Is the Tide Turning on Telework?

Tech companies in Silicon Valley are often noted for their generous employee benefits, such as providing free meals for workers, allowing dog owners to bring their pets to work, and offering flexible working hours, including support for telework from home. The goal of these policies is to encourage workers to put in longer hours at work or to work more productively. Thus, it came as a surprise when Marissa Mayer, newly appointed CEO of Yahoo!, directed her human resources chief to send out a memo to all employees that essentially put an end to flexible work hours and the ability of Yahoo! employees to work from home. The memo said in part: Speed and quality are often sacrificed when we work from home. We need to be one Yahoo!, and that starts with physically being together. Yahoo!s move is an attempt to improve collaboration and to become more competitive.70,71 The change in policy came at a difficult time for Yahoo!. The firm went through four CEOs in five years, and industry experts had been questioning Yahoo!s ability to develop new and innovative services. Many have also questioned the quality of its workforce.72 After Yahoo!s earnings were announced on April 17, 2013, shares in the company fell more than 3 percent on news of a decrease in sales of display ads.73 The ban on working from home drew both sharp criticism and praise from industry observers and employees. On the negative side, management consultants and authors Jody Thompson and Cali Ressler believe the policy change is a major mistake and that Yahoo! will end up with workers who earn good work attendance marks but are not effective and efficient at meeting company goals.74 Jennifer Glassa sociology professor and research associate at the Population Research Center at the University of Texas, Austinpoints out that the United States already trails other industrialized nations when it comes to providing flexible work arrangements. Sir Richard Branson, billionaire business magnate and founder of Virgin Airlines and Virgin Records, said Mayers policy was a step backwards in an age when remote working is easier and more effective than ever. Another professor felt that the changed policy could further lower employee morale and hurt recruiting efforts.75 Supporters of the new policy include many who believe that employees are more productive in the office. Just prior to Yahoo!s announcement, Patrick Pichette, CFO at Yahoo! rival Google, had pointed out that his firm believes strongly in employees working physically close to one another to encourage collaboration.76 Perhaps encouraged by Mayers announcement, just one week after Yahoo!s change in policy, Best Buy informed its headquarters employees that its flexible work program was canceled and that it expected employees to work a traditional 40-hour the week at its headquarters. The need to collaborate and work together in turning the company around was given as the reason for the change in policy.77

Discussion Questions. Need all three answers.

1. Do further research on business results and employee morale at Yahoo! to develop an opinion on whether the ban on telework has helped the firm. Write a paragraph stating your opinion and providing supporting facts.

2. Should telework only be considered a perk for those companies and employees that are already producing good business results? Why or why not?

3. Imagine that you are a member of a firms human resources group trying to decide whether or not to support telework. What factors would you consider in making this decision? What process would you follow to arrive at a decision that could be accepted by employees and senior management as well?