To ask all MNetters to boycott yahoo ...

[theweekendisnear]

... because newish mum and newish CEO, Marissa Meyer, has just told yahoo employees that they cannot work flexibly from home anymore?

I am going to move my more-or-less 20-year-old yahoo account to gmail because of this. I am furious with this woman.

[DolomitesDonkey]

I too work for a US multinational and the reality is my closest colleague is 20 miles away - and that's only because I got him the job. That aside it's a virtual team - incl. middle east - so we're not even all working the same days - never mind the same building.

We made a point of having a "live" event in The Hague last year for a meet & greet because I think it's important to be able to put faces to names and it certainly cemented our team.

[lainiekazan]

I read the other week about an employee in the US who had managed to sub-contract his work to a guy in China. He was earning, if I remember rightly, c. $150K and paying 10% of that to get the Chinese guy to do all the work. The real problem with the company was doing something to do with national security so not only was the employee lazy but doing something potentially dangerous.

Bil works for a large IT company at home. He never does anything , or at least very little. He is always out and about, pursuing hobbies, out on his boat ... I am astonished he has been able to scoot under the radar for so long. Presumably it is this type of employee that Ms Mayer is seeking to root out.

[racingheart]

*lainiekazan - how do you know your BiL does nothing? Maybe he doesn't work 9-5, but that doesn't mean he's not doing his job. Lots of employers opt for home working because they discovered home workers work harder. Less office chit chat and faffing around and having endless whip rounds and cakes for people. The average office worker does 4 hours a day. The average home worker does more (not sure how much more - I'm basing this on a report I read a while ago.)
My neighbour works from home - has a key role for a big company. I see him head down the garden to his office when I'm still in PJs. He comes in for lunch, out again until 6. Puts in a really full day.
Home working is cheaper too - no overheads. I think she's very silly to issue such a heavy handed directive to staff who agreed to join the company on very different terms. Nothing's to stop her measuring the level and value of work people do from home.

As to that guy who outsourced to China: being a conniving, skiving cheat is hardlythe exclusive province of homeworkers.

[theodorakisses]

I agree about flexibility generally. I would never, ever expect someone to miss their child's concert or medical appointment because of work and most meetings etc can be rescheduled and I have covered for my staff many times and would be sad if they didn't ask. One of the good things about the ME companies I have worked in is that, especially in the compound schools where all pupils are the children of the same company employees, operations can almost come to a standstill because all parents attend. When I worked for a different organisation under a big multinational oil and gas co, they had two performances of everything so the people who had to miss it to be on standby at the operations, security etc could have a turn the next day. I think the UK has the best employment legislation and rights and would never want to undermine that but I think a little bit more of family friendly stuff being less about women wingeing (perceived not actual) and more about family values being at the heart of an employees health and productivity would go a long way. Never mind if they are married or their gender.

[lainiekazan]

Believe me, I know bil does nothing. I think he really is the prime example of the type of employee who spoils the privilege of home working for others. He merrily gets away with it because the company he "works" for is huge and his management job, "convening meetings" doesn't attract attention.

[theodorakisses]

Dolomite, I recently studied this and found an amazing study called Unpacking Team Familiarity an extensive study that found that maintaining project teams in further projects rather than splitting them up in international teaming was far more important that geographical location, time zone or hierarchical structure. In fact, the geographical location of the team members had a negligible impact on the function of the team.

[theodorakisses]

and I agree about the face to face and have really got such a lot out of visiting our JV in China and my opposites elsewhere.

[expatinscotland]

YABU. But all these spiteful people, 'I'm a PA' 'I'm a nurse' with their I-can't-work-from-home-so-no-one-should are pathetic.

You don't like your job's t&c, then get another job!

Plenty of people who work from home are highly productive, others aren't. Same as in offices.

Couldn't really care less about Marissa Meyers and something going on in bloody Silicon Valley.

[PolkadotCircus]

Errr. I think posters were replying to the thread title.

Also the fact remains if you are in an office you are held to account more,it is perfectly possible to get away with far more if you are not on site and on a huge scale it wouldn't be good for any company which is clearly why Ms Meyer has taken action.

[aldiwhore]

Given her reasons, I agree.

There seem to be too many ghost workers. Although I think it is Yahoo's fault for letting a bad situation arise, they need to do something.

I am a huge supporter of being flexible, working from home occassionally can be a good thing, but in a collaborative business you need a common ground pf physical space so you can collaborate.

I hope once that the current problems are solved a more structured flexibility could be introduced.

[chocolatemuffintop]

Yes, plenty of people do sod all in the office too.

I ended up sitting on the same row of desks as someone who always got his report in late, never replied to emails, etc, etc.

After studying him for a little while (as I could see his screen) I don't think he did anything very much. He was always on the internet. He was a 45 year old senior engineer on about £50k a year - double what I was earning.

Some people can't be trusted and it's even easier to get away with it if you're working from home.

[threestepsforward]

Sorry not read the whole thread.

I think it's a bit crazy to not let people work at home if the business allows for people to work at home.

Thinking of fuel / time / energy that would be saved by home-working.

There is a chance that people would take the p, but surely that would become apparent in not much time?

Just seems like so much more of a planet-friendly option these days

Obvs there are many businesses where home-working wouldn't work...

(I work from home and I bloody love it )

[DolomitesDonkey]

As a home worker I find when I go to the office it's all jibber-jabber.

It is tempting to slack off - especially on a friday afternoon. Otoh, there have been many a night when I've shoved dinner in front of everyone and gone back up to the office, or when we've been waiting on an important doc I check my mail every 15 minutes all night.

Such is the nature of the game these days with BYOD etc. and cloud apps - we are all "on the job" 24/7 and geography is largely irrelevant.

I rather agree with someone else though who said they thought she's trying to get people to quit - mind you, in my experience the awful cling on until the bitter end.

I do agree that collaboration within physical teams is of paramount importance for R&D - but most of us just ain't that cutting edge. I've also worked at a company in Israel who operate like Google - i.e., keep their offices so damned luxurious and every need catered to that you don't want need to go home. My current physical office (20 miles away) had legionnair's disease in the coffee machine and the chairs are likely to appear on "cash in the attic". It's not a nice working environment - I feel physically and mentally drained every time I cross the threshold.

Actually last time I was in I had to beg for bog roll (token woman) and there was only one shit coffee machine in the entire building working.

[OneLittleToddleTerror]

But yahoo is supposed to be cutting edge. Of course it isn't atm because it is a failing Internet company.

[OhGood]

Personally, I wouldn't work for a company that didn't allow have work-from-home schemes.

I've worked on big fast-moving projects that need a high degree of collaborative working as a consultant on a 3 days in office, 2 days at home basis for 5 years now. This works brilliantly for me. It wouldn't for some of the people on the teams I work with - so if you're managing projects, then you need to be there.

[OhGood]

Meant to say - my point is I don't think that 80% of the people need to be an office more than 80% of the time. It's just an inherited nonsense.

[Dromedary]

Midnite scribbler - of course you put your children in childcare if you work from home, but many people save masses of commuting time, so find things like childcare a lot more manageable if they work from home.

[Dromedary]

The problem with companies being draconian, even assuming they can get away with it legally, is that it puts people off, and it's the good employees who can manage to leave to find somewhere nicer to work.
I met someone whose employer banned anything personal on staff's desks - for instance they were not allowed to bring in a single plant or photo.
Some employers will not allow any personal use of the internet at all at work. Some limit and monitor toilet breaks.
Etc etc.
The result is that people feel disrespected, undervalued, exploited, and they leave if they can, and take advantage where they can as a pay-back.

[musicalfamily]

I have been working for multinationals all of my working life, and always worked from home to a certain degree. Since having children mostly worked from home. I am a project manager! It can be done.

Maybe it is because most of our teams are all over the world, it works really well. The company benefits as it can poole the best people for the job wherever they are - this is a huge benefit when resourcing projects/programmes of work.

I have never had issues where I've had to go and "see" people. It's never happened in 8 years where I have mainly worked from home. Customer wants face to face so we do travel to customers, but that's once in a while rather than every day or even week. And for those who comment about slacking off, no chance of that as we are target driven, customer facing, fast paced, nobody is ever off the hook and technology will chase you wherever you are!!

[musicalfamily]

PS I agree about draconian measures and low employee morale only ends up costing the company talent, as the latter are the ones who can easily leave to find a better company to work for...!!

[merrymouse]

It's obvious that working from home will work for some better than others depending on their position and industry.

Having said that, for many employers, making the effort to allow people to work from home enables them to provide employees with a tangible benefit, at no extra cost to the company, and with no tax/NI. In fact, if you can also manage not to provide your employee with a computer, desk, heating or tea or coffee, you can save money.

I suspect that if there is a trend away from home working, it is because jobs are short and employers don't need to make the extra effort to maintain employees.

I also think a key word here is 'employer'. If you can work for yourself, you can choose where to work.

[merrymouse]

Such is the nature of the game these days with BYOD etc. and cloud apps - we are all "on the job" 24/7 and geography is largely irrelevant.

Completely agree with this - you can't expect employees to only "work from home" on their own time. Flexibility works both ways.

[merrymouse]

Re: OP. I Would find it difficult to boycott yahoo, as I don't actually know what they do any more.

[niceguy2]

Much of it will depend upon the nature of the company and the geography of their offices.

I've WFH for nearly 8 years. I could go into my local office but there's noone else from my division there, let alone my direct team. So I'd still end up emailing them or calling/instant message. There's no difference. The people I work with are spread across multiple timezones and literally all over the world.

But if Yahoo are centred around a few offices then canning WFH could bring benefits. There are often times when I wish I could just push a few people into a meeting room and thrash things out. Telephone conference calls can be frustrating because you know you don't have the full attention of most people as they use the quiet periods to reply to emails, surf the net/whatever.

I also miss the camaraderie of being in the office. Those social interactions and relationships are often priceless when it comes to getting things done.