

Best Buy ends work-from-home program - mortenjorck
http://money.cnn.com/2013/03/05/technology/best-buy-work-from-home/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

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pyre

      | "In the context of a business transformation, it
      | makes sense to consider not just what the results
      | are but how the work gets done," Furman said.
      | "It's 'all hands on deck' at Best Buy, and that
      | means having employees in the office as much as
      | possible to collaborate and connect on ways to
      | improve our business
    

1\. The "all hands on deck" thing is a bit over the top. It makes it sound
like he thinks that people working from home aren't 'at their posts' or
something.

2\. I'm unsure why "how the work gets done" is now more important than (or as
important as) the results of said work. If the results of said work are not
enough, then either the work wasn't done correctly, or the person/team was
allocated to work toward the wrong goal.

3\. What is with all of this emphasis on "people connecting" while in the
office. I recall something similar from the Yahoo announcement. Are these
companies doing so poorly that they feel that chance meetings in the hallways
or at the water-cooler will be their salvation?

~~~
kevinconroy
I believe the fundamental problem that these companies face is that they've
grown so big and complex that many fiefdoms have developed. There are isolated
teams within the larger organization.

Frankly, it doesn't matter if the teams are in the office or working from
home. The Real Problem (TM) that they're facing is that they've forgotten how
to innovate, communicate internally, and be agile at scale.

They want a quick fix for these problems, so it's an easy mental leap to "get
everyone in the same building to start with."

The "no more telecommuting" is making headlines, but what isn't making
headlines is whatever else they are doing AFTER the telecommuting is over to
fix these problems. I certainly hope that if "all hands on deck" is Step A
that there's also steps B-Z.

The real problem is if they think ending telecommuting will solve all of the
real problems. (It won't.)

~~~
98709870987
>>The Real Problem (TM)

It is really getting annoying to see the TM sign in every other phrase now. It
doesn't make anybody look clever so please guys stop it.

~~~
kevinconroy
Humor is In the Eye of the Beholder (TM)

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waterlesscloud
So the message is now clear- ending telecommuting is something failing
companies do.

~~~
moocow01
To me its more clear that these companies have pretty clueless managers that
have no idea if their people are working or not.

~~~
stephengillie
Failing companies usually have managers who can't tell if their workers are
being productive or not?

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mindcrime
_Marissa Mayer might be a trendsetter. Just one week after the Yahoo CEO
banned telecommuting at her company, Best Buy is ending its own flexible work
program._

Well, one insightful HN'er, christopheraden, sorta called this[1], back in one
of the earlier threads[2] on the Yahoo decision. Unfortunately it looks like
people might just be following Mayer's lead here (even though she hasn't
exactly "turned Yahoo around" just yet). Let's hope this doesn't become a
trend.

[1]: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5267682>

[2]: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5267030>

~~~
jfoutz
It's just for dying companies. Yahoo and Best Buy are facing life and death
changes. It makes sense to go into full panic mode. Maybe they'll come back,
if they get small enough, maybe they'll be nimble enough to make some cash.
Finding the really loyal employees is probably a good move. Scaling back
benefits is a good way to do that.

~~~
mindcrime
_It's just for dying companies._

Let us hope so.

 _Finding the really loyal employees is probably a good move. Scaling back
benefits is a good way to do that._

But is that really the way it works? Somebody on another thread pointed out
that this sort of thing probably actually costs you your best people, since
the ones who leave first are the ones with plenty of options. The ones who
hang around as long as possible aren't necessarily _loyal_ they may just not
think they can find another job, or they're "retired on the job" and hoping to
milk it as long as they can until they get canned.

~~~
slantyyz
>> Let us hope so.

I'm not sure that it's really a big deal. For every company that ends
telecommuting, another one will come around offering telecommuting as a
strategy to acquire talent.

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stock_toaster
It does seem like a convenient (for $corp) policy change as a way to let
people go without negative news about firings or downsizing, instead couching
it as reduction in remote-workforce and austerity measures.

BestBuy, like Yahoo!, also seems to not be doing so hot right now.

~~~
saraid216
I'd imagine it's a good way to convince people to quit rather than wait to be
fired.

~~~
atto
The downside to this approach is that your good ones leave first. At least you
have some control over who gets fired.

~~~
slantyyz
Best Buy has been flagging for a while. I'm sure the good ones had left before
this announcement arose.

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marginalboy
I honestly think it's more of a statement on the mediocre management of tech
workers than the productivity of those workers.

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yen223
Is there any empirical evidence regarding the productivity of remote workers?

~~~
ricardobeat
I have it, but it's kind of a limited data set (1).

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steveklabnik
The fun part about going back on the acronym is that you are basically saying
'we no longer care about your results.'

~~~
mindcrime
So now we need a new acronym. I propose RIPE - "Results Inconsequential,
Presence Exalted".

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yuhong
To be honest, retail is basically sticking around to service customers, and
they aren't killing it completely, they are just requiring manager approval.

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enraged_camel
Telecommuting is here to stay and it will only become more common as old-
school managers who don't understand technology retire/die off are replaced by
young workers who grew up with technology.

~~~
clobber
I really hope so because often times the new simply model themselves after the
old - then nothing changes.

~~~
pseudonym
I think that while the concept of "working remotely" isn't necessarily
ingrained, the concept of communicating efficiently with people via methods
that aren't physically face-to-face is extremely embedded in pretty much
everyone under the age of 30 at this point.

While it's not a 1:1 correlation, there are going to be a lot more people
asking the question "Why am I spending an hour commuting if there's nothing I
can do at the office that I can't do from home". Despite a couple companies
trying to close the doors after the horses are gone, this particular paradigm
isn't going anywhere any time soon.

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kayoone
I think its totally understandable for a struggling company to do this and
dont get the conspirancies about how they want to cut down workforce on the
cheap.

I work remotely myself but still, managing alot of remote emplyees creates
overhead in different places and this is one simple measure to solve these
issues. Sure there might be better solutions, but its certainly effective and
fast.

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tjtrapp
i don't understand what type of work gets done at home when one works for a
retail company like best buy.

when i think of best buy, i think of people in blue shirts trying to sell me
the latest widget. if i think harder, i can imagine people who have to get
stuff on the store shelves and maybe managers who have to create reports or
something.

what type of jobs are actually "work from home" jobs at retail stores?

~~~
yuniu
Are you really that retarded? Payroll, HR, finance, the website, tech support
for in-store systems, planning for growth, product selection, manufacture
liaison, operations planning for distribution, legal...

Or are you under the impression that Best Buy stores appear out of nowhere,
with stock selected and shipped from nowhere with no planning, with staff
recruited and paid by nobody, no legal support, no tech support, and with some
random blue-shirts making the website on their lunch hour?

~~~
jacobr
Payroll, HR, finance, the website, tech support for in-store systems, planning
for growth, product selection, manufacture liaison, operations planning for
distribution, legal are all jobs that could be done from home.

Fixed that comment for you.

~~~
shanelja
Thanks for that, I don't normally have any problems with a certain amount of
aggression in a comment, but that one came across pretty badly, however, I
think it would have been an order of magnitude less offensive had it not been
for the leading statement.

