This whole story hits home for me. I had to investigate and even tune in to the morning shows to watch others talk about it.
Marissa Mayer has announced, through Yahoo HR, that the underdog tech company will discontinue work-from-home options in June of this year.
So, if you read the article you see that Yahoo may be in a unique circumstance. They are a creative and collaborative tech company who has a bloated, widespread team that, according to some, abuses telecommuting options.
As I write this I am in my pj's, doing laundry, saving money on parking and a dog walker for the day and working from home*.
I will put in abnormal hours (3 hours here, 1 hour there, 5 hours there), but still get everything done - and then some. I will have the ability to run errands in the city without the headache of the Saturday or post-5 PM rush. I will let my dog stay out of the crate all day and enjoy breaks where I can do the dishes, cook a healthy meal for dinner, run or exercise (and yes, blog for myself) and STILL GET THE JOB DONE.
I'm all for maximizing our options with technology while making workers happy.
And if that means that you can work from home, God bless it.
And if that means that you cannot be trusted to work from home, then you must report to the office (but why are we hiring people we can't trust, I wonder?).
There are certainly people in my company that may be abusing work from home time. For goodness sake, there was a man who worked in Guam for years and still couldn't come to a tele-meeting prepared.
I think telecommuting should be done with much oversight. Be demanding. Hold people accountable. Don't let their work-from-home options get in the way of good work. And maybe even only allow telecommuting on a case-by-case basis (which is what my company does).
I think it's a good idea to let workers stay home for the cable guy or an out-of-town appointment when necessary (which Mayer says will still be possible at Yahoo), even if they don't get a regular work-from-home day.
So what do you think? Is telecommuting a good idea? Are people misusing that option and giving it a bad name at your company?
*I should note that I have to work from home because some of the sights I have to manage for my job are blocked at work and my company does not like the option of giving me exclusive rights to access them in the office.
