Post by chasbride07 on Feb 27, 2013 14:59:59 GMT -5
I can see how occasionally working from home would be less productive than always working from home. People I know that do it occasionally do find it hard to be motivated to work and don't get as much as they do in the office. A lot of it has to do with being used to a different environment and the distractions at home. Where for me, when I do go into an office, I don't get as much done because I'm not used to the co-worker distraction anymore. Hearing the kids making noise, running out to the kitchen, even having the TV on is now just background noise that I barely hear.
I do find though, that its easier to just leave work at work when I go into the office. When I worked from home, I found myself checking and replying to emails late at night, etc. Where as now, I leave work and am done. So actually, I am MORE productive at home!
Post by creamsiclechica on Feb 27, 2013 15:08:42 GMT -5
My sister WFH one day a week, and her company is pretty strict about monitoring her activity and making sure she stays on task. Her log in times are monitored on her company computer, the frequency of her emailing is watched and timed, and there is a video camera that they can use to check in on you, as well as use for meeting via video conference. She says that those employees who can work from home tend to produce more as a result of the "big brother" effect and paranoia that it'll be taken away. But for her it works, because she doesn't have to commute home to do laundry on her lunch or see her boys at lunch. It's helpful and re-energizing for her.
My sister WFH one day a week, and her company is pretty strict about monitoring her activity and making sure she stays on task. Her log in times are monitored on her company computer, the frequency of her emailing is watched and timed, and there is a video camera that they can use to check in on you, as well as use for meeting via video conference. She says that those employees who can work from home tend to produce more as a result of the "big brother" effect and paranoia that it'll be taken away. But for her it works, because she doesn't have to commute home to do laundry on her lunch or see her boys at lunch. It's helpful and re-energizing for her.
This would suck so hard. For us, if you're not productive, you're out. Period. We're rated based on our productivity, but we are absolutely not monitored in any way. I think if "they" had to watch me hunched over my laptop, groggy-eyed, unshowered and sleep deprived while chugging coffee in my H's sweats for more than an hour or so, they'd kill the monitoring program. This way, at least I get to give the impression of being articulate, elegant and professional without actually being ANY of those things:)
I do find though, that its easier to just leave work at work when I go into the office. When I worked from home, I found myself checking and replying to emails late at night, etc. Where as now, I leave work and am done. So actually, I am MORE productive at home!
Stupid new rules....
This is how my H was. He used to WFH and decided that even if he had to get up earlier, he wanted to be able to be done for the day, instead of working on a project at midnight.
I do find though, that its easier to just leave work at work when I go into the office. When I worked from home, I found myself checking and replying to emails late at night, etc. Where as now, I leave work and am done. So actually, I am MORE productive at home!
Stupid new rules....
This is how my H was. He used to WFH and decided that even if he had to get up earlier, he wanted to be able to be done for the day, instead of working on a project at midnight.
I agree...but I want it to be a *choice* for more, not less workers. For me, I would have to leave before G woke up and wouldn't get home until after her bedtime if I commuted into the office every day. My boss and I both are fine with me working until 4pm (unless I have a later meeting), then signing back online from 7-9pm or later on the nights when I need to get more done. I do end up working more (I'm often running jobs in the background while probing in the evenings) but I choose that path, rather than having the company choose for me.
I guess I'm saying is that while I agree that it's not for everyone and that there are pluses and minuses, I think it's an important option, especially for working mothers.
My sister WFH one day a week, and her company is pretty strict about monitoring her activity and making sure she stays on task. Her log in times are monitored on her company computer, the frequency of her emailing is watched and timed, and there is a video camera that they can use to check in on you, as well as use for meeting via video conference. She says that those employees who can work from home tend to produce more as a result of the "big brother" effect and paranoia that it'll be taken away. But for her it works, because she doesn't have to commute home to do laundry on her lunch or see her boys at lunch. It's helpful and re-energizing for her.
Bahahahaha...they would see my boobs 3x/day connected to the pump if they monitored me. I have a camera on my laptop for video conferences, but we only ever do audio conferences.
This is how my H was. He used to WFH and decided that even if he had to get up earlier, he wanted to be able to be done for the day, instead of working on a project at midnight.
I agree...but I want it to be a *choice* for more, not less workers. For me, I would have to leave before G woke up and wouldn't get home until after her bedtime if I commuted into the office every day. My boss and I both are fine with me working until 4pm (unless I have a later meeting), then signing back online from 7-9pm or later on the nights when I need to get more done. I do end up working more (I'm often running jobs in the background while probing in the evenings) but I choose that path, rather than having the company choose for me.
I guess I'm saying is that while I agree that it's not for everyone and that there are pluses and minuses, I think it's an important option, especially for working mothers.
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.
Well put! It does seem like cost-cutting, but obviously they didn't think there would be so much backlash (or they thought it would be less than layoffs, which is really funny to me.) I love how they say that it's an internal matter what happens to the people that work remotely. That's a LOT of people to lay off.
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.
My H is in this industry and would flip if he wasn't allowed to do it. Today, for example, he had no face to face meetings, no clients in the office, and five hours of teleconferences on his schedule. We got hit with a lot of snow overnight, and it continued through rush hour, so the roads were a mess. He'd have had about a two and a half hour commute if he went into the office, so he worked from home and did his calls. In an industry where you can go all week without needing any face to face contact and so much is done over the phone or computer with people in other countries, WAH sometimes makes a lot of sense.
Also, IT people have to take calls and do work in the middle of the night, and while the frequency varies a lot by position, this means IT people are typically required to have resources to WAH (often on their own dime) anyway. The option to WAH is usually offered as a way to make it "worth" the expense and to make it easier on those employees who have to work in the AM after being up patching a server all night or who just spent literally 10 hours figuring out why a site went down but still have a deadline to meet for another client.
I can't speak for their marketing and HR people, of course, but for a lot of their employees, this could make it really hard to have a life outside of work or have any real family life.