Yahoo's Work-From-Home Ban: Wrong Decision, or Necessary Evil?
Yahoo's decision to end work-from-home plans rekindles the debate about whether or not telecommuting makes sense.
The decision by new Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer to ban work-from-home plans set off a predictable reaction in Silicon Valley and throughout the tech world, with many folks saying that Yahoo was out of step with the somewhat sweeping trend toward greater workplace flexibility. Kara Swisher at All Things D, who broke the story on the original note, had a follow up story that asked a lot of other tech companies what their policies toward working from home were, with what I thought were predictable answers.
Most of the replies from tech leaders were along the lines of "we treat our employees like adults, and expect them to make appropriate decisions." There was a line in there I'd heard many times before, about how a certain company "doesn't grade by attendance, but by performance." I'd heard that at a former big software company I worked for too, from the CEO himself. But I also knew that if I missed the weekly group meeting I'd better have a good reason why.
Here's what I think: For Yahoo, a company in obvious turmoil, getting all hands back on deck may be the best chance it has to survive. I know nothing about how Yahoo operates but my thinking in this case is that Yahoo needs to figure out who it is as a company, and apparently Mayer believes the only way that can happen is to bring everybody back together to figure it out. Does that make sense? In this case, it might. Was there a better way to word it or implement it than the all-or-nothing direction the email laid out? Most likely.
But it could also be a not-so-subtle way to eliminate internal malcontents; if there were folks who didn't particularly like Yahoo but didn't mind doing their job in a comfortable fashion, they might start looking somewhere else instead of complying with the new edict. Maybe when Yahoo gets its mojo back, the company can start allowing people to work from home again. Because for many companies big and small, allowing workplace flexibility is a small price to pay for keeping the best talent on your payroll. At least that's what most of the other leading tech companies seem to be saying.
I think it's interesting that a poll in a CNNMoney story about Yahoo's decision reaction to whether it was the right thing to do or not was running exactly at 50-50 on Monday when I looked at the results, after about 13,000 votes according to the CNN site. I know both of businesses that are run completely remote, with no central offices at all, and I know of companies where people are still required to be at their desks early in the morning, sharply dressed. The idea that "work happens at the office" is a hard culture to break.
I think that working from home is immeasurably better these days, thanks to mobile collaborative applications, devices, and culture changes that make it acceptable to be "remote." But is it right for every company, at all times? I think it's a matter of culture and business situation -- and right now it's pretty obvious even from the outside that Yahoo needs a new direction. Maybe ending work-at-home plans is the only way to really get everyone on board. I doubt it, but it will be interesting to see if it works at Yahoo. At the very least, it's a great topic to discuss here at Mobile Enterprise 360: Has your company ever cut back on telecommuting or work from home plans? If so, did it work? Let us know. And you don't have to come in to the office to do so.
Marissa Mayer speaks publicly, for the first time, about her famous no-working-from-home edict. While poking some fun at herself.
"It's not what's right for Yahoo right now," Mayer said. And added "It was wrongly perceived as an industry narrative."
I don't think this would be half the story it became if the CEO has not been a woman and one who just had a baby to boot. There's something about the image of a woman who built a nursery next to her office removing telecommuting -- a major feature in the ability to ability to balance work/home life. That juxtaposition was inflammatory. And I think she's short-sighted.
This "peanut butter" accross-the-boards policy is probably a bad precedent.
While at Sun Micro, we had a group (and consulting practice) called OpenWork. The methodology was to *First* determine individual workstyles, group dynamics and managerial styles. Recommendations on local, remote, or mixed workstyles could then be suggested. And, if remote/mixed was the answer, there was also training to help managers be more effective and for teams to remain cohesive.
I'd like to see more of that thoughtful approach to workforce mobility - rather than these not-fully-thought-out kludgy approaches.
I think people would have respected Mayer more if she had just come out and said, "we've got a bunch of non-performers who need to leave." It's not the working at home that is the problem... it's who is doing (or not doing) the work.
I understand Mayer's thought process here, but I think it is a risky business decision. The mobile workforce is now a part of corporate culture. Technology connects us more than it separates us, and I don't know one person who works from home-- or on the road during a business trip, for that matter--- who does not work just as hard (if not harder) and just as long hours (if not longer) than their commuting counterparts. Changing the way people do business will be a productivity smasher in the short term. It may even create resentment rather than cohesion among the troops. In the long term, well, perhaps the boss is right....we will all be able to measure the success or failure of this decision based on Yahoo's future performance.
New-gen recruits are going to have a tough time with such a rigid work environment. They're all about technology and using it to their benefit, combining work and personal life. Since they're the future, I don't see how companies like Yahoo can cut themselves off from the resource pool.
The best decisions are made based on opportunity, which drives the rest, not vice versa. Similarly, anyone looking at office-vs.-mobile employee decision as a productivity issue is misled.
Growth businesses (like Yahoo!) are about creating opportunity. That requires collaboration. Mayer’s Yahoo! edict is not an indictment on mobility-driven productivity. It is an acknowledgement that productivity isn’t the sole driver of the business. I support mobility, but understand the rationale. –Paul Calento
Forced environments don't work. That's not to say a business shouldn't have rules, guidelines, etc. but its crucial to support talent in the way talent needs support. If that means providing all the tools and access to work in remote environments great.
I will admit some people struggle without the structure of a brick and mortar facility. However it does not do any good to hamper the abilities of all to satisfy the needs of a few.
Much of the online debate about Yahoo’s telework ban seems to assume there is a “correct” approach to teleworkers that every company can and should follow. It should be obvious, however, that there is no “single-size-fits-all” telecommuting strategy, just as there isn’t a single mobility strategy or a single cloud strategy.
Companies’ situations differ, different categories of workers may be well suited, or not, to telecommuting, and individual personalities, motivations and needs must be factored into any telecommuting strategy. I’m sure there are many Yahoo employees who can perform their jobs professionally and well when working outside of the office. But, as you note, Mayer’s decision may be the best strategy for Yahoo at this point, as the company tries to navigate around the many perils it faces.
The risks, noted by many, are that it won’t just be the internal malcontents who start jumping ship because of the requirement to return to the world of rush-hour commuting and office buildings. If Yahoo starts to lose some of its best and brightest because of the telework ban, Mayer must be willing to reverse course quickly, even if that reversal reflects poorly on her initial decision. Not all CEOs are prone to admitting their mistakes, so the real test of Mayer’s leadership may still be ahead of us.
I like the report that said she used VPN logs to see who was actually "working" remotely and who wasn't. Does that make the VPN log the new time clock?
To your point Dwight -- you have to wonder if the risks of losing good people are worth the trouble. Anyone else out there ever lose an employee due to similar rules?
It would certainly be interesting to know what, exactly, the VPN logs revealed.
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