I think WAH can be done when you have clear cut goals and expectations. If WAH employees are goofing off too much, then it says the management is not utilizing its resources properly. I have been working at home for 6 years now, since before I had children. I work in IT and I have clear cut deadlines/deliverables. My boss will know if I skip something or slip up on the quality of my work.

I pay for my children to go to daycare full time and the only person in the house during my work hours is me, in a dedicated home office. If I have to take the kids somewhere, I get my boss's permission before hand. If my children are sick (as today), I will use sick leave and not log in.


I really loved it when MM got to the top of Yahoo. I was happy to see a woman in that kind of top position. I was even defending her decision to take less maternity leave because, while I took 12 weeks for each of kids, I think she alone can decide what is best for her and it was not my place to judge another mother. Not to mention she is rich enough to get the best available care when she is not around.

But I will admit that I am disappointed by her blanket ban on tele-working but then I also want to give her the benefit of doubt and hope she is just doing it to get rid of lazy workers and will put in policies that help all people, single/married/parents achieve a good balance.

I work in a results driven culture. My annual performance review is based on my ability to increase profit. Whether I do that at 2am in my basement watching midget wrestling or at 9am on a Tuesday morning in a suit and tie discussing the relative merits of Bellini as a caviar complement with a client, my firm doesn't give a shit. I make $275,000 a year and I work from home 3x a week, but work 60+ hours a week as well. It's just a question of what you do.... and how you do it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let's be honest here. When I tell people I'm more productive when I work at home, I'm lying through my teeth. And I think most people are.

I work with someone who works from home one day a week and says he's more productive. I absolutely believe him. When he's at work he is constantly being called to meetings. He has a lot of work to do just sitting at his computer. I think that day at home gives him an opportunity to get that work done so that when he's in the office he can attend to the meetings people are always calling him over for. HOWEVER, if he only worked at home, he'd never be able to have that interaction. I think WAH is great one or two days a week and, honestly, it's the way things are going, but it has to be the right field and the right type of job. You can't make a blanket argument that WAH is either good or bad, more productive or less productive.

I totally agree. WAH 100% of the time is total crap. No one is working as much as they would be in the office, and your co-workers in the office know it. I WAH one day a week and it's great, but I wouldn't want to do it 100% of the time and I'd never run a company where that was allowed.

The fact is, teleworkers wouldn't be so desperate to keep the perk at any cost if it didn't enable a lot more goofing off, not to mention all the teleworkers who "work" at home without childcare. Just listen to all the nonsense on this thread and all over the internet.

I don't know it's so simple. I telework and appreciate that if my 5 mo gets us at 4am and I don't fall asleep until 7am, and wake up at 8.30am, I can still be online a d ready by 9. It's not slacking, it's just convienence. There's also the simple truth that when I telework I gain 2 hours a day back: some days that means I can sleep in more, some days it means I can get more done by 6pm, some days it probably makes no difference... But I'm not just sitting at home masterbating and eating bon bons.

Anonymous wrote:I have a job that is based on deliverables and I have to complete x amount of work per week in 40 hours. there are some days in the office where I am lazy and some days at home where I am lazy and on the other days I am extremely productive. Doesnt matter where I am bc the work has to be turned in by the end of the week. I can waste just as much time in the office as at home.

Have you learned to game the system and turn in low quality work? Know someone who works in a production environ who says this happens a lot when workers get signature authority.

Anonymous wrote:When I do go into the office, I am always amazed at how much time is wasted. Coffee breaks, drawn out 'brainstorms' that are really just people saying the same thing to convince themselves they were all involved. Catching up on small talk (the gym, the kids, what they watched the night before). Bathroom breaks take longer bc the smallest room is usually a distance from their desk. Unscheduled calls/stop-ins are disruptive to workflow. I don't know that I'm more productive working from home, but it is certainly not as lopsided as some might think. Like PP, I start earlier and have very little ramp up time. When I sit down, I'm immediatley producing.

Agree. It probably depends on the person.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Apparently none of Yahoo's top performers worked from home

I believe that. WAH is a sop. Unless you're eating what you kill, I think people who WAH loaf a lot more than they will admit.

I dunno. Know some office workers who would give those WAH loafers competition. Sometimes super loafers like to "work" at the office so others outside of work won't know the real truth.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bet a lot of Yahoo employees are now looking for new jobs.

I would hope yahoo employees have been looking for new jobs for some time...

Not the PP but that's a good point. These must be the Plan B workers who had to stay. She is in for an uphill battle.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Being together in the work space creates a more creative and collaberative enviornment. Something Google and FB both seem to agree on.

this. depends on the industry.

in tech, in product development and the 'cool jobs' being on campus, collaborating, hackathons, bouncing ideas and socializing while working off each other is really important it seems.

MM is probably doing this for this reason (yahoo needs innovation badly) but also as a way to force some attrition of the ranks who perhaps are not in 'product' or key revenue/r&d driving positions.

Depends. Working at an isolated 'campus' location isn't really cool. There's no stores, no good places to eat, nothing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let's be honest here. When I tell people I'm more productive when I work at home, I'm lying through my teeth. And I think most people are.

I work with someone who works from home one day a week and says he's more productive. I absolutely believe him. When he's at work he is constantly being called to meetings. He has a lot of work to do just sitting at his computer. I think that day at home gives him an opportunity to get that work done so that when he's in the office he can attend to the meetings people are always calling him over for. HOWEVER, if he only worked at home, he'd never be able to have that interaction. I think WAH is great one or two days a week and, honestly, it's the way things are going, but it has to be the right field and the right type of job. You can't make a blanket argument that WAH is either good or bad, more productive or less productive.

I totally agree. WAH 100% of the time is total crap. No one is working as much as they would be in the office, and your co-workers in the office know it. I WAH one day a week and it's great, but I wouldn't want to do it 100% of the time and I'd never run a company where that was allowed.

The fact is, teleworkers wouldn't be so desperate to keep the perk at any cost if it didn't enable a lot more goofing off, not to mention all the teleworkers who "work" at home without childcare. Just listen to all the nonsense on this thread and all over the internet.