The 14,500 employees of Yahoo have until June to start showing up in the office or they could be out of work. According to the Feb. 26 Forbes report, the newest CEO of Yahoo, Marissa Mayor, she isn't allowing any of the employees to work from home any longer. This is angering a lot of employees, mostly those that have families or need fewer distractions while working.
The human resources person, Jackie Reces, that issued the memo that announced the no work-at-home policy wrote; “We need to be one Yahoo!, and that starts with physically being together.” There are several flaws with this program that could ultimately be the undoing of Yahoo. Here are some of the many reasons why the fifth CEO in four years is making a big mistake.
Yahoo's workforce is feeling like they have little value and that their CEO is dishing out double standards considering Bloomberg reports that Mayer was working from home in October just after having her first baby. If she can stay home and work, why can't the rest of the parents that work for Yahoo? The hypocrisy will likely force those that can find other work that fits their needs to do so while those that can't will trudge in, leaving only the mediocre employees.
In several studies done, it has been proven that people that work from home are less stressed out and more agitated at their job, making them less productive. If parents have to now worry about finding childcare, commuting, and worrying about how their children are doing, not to mention dealing with other people in the office that they aren't used to causing them distractions, production will likely go down.
Lastly, there will be a significant cost increase to having all the employees working in the office. Unless Yahoo already has all the cubicles that their employees would be using, and enough real estate to house 14,500 employees, they are not only going to have to find new space but their Internet and electric bill at the very least will see a significant increase. Working from home, they don't have those extra costs because it's not a problem.
Comments