Yahoo says A????1NopeA????1 to Working at Home

Yahoo's CEO Marissa Mayer decided as one part of her plan to revitalize the company that she wanted to end the company's work-from-home policy. In an internal memo from Jackie Reses, Yahoo's executive vice president of people and development, working at the office rather than at home was necessary because of the need for employees to communicate and collaborate and to reduce the chance that speed and quality would be diminished. Yahoo received much negative press from the decision to no longer allow employees to work at home including comments from Richard Branson, head of Virgin Group and Working Mother magazine. Some of the criticism focused on the message that not allowing home work sent to employees: Managers can't trust you to get the work done.

The reality is that working at home is becoming more prevalent in the U.S. workplace. More employees are working from home at least one day each week. One estimate is that 20 to 30 million Americans work from home at least one day each week. Home-based workers are more likely to be employed in private companies than in public sector jobs. Employees in management, business and finance, service, and sales occupations are most able to work from home. Employees in health care and installation, maintenance, and repair occupations are the least likely to work from home.

Many employees want to work at home, so companies are using working at home as a benefit that helps recruit and retain talented employees. Several studies have demonstrated benefits from working at home. Cisco Systems found that employees who could work remotely from home experienced an increase in their quality of life. This could result from reducing the hassles of commuting to work and allowing employees to better balance work and life responsibilities such as childcare, running errands, or dealing with a sick child, spouse, or family member. Another study showed that when employees of a Chinese travel agency were allowed to work from home they were more productive, resulting in cost savings of $2,000 per employee each year. Finally, a study found that office employees who work from home may work 57 hours each week before they feel as if their work-life is out of balance compared to 38 hours for employees who work at their office.

Working at home also may have significant disadvantages. The disadvantages include employees taking advantage of the policy to extend their weekends by not working in the office on Fridays or Mondays, and loss of potential benefit from having face-to-face interactions with colleagues that are useful for sharing knowledge and generating creative solutions to product or service problems. Being in the office is especially important today because many jobs require close collaboration with peers or working on team projects. Also, unplanned personal interactions occurring at the office can lead to new ideas or improved working relationships. The biggest problem for employees working from home is overcoming other employees' and managers' perceptions that they are not as productive as they could be, they lack focus, and they lose A????1face-time,A????1 which leads to fewer opportunities for promotions.

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QUESTIONS

1.	Do you think that companies should have a policy that allows all employees to work at home? Why or why not? How would you determine which jobs are best suited for working at home?
2.	What role can technology play in allowing employees to work at home? Do you believe that interaction using technology can replace interpersonal face-to-face interaction between employees or between employees and their manager?
3.	What role should HR play in helping a company's leaders decide if a work-at-home policy is appropriate? What kind of information should HR provide to help in the decision making?