Comments on: Balancing a flexible work environment

By: Leena

Leena — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 09:01:49 +0000

Flexibility in working is important. I found a good blog article of it also in the Martela blog. Worth to read http://martela.com/blog/article/nwow-and-abo

By: Kesey

Kesey — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 16:14:52 +0000

Additional overhead of remote workers? I don’t think that’s factual. Remote and In Office workers both incur overhead and I would guess that keeping the building running for those on-site could be more of an expense than some remote work arrangements.

By: Lonnie Goldman

Lonnie Goldman — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 21:34:07 +0000

Liked your thoughts on this. One element of Yahoo’s approach that isn’t getting enough attention is the ulterior motive cited by one source close to Mayer’s decision, who called it “a layoff that isn’t a layoff.” This policy may be as much about a passive-aggressive “solution” to a management problem as it is about telecommuting! More at: http://blog.yourowngc.com/2013/02/spin-only-making-yahoos-bad-new-policy.html

By: sghosh

sghosh — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 23:30:52 +0000

Telecommuting and WFH are not really the same. If Yahoo stopped telecommuting, I wouldn’t really care. There are definitely more pros than cons in working with a local team, people you get to see regularly and build up a rapport with. I have worked with teams located in different countries and it was really very difficult. However, WFH should not be stopped. It’s not just about families/kids but it is for those days too when you are not really down with fever but not feeling well enough to drive to work and sit there for 8-10 hours, for those days when the maintenance guy would come sometime between 10 and 2 and also when the weather is severe. One more thing though, I personally know people who think WFH is just a synonym for taking a day off. That shouldn’t be done. Also, using family, especially small kids as an excuse to get away from work is not done either. Darting off from a meeting at 4 saying “I have to pick up my kids from day care” are the things that decrease productivity. Working from a remote location doesn’t (always).

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 23:30:08 +0000

By: Dave

Dave — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 18:39:33 +0000

Apart from the legal implications of unilaterally altering an employees working practices/contract I’ve seen this sort “top down” dictatorial approach before.

It’s prevalent in corporations that are “sliding downwards” usually as a result of outside consultants attempting to justify their huge costs by… what, you let people work unsupervised at home, you don’t have day to day control of your people and systems, you must take back control!

It’s a sure sign of senior management problems and no clear strategy.

By: Stan Thomas

Stan Thomas — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 16:57:49 +0000

It comes down to a simple question – are the people you want to employ those who want to work remotely? After that it’s a management issue. Yahoo’s action is typical of a poorly performing, badly managed organisation. And people will leave.

By: Christophe

Christophe — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 14:33:56 +0000

“Just another example of how behind the times Yahoo is. I’m sure this move will result in attrition.”

It’s not that simple. There is also some problems with “flexibility’ (see the list of “challenges” in the post).
Requiring to work from a Yahoo facility is the easy solution, but at least the situation is clear.

By: David Roh

David Roh — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 13:18:32 +0000

Hi Steven,

I find it very telling that in your article you never once mentioned the non-company (non-Microsoft) developers that you should have considered as part of your team who were trying to deliver commercial products using your tools but you chose to keep them in the dark and to quietly obsolete Microsoft tools that they were using to ship products.

I still have not forgiven you for what you did to Silverlight and I probably never will.

David Roh

By: Duane Urban

Duane Urban — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 12:42:18 +0000

So Yahoo is going backwards instead of forward. Tech companies are the most hypocritical of all. I saw a software developer needed post from a very big remote access software company who’s business model is selling the idea of employees being able to work from anywhere. Except everyone in their company has to work from the office.

99% of the meetings I’ve went to where a waste of time. As a web developer my requirements are emailed to me either in the body or as an attachment. I’ve been on all sorts of development teams. When we do talk it’s usually not about code.

Of course Yahoo is trying to figure out a way to stay in business so I suspect they want to try something else. They will lose a lot of people which may or may not be a good thing.