Yahoo banning working from homw

[devotchka]

What does everyone think of this?

money.cnn.com/2013/02/27/technology/yahoo-work-at-home/
www.forbes.com/sites/samanthaettus/2013/02/26/et-tu-brute-marissa-mayer-never-wanted-to-be-your-poster-girl/
www.boston.com/dailydose/2013/02/27/will-marissa-mayer-yahoo-ban-work-home-increase-productivity-new-research-suggests-not/UVQFRlwnW11aMSAkD7sGpL/story.html

I feel like this is really lame of them and Yahoo is screwing over their employees and taking away a great benefit (that shouldn't cost them any money). Especially working Moms and Dads. It sucks for Yahoo employees to get flexibility taken away, especially since there is little evidence that it actually means more productivity (from studies, it seems like the opposite is true, also in my experience as well.) 

I am probably more annoyed about this than usual because my company actually tried to take away the right to work from home (with mixed results) - people got more angry productivity actually plummeted, and people became really bitter. 

This news also comes at a time when I am actually looking for part time jobs that are flexible. My former boss just asked me if I want to do a job share with her (she was director of marketing, I am a designer) and work part time, possibly from home. It would be an amazing opportunity, especially because of the baby (of course I would still need childcare, but would be easier). I am glad that these kinds of opportunities are still out there these days.

Edit: I think part of why people became bitter was that they originally took these jobs with these benefits, and little by little the benefits got taken away. When you are hired, you negotiate a salary based on the total compensation (incl. benefits) and a lot of people think of flexibility as a benefit. I sure did! If you had an awesome boss, you were still able to work from home sometimes, but others weren't, and they would get irritated at that. Then there were people who would do it anyway because their bosses weren't local and everyone hated them. It just became a toxic thing, just caused more bitterness.

[TrudyCampbell]

I'm glad my H no longer works for them!

[erniebufflo]

Their CEO sounds kind of like a jerk.

However, almost no one gets to work from home. It's a crazy awesome perk, but it's not a right. I'll fight for flex time, but I just think working from home is a ridiculous luxury.

[rjamz]

I have a real problem with Marissa Mayer in general. I feel like she broke through the glass ceiling and then put it back in place so other women can't. It's all well and good for her to say people can't work from home when she has a nursery installed next to her office at Yahoo, but most parents don't have that luxury. And going back to work 2 weeks after giving birth?? Way to make it seem like maternity leave isn't an important issue in this country.

[devotchka]

Feb 27, 2013 13:12:38 GMT -5 erniebufflo said:

Their CEO sounds kind of like a jerk.

However, almost no one gets to work from home. It's a crazy awesome perk, but it's not a right. I'll fight for flex time, but I just think working from home is a ridiculous luxury.

It's definitely a perk, but very much part of the culture of IT (never really thought of it as a right and am definitely not saying that - when I said my company took away our right to work from home I didn't phrase it correctly - I guess I should have said our privilege or benefit - lol) Just think it's a mistake to take it away across the board like that.

[devotchka]

Feb 27, 2013 13:12:38 GMT -5 rjamz said:

I have a real problem with Marissa Mayer in general. I feel like she broke through the glass ceiling and then put it back in place so other women can't. It's all well and good for her to say people can't work from home when she has a nursery installed next to her office at Yahoo, but most parents don't have that luxury. And going back to work 2 weeks after giving birth?? Way to make it seem like maternity leave isn't an important issue in this country.

Yeah, I totally agree, it's really sad.  

[devotchka]

Feb 27, 2013 13:11:06 GMT -5 TrudyCampbell said:

I'm glad my H no longer works for them!

Me too!  

[Deleted]

My DH works from home and I think it is awesome, he works in the same field as the people at yahoo. I think it is one of those perks, once you give you can't take away, because she is basically firing a bunch of people that don't live in the area but work for them.

I also dislike the CEO, only spending 2 weeks at home with her child pissed me off, to me it said if you are a women who wants to be successful you can have a child, but you better not take care of it.

[devotchka]

Feb 27, 2013 13:16:50 GMT -5 @lindy said:

My DH works from home and I think it is awesome, he works in the same field as the people at yahoo. I think it is one of those perks, once you give you can't take away, because she is basically firing a bunch of people that don't live in the area but work for them.

I also dislike the CEO, only spending 2 weeks at home with her child pissed me off, to me it said if you are a women who wants to be successful you can have a child, but you better not take care of it.

Yeah my friend thinks they are basically just doing a layoff without the bad PR (although the bad PR from this seems even worse) - and trying to be "sneaky" about it without freaking out investors.

[irishsara]

I sort of understand her stance, but it hits close to home for me because I used to work from home and it was "taken away" from me a few months ago. I AM more productive in the office, but I feel like as long as goals are being met, it can work.

But, that whole 2 week maternity leave pissed me off, as well as installing a nursery in your office. If you can do it, great...but most people can't.

[thedahliharpa]

They can STFU about magical things happening over sharing meals with your co-workers.

My hybrid WFH situation can be really stressful. Working at 5:30am,being tied to several electronic leashes, and then doing a bunch of crap from 9pm until I can't see straight. It helps that 70% of my work is with people in Asia that are not awake during normal business hours.

I am not complaining, it just can be harder than it sounds.

Today isn't one of those days :-)

[dixeedeluxe]

We can't work from home in our office, but they just opened it up to other office.

I really don't understand how pre WFH, you were in meetings all day every day and now you...do...what at home?

[devotchka]

Feb 27, 2013 13:31:01 GMT -5 dixeedeluxe said:

We can't work from home in our office, but they just opened it up to other office.

I really don't understand how pre WFH, you were in meetings all day every day and now you...do...what at home?

You just sit in meetings all day from home  

[devotchka]

Feb 27, 2013 13:28:40 GMT -5 @pcloadletter said:

I think people dick around in the office just as much as they do at home. I also think that CEO is a twat who has forgotten what it is like to be a normal person

Agreed. I feel like I get more distracted in the office because people always want to be social and chatty. People also want to go out to lunch and have long ass meetings where I can't do other things because people are watching me. Whereas at home, I can multitask easier because people aren't right there on top of me watching my every move.

I get more work done personally at home because I have a strong work ethic and need to make up for not having facetime. Not everyone is like this, of course. However, I think they should evaluate it on an individual basis and if someone is not meeting their goals/slacking off then deal with them individually, don't punish everyone else. 

[TrudyCampbell]

Feb 27, 2013 13:31:01 GMT -5 dixeedeluxe said:

We can't work from home in our office, but they just opened it up to other office.

I really don't understand how pre WFH, you were in meetings all day every day and now you...do...what at home?

My H does a ton of virtual meetings from home. He works from home once a week. 

[sunshineluv]

I love the flexibilty of my job, I WFH occasionally, and if they took away that perk I would be disappointed. I am equally productive at home as I am in the office, and that certainly means I can waste time or be busy either place.

[devotchka]

BTW I can never reply during the day because I am with the kiddo, but man this board sure moves much faster during the day! It might be a good thing - this would be one reason that I would never get anything done if I still worked from home - hahahaha

[mumegs]

Is she saying they can't work from home at all, like even if there is a snowstorm or their kid is sick or something? If so, that is ridiculous. At my company we can work from home if the need arises on a certain day, but not all the time. We do need to be in the office talking to each other most of the time, and I agree its not productive for people to work from home. I never get work done at home, there are too many distractions. There is a negative attitude towards the few that do work from home all the time because they must have gotten approval to do it a long time ago, and our bosses now would never let us do it. There is an attitude that we are doing more work than those that work at home because they're not here. Also the ones that work part time...mainly because they can't work any overtime which is a necessity in my job.

[devotchka]

Feb 27, 2013 13:37:27 GMT -5 mumegs said:

Is she saying they can't work from home at all, like even if there is a snowstorm or their kid is sick or something? If so, that is ridiculous. At my company we can work from home if the need arises on a certain day, but not all the time. We do need to be in the office talking to each other most of the time, and I agree its not productive for people to work from home. I never get work done at home, there are too many distractions. There is a negative attitude towards the few that do work from home all the time because they must have gotten approval to do it a long time ago, and our bosses now would never let us do it. There is an attitude that we are doing more work than those that work at home because they're not here. Also the ones that work part time...mainly because they can't work any overtime which is a necessity in my job.

yes, they are across the board taking away the ability to work from home. they have lots of remote employees so that basically means they would be out of a job unless they move close to hq. that was my work's policy as well. we basically got to work from home 1 or 2 days a week, not all the time. but some people were remote so they got to do it all the time. if people need to relocate due to a spouse's job changing (like a coworker who's husband is a marine) they could do so, which was awesome.

[dixeedeluxe]

Feb 27, 2013 13:35:22 GMT -5 TrudyCampbell said:

Feb 27, 2013 13:31:01 GMT -5 dixeedeluxe said:

We can't work from home in our office, but they just opened it up to other office.

I really don't understand how pre WFH, you were in meetings all day every day and now you...do...what at home?

My H does a ton of virtual meetings from home. He works from home once a week. 

From the people I know who do it, no video conf or even conf calls from home!  It's so weird.  But, this is the backwards government.

We'll never get it in my office because we deal with SSNs and can't take them home.  Even "virtually" take them home.  The technology that lets us beyond the firewall offsite is crap.

[mumegs]

Feb 27, 2013 13:41:07 GMT -5 devotchka said:

Feb 27, 2013 13:37:27 GMT -5 mumegs said:

Is she saying they can't work from home at all, like even if there is a snowstorm or their kid is sick or something? If so, that is ridiculous. At my company we can work from home if the need arises on a certain day, but not all the time. We do need to be in the office talking to each other most of the time, and I agree its not productive for people to work from home. I never get work done at home, there are too many distractions. There is a negative attitude towards the few that do work from home all the time because they must have gotten approval to do it a long time ago, and our bosses now would never let us do it. There is an attitude that we are doing more work than those that work at home because they're not here. Also the ones that work part time...mainly because they can't work any overtime which is a necessity in my job.

yes, they are across the board taking away the ability to work from home. they have lots of remote employees so that basically means they would be out of a job unless they move close to hq. that was my work's policy as well. we basically got to work from home 1 or 2 days a week, not all the time. but some people were remote so they got to do it all the time. if people need to relocate due to a spouse's job changing (like a coworker who's husband is a marine) they could do so, which was awesome.

Wow that is crazy, especially for the remote employees that would have to move!

[Deleted]

Feb 27, 2013 13:31:01 GMT -5 dixeedeluxe said:

We can't work from home in our office, but they just opened it up to other office.

I really don't understand how pre WFH, you were in meetings all day every day and now you...do...what at home?

My DHs entire company WFH.  They have chat rooms that he is in all the time he is working.  They also do phone or video meetnigs everyday.  It is pretty interesting that is all works, but it seems to and the company is successful.

[laurack]

my dicking around is at least more productive when I'm working from home, like I can get a load of laundry in or put dinner on.

At the office i spend all my dicking around time here.

[dixeedeluxe]

Feb 27, 2013 13:58:07 GMT -5 @lindy said:

Feb 27, 2013 13:31:01 GMT -5 dixeedeluxe said:

We can't work from home in our office, but they just opened it up to other office.

I really don't understand how pre WFH, you were in meetings all day every day and now you...do...what at home?

My DHs entire company WFH.  They have chat rooms that he is in all the time he is working.  They also do phone or video meetnigs everyday.  It is pretty interesting that is all works, but it seems to and the company is successful.

My company is the government which will be shutting down indefinitely on Friday*.  Soooo...not the ideal business model.  LOL!!!!!

*this is not what's happening, but you know what i mean.

[katie]

I work for a gov't contractor and we do a lot of IT work. It is a cost savings for people to work from home who can with the type of job they have. It's not always necessary to be in the office. I work in Compensation, soon moving to Recruiting. I don't need to be in the office. With Compensation no one comes to visit me, there is no need for face to face with managers or employees.

With companies that have people working all over the country and world we do SO many teleconferences. Shit, people who are in the same building do teleconferences, send emails. People would rather do that in some environments then walk down the hall to chat.

As someone who can work from home when needed and now that I have a child it is such a great benefit. I save SO much time. The getting me ready, driving to DC, then to work, then pick up at DC, then home. My commute is easy (8 miles from work) and it still saves me 2+ hours if I work from home. I can also throw in a load of laundry or prep my dinner before I have to pick up Lillian.

I am completely productive when I work from home. If I wasn't and my peers weren't it would show in the work. Can you work on your own schedule, sure. I actually tend to work MORE at home. My laptop is always on and so is my BB.

And you can dick around just as much at work. Hello, I am in the office right now Probing.

[shevacc]

Feb 27, 2013 13:28:40 GMT -5 @pcloadletter said:

I think people dick around in the office just as much as they do at home. I also think that CEO is a twat who has forgotten what it is like to be a normal person

I agree.

This hit me really hard because I WFH full-time (well, I go into the office once every 2 weeks) AND I have close business associates at Yahoo!. While I was on maternity leave, my company relocated my office from about an hour away from my house to 2+ hours away, ie a 4-4.5 hour daily commute. My manager agreed that I could try out WFH, but that we would keep evaluating how it was working out, and that I would have more frequent meetings with him as a result. I DO think of WFH as a privilege and I actually work harder now than before to make sure that I'm productive. I also have to work extra hard to communicate with my co-workers/manager so that they know I'm being productive. So far it's going fine. I really want to make WFH work for both me and my company bc otherwise I would be sending out resumes for something closer to home tomorrow.

I've been on both sides of the spectrum -- I used to work for a company that dealt with sensitive personal information that we couldn't take off of their computer system so no working from home ever. Now I'm WFH full time and spend a lot less time yacking with my co-workers, going out for a long lunch, walking back and forth to/from meetings/offices.

I HATE Marissa Mayer. She seems to feel like the best way to be a woman CEO is to shout from the rooftops "Women suck! They're lazy and weak with their maternity leave and wanting to spend time with their families. I am strong and not at all like them!" To me, it comes across as disingenuous and immature, like an Indian child making fun of "brown people" to be more well liked in a mostly white classroom. Not to mention that she's not affected by her policies because she's privileged enough to have enough money for any number of nannies and a nursery right next to her office. It makes me sick just to think about it.

[chasbride07]

I've worked exclusively from home for years now. Right now my job is not as easy to do remotely because the majority of my team is centrally located. So there are times when I do feel like it would be easier to collaborate with them if I was in the same office. In my prior position, just about everyone worked remotely so I didn't have the same "missing out" feeling.

I think I'm just as productive if not more productive being at home. I'm so thankful for this flexibility, I'm constantly making sure I am on my game to prove that I'm a valuable employee.

I think the Yahoo thing is ridiculous for support type of roles. For roles where it is helpful to all be in the same room, it seems like there has been enough technology that can have people virtually in the same room.

[claralou]

I've WFM for almost 8 years now, and I log WAY more hours at work now than I ever did in an office. WFH is part of my company's culture, though- more than 60% of us worldwide are at home.

With Yahoo, let's not forget that Mayer is their "turnaround" CEO. The company's in trouble and she was brought in to fix it. I agree that this is likely a "masked" reorganization of mass layoffs, and that it's better PR to say that they're killing a WFH program (also, if you don't "choose" to move to work in the office under this new policy, then they don't have to give you redundancy pay. Big win for the corporate honchos.)

Working from home is part of the new normal, especially in technology companies. Yahoo's backwards step on this confirms to me that it's really a cost-cutting tactic (ie layoffs) rather than a public statement on the virtual workplace. In this industry especially, people do consider WFH a "right" vs a privilege - right or wrong- as it's rapidly becoming a norm.

[katie]

Feb 27, 2013 14:33:43 GMT -5 chasbride07 said:

I've worked exclusively from home for years now. Right now my job is not as easy to do remotely because the majority of my team is centrally located. So there are times when I do feel like it would be easier to collaborate with them if I was in the same office. In my prior position, just about everyone worked remotely so I didn't have the same "missing out" feeling.

I think I'm just as productive if not more productive being at home. I'm so thankful for this flexibility, I'm constantly making sure I am on my game to prove that I'm a valuable employee.

I think the Yahoo thing is ridiculous for support type of roles. For roles where it is helpful to all be in the same room, it seems like there has been enough technology that can have people virtually in the same room.

That's how I am now. My boss is in VA and my 2 peers are in NM and CA. The functional staff (HR, Finance, etc) tend to WFH and be scattered all over. In the building I work at in Orlando there are no employees or managers that I support. I think it's great that companies will allow for this if the job fits the mold. If my company wanted everyone to be working at the Corp Headquarters I would be screwed.

[Deleted]

I think it is a stupid pr move, but I can't say that I am shocked a big company would make this decision. Nor do I think it is necessarily a bad thing for employees all the time although I can't support removing the opportunity forever. My dh has remote privileges and basically doesn't use them now. It is too hard to work at home when I work at home too. Plus, he logged more hours and couldn't "shut himself off" of work.

I have to work from home right now and it is the same thing. Our homelife is more enjoyable when we can both check out of work for a while.

If we had killer commutes or something then we might put it back on the table for him. But, I don't think WFH is some magical silver bullet.