Yahoo's CEO Marissa Mayer decided to end the existing practice when hundreds of employees could work from home. By returning employees to the office, she wants to increase productivity and strengthen the connection between employees and the corporate culture. The public learned this information after a company's secret internal memo leaked to the Internet. The memo states:
"To become the absolute best place to work, communication and collaboration will be important, so we need to be working side-by-side. That is why it is critical that we are all present in our offices. Some of the best decisions and insights come from hallway and cafeteria discussions, meeting new people, and impromptu team meetings. Speed and quality are often sacrificed when we work from home. We need to be one Yahoo!, and that starts with physically being together."
The memo was sent to all employees working from home with the fact that it comes into force since 1st June. It will apply to those who work exclusively from home as well as those who work from home only occasionally. Even occasional work from home is not so effective as working in-house according to Yahoo's top management.
Stone Age?
The Yahoo's memo was first published by allthingsd.com and started to spread through social networks. Then, all the major U.S. media, including The New York Times or The Washinton Post, as well as websites focused on management all around the world informed about it. The media ask whether the decision to end home working is not a step back today. Forbes.com, for example, talks about "returning to the Stone Age."
Statements by proponents of flexible working arrangements for those the latest decision of Yahoo is at least worrying, but more often unacceptable, are arising. Academics cite the results of studies that have shown a clear benefit of working from home and warn against the possible negative effects on employee performance and loyalty. Pragmatic commentators see this Mayer's step as a practical way to reduce costs since many employees will leave themselves and the company will therefore not have to lay them off.
Yahoo commented on the whole situation only by stating that internal affairs are not commented. Marissa Mayer has been the CEO of Yahoo since last summer when she came from the post of Google's Vice President. Her main goal has been to increase the sales of Yahoo which are still falling in the competition with especially Google and Facebook. At the time when she became the Yahoo's CEO, she had been pregnant for five months.
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