison to Google, who has MUCH of their staff working from home, perhaps the lack of artistic vision it's what's lacking??? If the companies are exactly the same, and have the same goals, and they both have people working from home (Google has more), then perhaps the only difference is what you can plainly SEE. Innovation is what sets Google apart from Yahoo. So, P C, apparently you are another Control Freak, who has the limited ability to function, unless someone is right in front of you. Perhaps that makes YOU OLD, and perhaps you should retire, and let young people move in your position. Clearly your company needs an infusion of innovation too?
I don't agree with her. She should be holding her managers accountable for making sure all employees, in and out of the office, meet their objectives and deliver.
Marissa is really cute....But, she needs to get with it.
Dr. Bob, you sound like Marissa. A control freak. Not happy until you can touch and control everything in front of you. When you finally understand, sometimes the problem is WITH YOU, you can finally stop blaming others, and accept responsibility for your actions, and quit trying to control others. Dr. Bob, might I suggest counseling?
It's about time someone have the courage to step up and mandate exactly what is needed at Yahoo: focus and intensity. Yahoo employees have been slacking off long enough--it's time for them to own up and start working like what employees at startup companies do: it's the only way they will ever get past mediocrityand catch up to rivals like Google and Apple! This isn't just about productivity, but about focus and responsibility to shareholders who still have faith in Yahoo. Mayer isn't saying employees can't take time off or can't occasionally work from home: she is reminding the employees to not forget the importance of collaboration and communication (the same ingredients with which good startup companies succeed). As an example: programmers need to be at work to pair/peer code: it's one of the most effective agile development techniques out there. Long commute? Move closer or rent a place close to work!
Really, what is Mayer thinking?
Requiring work that can be done remotely to be done on-site limits the employee base to those who are geographically local and physically mobile. Remote work expands the hiring base - which allows for greater diversity of talent and skill set. Hiring remote employees who are physically limited allows greater employment of those who are marginally employable if required to be on-site.
Remote work is green, allows employees to better balance life and work, and increases productivity by eliminating the additional time and fatigue that commuting is responsible for.
I am a partially disabled, remote full time employee of a NYC publisher that has had the wisdom to seek the most qualified staff from across the country. We hold virtual meetings, collaborate daily via instant messaging and phone, and enjoy each other's differences immensely. We are ab incredibly productive bunch.
With this decision - to require employees to be on-site - Yahoo shows the short-sightedness that has plagued the company for years.
As an online independent contractor, I take great offense at her broad sweeping (and historically wrong) generalization that people like myself sacrifice a company's speed and quality, need to be working side-by-side to communicate and collaborate, or can only "be about" interactions and experiences in an office somewhere. She couldn't have been more insulting if she tried.
I've been working online since 2005 and have earned quite a respectable reputation as a result. It's a reputation that I'm extremely proud of, and this bimbo just destroyed it with a memo.
Marissa has no idea what she's talking about. I work from home for HP. A good CEO knows "culture" doesn't mean "in person" or not. It's how you handle communications, and how you handle your company. The problem with Yahoo isn't whether people work "in the office" or not. HP, Google, and plenty of companies have people that work from home, and they succeed. Yahoo is not succeeding because they lack innovation, and that isn't their people's fault, it's the CEO's fault. This is just another CEO wanting to place blame on something else, rather than accepting responsibility. What will Marissa say when Yahoo is STILL failing AFTER this?
She should be applauded !! People who say they are working from home are not really working as hard as all of us who have to answer telephones, talk to customers face to face, and deal with the daily issues at work. People who work from home are not respected by the real workers.
I agree with Michael L in regards to coming in certain days of the week. Having that human contact is essential for some mind-blowing ideas that can come out...seeing someone's emotional response. However, some get more done at home with less interruptions. The argument could be made for both but perhaps a middle ground would be best for all concerned. There are some employees who will "milk the clock" regardless if they are working from home or working at the office.
I think it's a great thing, Marissa has shown what she's made of, she had a baby and went right back to work. She works hard so it's only fair that she'd expect her staff to work just as hard. I love strong Sisters and Marissa Mayer is definitely one strong Sister!!!!
I agree and support her stand on the issue. All the reasons given are valid. People at work have access to the communication and collaboration in the workplace. It's easy to see how much time can be spent in non productive activities while working at home. I do so often on weekends, in the evening, after I've spent a day of 9-10 or more hours at work. I know how easy it is to be distracted and do something else for a few minutes or for awhile.
I thoroughly agree. Too many people say they work at home and productivity is not good. Comm'n skills go down the tube and employees are not available when needed. A good example is the University and College system. Students are not in contact with Instructors etc. If you have a job and a responsibility, show up at work so all colleagues know who you are and be accountable to your employer. The employer should not have to seek you out at home and then find out you are not there! To be productive, you should be in a productive setting and be accountable for the time you are at the office.
Seriously? We are questioning a CEO for wanting their employees to be at work? Americans are becoming such entitled twits. The Obama culture of getting everything you want without doing anything is spreading fast. How dare she make me come to work! I should be able to sit at home and do whatever I want and get a nice check from work and the government and have all of my healthcare paid for and free preschool so I don't have to bother watching my children while I am home at work (aka watching episodes of Homeland). This nation is certainly becoming an obamination.
She must have a compelling reason for the decision, Yahoo has had a string of setbacks in the past and she has been charged with turning the hailing corporation around, this decision might be part of the problems identified, i strongly support her decision if it makes sense for yahoo corporation.
How outdated!! People who are underperformers will be so in or out of the office. Clearly this is a company that doesn't care about morale or work-life balance. Employees who have tried to hang in and be loyal to the company are rewarded with this.
I agree with Mayer's decision. Good for her. There is too much sluffing off by employees who claim they are working at home. It is bad enough in the office with frequent reading of personal emails, tweeting constantly, etc. Management needs to become serious about this issue.
She has made a huge blunder. I don't know the internal Yahoo details of course, but to come out with a "one size fits all" edict is crazy. She gives the appearance of being a monarch, a dictator. Talented tech people won't take to that approach. She may have been a tech whiz at one time, but she's no seasoned manager. Carly Fiorina all over again. Yahoo will be lucky to survive her.
With gas prices through the roof, how about yahoo pay a wage increase to all its employees for the added cost they will endure by this change. Just one more way greedy CEOs are trying to screw middle class Americans. I hope she dies in a fire.
THE MAIN reason for "telecommuting" is because of the "GREEN" factor. Now it'll cause more pollution and more cars in the now crowded freeways of the Bay Area!!! People will waste more time in TRAFFIC. She should have just mandated a few days in office will do especially for tech engineers. DUH!!!
I think it is a smart move, one for the very reason she did it, but also keeps people honest on the work they do ... no more milking the clock
Probably a better ideal.. to be at work.. but wondering if more gets done at home.. I think she is a bit weird,coming to work herself only two weeks after having a baby... nice mom!! lol Living here in Canada a mother is allowed to stay home one year.. How about bonding with your baby a little!
Yeah too easy to hide those good old american jobs that arn't oversees if they have to go to work. What you mean we really dont have 8,000 employees?