Yahoo! has sent a memo (read it here) to all employees that essentially says: Effective in June, all employees need to physically be in the Yahoo! office, regardless of whether remote working was part of the agreement you made when you took your job.

As someone who has been a remote worker for the better part of the last two decades, and who has worked directly with all sorts of remote workers for the better part of the last two decades, I have to say that this is a blitheringly stupid idea. Some of the best tech people value their independence and will walk as a result of this policy. Net result: Yahoo! will lose some of their best tech people.

There are countless studies that have found remote workers to be happier, more productive and more cost-effective for companies of all types and sizes. Here’s one Harvard Business Review article that does a pretty good job of summing it all up.

True, to be a successful remote worker you need to have a certain type of personality and work ethic. Putting myself in the shoes of a CEO, though: I’d rather have people with that type of personality and work ethic than Dilbertesque drones who arrive tired to work because of the traffic, watch the clock to see when it’s time to leave, and accept the lowest-common-denominator cubicle lifestyle like employees in Office Space.

My guess is that Yahoo! will either reconsider its policy or that the policy is a proverbial canary in the coal mine signaling a serious step toward serious (further?) decline for the company.

Or maybe they just need more people physically in the office to help with their TPS reports.

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 23rd, 2013 at 11:20 am and is filed under Rants 'n' Such.