Debate over who was best dressed and whether Seth MacFarlane was an acceptable Oscar host are sure to be major topics of conversation around the water cooler today for those employees that are in the office. Those who are not talking about the Oscars may be commenting on email chains or leaving status updates expressing their comments on the subject. However, these types of interactions will have to take place in person in Yahoo offices beginning this June.
Over the weekend, a leaked internal memo that was issued on Friday came to light. In the document, CEO Marissa Mayer issued a new rule that will effectively ban the practice of telecommuting. This will require several hundred employees to relocate to Yahoo facilities and will remove previous agreements for employees who were working a day or two a week from home. The justification is to become "one Yahoo" and that "speed and quality are often sacrificed when [employees] work from home."
This has caused much outrage among employees who desired a flexible workforce or took the job under the pretense of having the ability to work from outside the office. There is even question as to whether working from home because of a visit from the cable guy may be out of the question.
Several tech blogs are bashing Yahoo executives for the decision, especially because their rationale is unfounded. Many companies have embraced telecommuting and the latest technology like cloud computing, mobile applications and VoIP, making it easier than ever for employees to stay connected and work from anyplace with an internet connection.
Yahoo's decision is sure to remain a topic of conversation for the foreseeable future, especially as more companies embrace telecommuting with the help of an experienced IT consulting firm.
