As the buzz about Yahoo’s ban on working from home continues to escalate, it struck me that the outrage over “to ban or not ban” misses the big picture.
Both sides can make arguments that have some merit. Yahoo claims this is “right for Yahoo right now” – but says who? Obviously not the current and former Yahoo employees who are shaken and confused by the change and have chosen to speak out.
The decision comes from someone at the top who more than likely has engaged in very little of the “water cooler creativity” with the rank and file that was determined to be so critical to company success.
I believe in an employee-driven workplace where those who do the job have the best insights into improving productivity and maximizing innovation in their areas. If Yahoo employees had come together and said, “For our organization, mandatory on site presence is key to success,” then my blog would stop right here. But clearly that is not the case at Yahoo.
The people at the top, talking “at” employees rather than “with” employees, have taken the attitude that momma knows best. It’s condescending, arrogant and bad business for everyone.
While I’ll leave the specifics of how workplace flexibility impacts recruitment, retention and creativity to those who have already weighed in like Richard Branson (for) and Donald Trump (against), I did want to add one point.
Some contend that people slack off or are less productive when they are working remotely. Forcing non-productive employees to be that way in front of you rather than behind your back accomplishes nothing. Allowing poor work performance is the result of poor management, not a bad HR policy.
If you manage by results achieved, the slackers are quickly identified by their supervisors no matter where they work. In addition, if you manage by team metrics and give team members an outlet to peer review, slackers are even more quickly identified because no one wants to carry another’s load.
Again, an employee-driven workplace is the key to maximizing productivity and profits, and it sounds like Yahoo could use a lot more of both of those things. A blanket ban on how/where to work that has little to no employee buy-in is a step backwards, not forwards.
Yahoo and many brands talk about the value of listening (to customers), so why not “practice what you preach” in your own house and start listening to your employees?
Posted in: Business Thoughts
Tags: best practices, Business, Marissa Mayer, telecommuting, work from home, Workplace, Yahoo
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I agree, there are merits to both sides of the issue.
However, it seems to me that Yahoo!, a “technology-based” company with technology-savvy employees and customers, could do more to tap into the technology its uses to quash the entire matter. Why not use video-conferencing, ie: Skype? with big screen monitors and BOSE speakers to connect employees, management and vendors in a virtual setting to achieve the team environment management says is lacking?
I feel I have the best of both worlds and my employer benefits as much from my enhanced productivity. I work from home part time (was 3 days, now 2) and am in the office the other 3 days. My in-office days are great for team meetings and get-togethers and my at-home days are ideal for focused writing/editing work with fewer interruptions. Less time spent commuting, more time for me to recharge and be highly productive all week. For introverts like me, working in an open-concept, noisy office all week long is a sure-fire recipe for rapid burnout. I don’t know why more offices don’t encourage regular work at home days for people with jobs that would benefit from them.
Yahoo may be in desperate need of a cultural overhaul, and Mayer has apparently calculated that the loss of some employees or the bitterness of others is worth it, to shake things up and move to the next stage. Based on her age and her tech industry experience she probably knew exactly employees would react – she’s managing her peers.
She may not have counted on the rest of us to jump in and tell her how to do her job. But I’m betting she’s smart enough to have a strategy behind this, and I look forward to seeing how it plays out in public.
(I’m also tempted to ask what the reactions might have been if she was a man. But maybe we shouldn’t go there.)
Thanks for your comments. Clearly, there is not a one-size fits all to deciding where and how to work. I too agree that Yahoo was not taken by surprise by the employee reaction and wondered about the gender issue. This one issue will not make or break Yahoo but the intense emotions evidenced on both sides indicates this is an issue each and every workplace needs to consider carefully.