Yahoo!: Did they get it wrong or is it a plan in disguise?

Yahoo!: Wrong or Disguised Plan for Growth?

Published

February 27, 2013

6 Comments

Earlier this week Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo!, issued an internal memo to Yahoo! employees detailing changes within the company.

The memo detailed changes to Yahoo!’s remote working policy, and it was made clear that remote-working or working from home was no longer a benefit at Yahoo!. The memo itself was a great positive-negative-positive message.

One of those memos where there is a sword ripping through your gut half way through but the smile at the beginning and end is supposed to make everything ok.

Change is Always Inevitable!

There have been many many changes at Yahoo! since Marissa Mayer took up the role of CEO. Three initiatives were mentioned in the memo which have been created at Yahoo! recently, and having read other stories about the internal workings of Yahoo! there have been a flurry of changes overall. Needless to say that Marissa is taking the learnings from Google in to Yahoo!.

Before Marissa arrived at Yahoo! and before the two previous CEO’s it was questioned whether Yahoo! had a plan for the future, whether it knew its own direction. No one knew what they wanted to do or what they didn’t, their share price tumbled low, however, having a tried and tested CEO has brought the share price back up higher than it’s been in 2 years.

With a solid CEO coming on board who doesn’t pull her on her punches, you’d expect change. After all it’s inevitable and I’d expect that the mentality that they’re looking for at Yahoo! is to embrace it rather than fight against it.

Change Can Go Too Far Sometimes

Sometimes, change can go to far. When you have had staff in the seats for years they become accustomed to a way of working and the first sign of change can shake them up a bit. Especially change which could negatively impact their mixed working and personal lives.

I’d hope that Yahoo!’s HR department had done some thorough research in to the productiveness of their work-from-home staff before venturing out on this blazoned attack against them. Some people can be productive at home and other’s cannot.

We’ve already seen a flurry of articles being written about the whole situation. They’re fairly negative as are the comments.

They really do have good points and knowing the benefits of remote working which I’ll go through in a minute, I can’t help but wonder if this is all a strategic plan inside of Yahoo!. Have they noticed within the company something which outsiders can’t see.

Are the Yahoo! employees who’ve spoken about it, a minority? Have they found the majority of the work-from-home staff aren’t as productive as they might seem? Is this down to bad hiring? We don’t have those answers so it’s hard to assume.

The Benefits of WFH and a Good Hiring Process

Notice I mentioned two things above and not one. I firmly believe that the benefits of remote working or working from home hugely out-weigh working within an office (for certain people). Some people love working in an office with a team where they can become active in conversations and decisions and others find absolute productivity in an office in their home with their headphones on.

You can find both types of people with a solid hiring process where more often than not, as long as they have the skills which they need to do the job them becoming hired solely relies on the fit they have with the team. Are they a good cultural fit?

If you’re expected to do a job it’s about getting it done. If you don’t do your job you let someone else down. Here at Obox, we’re a small team. The main bunch of Oboxians are in Cape Town, South Africa with another two of us else where in the world, one in the UK and one in Croatia. But we’re not the only theme company who are doing this, WooThemes and ThemeZilla are just another two who are open to WFH.

Our timezones are vaguely similar and we all know what we’re doing from day to day. We know what needs done and when and how that will affect other members of the team and the business as a whole.

Communication happens via Skype calls, Skype chat, Basecamp, Whatsapp and more. We’re incredibly connected. If larger companies are using these same communication tools I’d find it hard to believe that their WFH staff are less productive than their in-the-office staff.

There are companies like Github and Automattic who have thrived off remote workers and even companies like British Telecom in the UK are presenting WFH as an option.

Have We Been Too Quick to Jump to Conclusions?

Do you think we’ve been too quick to jump on the memo and slate Yahoo!’s decision to cancel all WFH?

I personally think it’s part of a plan internally at Yahoo! and really do feel for those people within it that work hard every single day whilst at home who want the future of Yahoo! to be bright and better than it is now.

There are 6 comments

February 27, 2013 #

Norcross

I think too many people have jumped the gun on this. Personally, I think she’s doing the right thing here for Yahoo. Would I work back in an office? No. But would I even take a job at Yahoo to begin with? Nope.

Also, it’s not fair to compare a company of 10-15 people and apply it to one of over 11,000. There’s a lot more going on in a company that size that have to be taken into consideration.
February 27, 2013 #

Scott Magdalein

My issue with the announcement is less about the value of remote versus co-located employees. I don’t like the way it was done. It’s one thing to say, “We’re not going to hire anymore remote employees.” It’s another thing to say, “All remote employees have to come into the office from now on or be fired.”
February 27, 2013 #

Eric J

I read on some buisness blog that this is probably a way to lay people off without actually laying them off, you get people to quit and you don’t have to pay severance or unemployment!
February 27, 2013 #

Spencer Bailey

I feel like she certainly knows what she is doing, but I still scratch my head at this decision.

Honestly I haven’t looked much into the reports, but I’m a firm believer that having flexible work-environment options will maximize potential productivity within employees.

In other words, WFH should be an option.

We’ll see how this plays out. I wonder what the future of Yahoo! looks like.
February 27, 2013 #

gwc_wd

Advocates of WFH necessarily focus on the concept of “if the job gets done, wonderful.”

And indeed, WFH allows people to do just enough to get the job done — and no more.

This approach glosses over the reality that companies in pursuit of aggressive growth cannot be satisfied with “enough to get the job done.”

In an office environment, when a staffer has completed assignment X, she is not expected to take the rest of the day off. Rather she is expected to move on to assignment Y and if there is no assignment Y, to either come up with one on her own or seek it from other members of her team.

Sure, there are examples of individuals who WFH who are driven and take on more and more. When those examples occur in an environment of many other WFH staff, they tend to simply highlight the flat line quota nature of much WFH employment.

And productivity is just one reason why WFH is not an ideal solution for every business seeking a sharp growth strategy. Team building and team dynamics are simply easier to understand and manage when the team is physically together. Individuals are more able to bring their own energy to bear on the structure and philosophy of a company, a project or a mission when they routinely physically present. Automatic may have scored a cheap shot on Yahoo over this, but even Matt sees the value of in-person contact as evidenced by his recent posts regarding making the effort to have “face-to-face” meetings with certain individuals. If remote works so perfectly, face-to-face would add no value now would it?

If you want people to get energized and to energize one another, working and playing together always beats working apart.

This is not to say that there are not lots of situations where WFH is not a good option. There are. Lots of them. Just as there are lots of cases where a straight supplier contract or piece work is a good option.

But Yahoo is not so patently foolish as much commentary makes out for concluding that WFH is not a good fit for their company.
March 1, 2013 #

ThatGuyKC

As an employee for a large global retailer I am wary of sweeping unilateral decisions like this one at Yahoo! that have such a drastic impact on employee performance and moral.