Yahoo’s CEO’s Stupid Work Ideas
Marrisa Mayer the new relatively new CEO of Yahoo, has decreed that employees can’t work from home any more. I think it is stupid, but just read this article on CNN.
I think that any dictatorial employment policy is bad.
It would be just as bad to say that everybody worked at home as to say that everybody had to work in the office.
Admittedly, I’ve worked at home since about 1970 and in that time, I like to think, I’ve done some world-class work, so perhaps I’m biased one way.
On the other hand a few years ago, I remember meeting a lady, who used to analyse failure reports from government agencies and companies from around the world. Each analysis run took days on the fastest computers available and she used three PC’s on a network at home. The work she did was truly world-class and very important. All of these unusual arrangements were with the total agreement of her boss and the company she worked for. Then the company was taken over and they said that all employees must work in the office. She resigned immediately and I have a feeling that the work is now no longer done with the same thoroughness.
Getting the arrangements right, is all a question of good management.
With some employees home is the right place and with others it is the office.
Increasingly though, it strikes me that more and more people are combining the best of both work places. How many people for instance, check their e-mails before they go to work, so they can deal immediately with anything that is urgent? Are Yahoo going to ban employees from answering e-mails outside of office hours? Now that would be really stupid! On a related point, are they going to stop employees making personal phone calls or e-mails, when they are in the office?
I suspect if you look at really successful people and companies, they will have working arrangements that are not cast in stone.
The Anonymous Widower 
This one is like flexi-time. Both are fine where the staff are committed, but fail miserably where they are not. Those who are apt to skive not only are cheating their employer, but put additional load on the good ones. The best approach I have found is to have a policy of no flexi-time and no working from home, but then operate the policy loosely when it is clearly good for the company (and hence the employees). My experience shows that there is a lot more appreciation from being flexible with the rules than there is from having rules that give flexibility as a right.
Comment by John Wright | February 27, 2013 |