

What Yahoo's no work from home policy means - mrbird
https://medium.com/management-the-art-and-the-science/aaeb644d3652

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joelrunyon
Am I the only one who isn't that outraged by this?

I'm as big of a proponent for remote workers as anyone (I basically quit my
last job over it), but it makes a lot of sense for yahoo in this case.

1\. They're regrouping, reorganizing and refocusing their vision. All of which
are much easier to do in person.

2\. The group buy-in that she needs to shift Yahoo's culture, product and
focus is much easier to get when they're all in one centralized location.

3\. Remote workers count for a fraction of their workforce? It's not like it's
going to be a massive change for 50%+ of their workforce. They're just getting
the few remoters back in house.

Like I said, I'm a big proponent of remote working, but this seems a little
overblown to me.

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josourcing
My beef with the move is its hypocrisy. Disregarding remote workers in a
remote world? At a company peddling tools that facilitate... (get ready for
it)... remote work!? Sometimes this ish doesn't even seem real.

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joelrunyon
It facilitates (read: enables) remote working. Their tools don't require it.

Yahoo's not in a place right now where remote working makes sense for them.
Prescribing remote work arrangements across the board for all companies in all
situations makes as little sense as prescribing required in-office hours for
all companies in all situations.

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josourcing
Agreed, however it's worth noting that remote work is (usually) cheaper. I
don't know where Yahoo is right now, but if history has a say, the company
could use a little cost-cutting. In-house employees cost more, and the CEO
should know that.

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coditor
Looks like a great way to reduce headcount without saying the dreaded layoff
word.

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jmount
I know we need to measure good workers versus bad workers, but I also find it
hard to get too enraged by this (despite having been a remote worker for some
time). The problem as I see it is: everybody has at some point run into the a
double points bad worker who is also a remote worker, and it tends to be
memorable. Mine was the remote support woman who never answered her emails and
didn't want to give out her personal number. As I said, it sticks in you
memory.

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josourcing
Do bad remote workers stick out in memory more than bad in-house workers?

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jpallas
If "Successful incorporation of remote work boils down to a few things that
sound simple but are difficult in practice," and "difficult" actually means
"impossible," then this writer's argument is … what, exactly?

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adestefan
The author is director at a company specializing in remote presence hardware
and software. Of course he's going to disparage any company that cuts remote
working.

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josourcing
Specializing in remote presence hardware and software gives the author insight
into the remote working industry and how Marissa's move affects said industry.
So of course he's going to have something to say (disparaging or not).

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erikpukinskis
Of course Mayer doesn't trust the management structure. What is the point of
bringing in a new CEO if they're just going to "trust the management
structure"?

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jpeg_hero
Spoken like a true individual contributor.

