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No more remote work at Yahoo

37signals.com

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Re: No more remote work at Yahoo

#171

Post by ebbv »

swombat wrote: post #168
ebbv wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure that's how the executives in charge of this boneheaded decision explain it to themselves, but try applying just a pinch of real world logic to that thought and it shrivels like a slug under salt. Do you really think that people who have been forced to start working in the office under threat of termination are going to form a positive, collegial bond? If they form a bond at all, it will be one based on share…

> Do you really think that people who have been forced to start working in the office under threat of termination are going to form a positive, collegial bond? If they form a bond at all, it will be one based on shared resentment of the Dilbert-esque reality they now inhabit. I think that in hard times, you either do form a bond or you go form a bond somewhere else. I think that's the decision that was just taken at…

Just firing the workers would have been even more stupid but what they did was already stupid.

Re: No more remote work at Yahoo

#172

Post by gingerlime »

Bamafan wrote: post #118
cletus wrote: post #53

37signals comes down against a decree of no more remote working. I am shocked (shocked that there is gambling going on in this establishment). Much like hiring practices this is and will continue to be a divisive issue. This one however seems to be largely driven by personal preference: if you want to work from home, you can't understand why anyone is against it. If you don't, then you do. I fall in the camp of not n…

"As for commute, this much is true and is a particular problem in the Valley. For me, my commute is a 7 minute walk to work (in NYC). YMMV. :)" I might be going way out on a limb here, but I think this kind of thing is a subtle driver of age/family discrimination. What kind of workers are more likely to live by the office, and thus able to drop in on a moment's notice? Young, single workers. What type of workers are…

My gut feeling too.

If I were living within 7 minutes walking-distance from work, I sure wouldn't mind coming in, especially if work is so flexible that I can come in at 3pm and nobody lifts an eyebrow.

My workplace is actually not that far away, around 25-30 minutes of public-transport commute. I still see lots of benefits for remote-working. Striking a balance is the key. I wouldn't want to exclusively work from home either.

Re: No more remote work at Yahoo

#173

Post by Macsenour »

bpatrianakos wrote: post #131

Any one of us could go off on a diatribe on why DHH is right or wrong (and some of us have) but I think this issue is actually much simpler and we're missing something crucial here. Whether remote work is a good practice or not is besides the point. I'd say, when done intelligently, it's a great thing. But don't you think Mayer knows that already? The bottom line here is that Mayer has to take a floundering company a…

You make a good point that Yahoo and 37signals are NOT in the same place. Yahoo needs to throw cold water in their faces, wake up and make some big changes, 37signals appears from the outside to be doing well.

Very different situations.

Re: No more remote work at Yahoo

#174

Post by smw »

britman wrote: post #44

For me I think it's actually a clever marketing move by DHH and 37 Signals to create a "stir" around the issue. My guess is they don't really care what Yahoo's reasons are behind it but are very pleased with the timing...you can't help but notice at the bottom of the post - Interested in learning more about remote work? Checkout our upcoming book REMOTE: Office Not Required.

I think it's likely that you're missing a layer. The book is really just marketing for the DHH/37signals/RoR brand.

Developing that brand makes people more loyal to their products and ecosystem, which probably makes them a lot more money over the long run than book sales.

Re: No more remote work at Yahoo

#175

Post by drharris »

nirvana wrote: post #116
drharris wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Meyer doesn't respect or understand engineering culture I think somebody doesn't understand where Mayer came from.

I know exactly where Meyer came from, and a fair bit of inside baseball about her time there. If you disagree with my argument, please make a counter argument. Snide comments are useless.

She IS an engineer. What else do you need to understand engineering culture, other than to have been one for years?

Re: No more remote work at Yahoo

#176

Post by CamperBob2 »

swombat wrote: post #11

As I posted on the 37s blog: Management paranoia is not the only reason why someone would want to decrease the amount of remote work. There are team spirit benefits to bringing people together physically, and depending on the type of work being undertaken, remote work may have more downsides than upside. I don’t see this as an aggression against remote workers, or an attempt at controlling remote workers more closely…

There are team spirit benefits to bringing people together physically, and depending on the type of work being undertaken, remote work may have more downsides than upside.

This "team spirit" argument makes no sense to me at all. What group on Earth has more "team spirit" than the contributors and maintainers on major open source projects?

For someone in Mayer's position, effective leadership means acting more like Linus Torvalds than Bill Lumbergh.

Re: No more remote work at Yahoo

#178

Post by smrtinsert »

wiremine wrote: post #56
mef wrote: post #23

The author asserts that the new policy is based on "flimsy foundations". How does he know if the foundations are flimsy or not? Does he have inside knowledge of the productivity of remote vs. local employees at Yahoo? Is he assuming it's the same as at 37signals? Might it not be? He writes that Yahoo employees should be "angry" that the new policy was declared "without your consultation". How does he know there was n…

If you can look past DHH being DHH, his points are valid. That said, I think he missed the main thrust of Yahoo's decision: they are looking to increase collaboration, and they believe face-to-face collaboration is more advantageous than remote or semi-remote collaboration. I would assume this is because they think collaboration is an important part of the overall productivity of their staff. I've been a remote or se…

Collaboration requires coordination and clear expectations. You can't expect blind face time to result in productivity gains. A company without remote collaboration probably wont have onsite collaboration either.

Like many people above noted, global companies do this all the time.

Re: No more remote work at Yahoo

#180

Post by pyoung »

jakejake wrote: post #162
keithpeter wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

" If a hiring process weeds out some qualified candidates, it doesn't mean it's broken. Whether or not it's broken is determined by whether the company finds a suitable candidate, how long it takes and how expensive it is. " Absolutely. But changing terms and conditions after a person has been employed is different, and, in the UK at least, may be illegal. I suspect it is the change for existing employees that surpri…

One thing may be possible - that they actually took a look at who worked remotely and who worked on site. From that they decided that the 100% remote workers were not producing as well, or were acceptable to lose. It could be that Yahoo didn't set up their remote work procedures very well and so it lead to poor productivity from remote workers. Obviously they're willing to risk losing employees so I would guess they…

This was speculated in the following article. Compared to announcing a round of layoffs, reigning in remote workers is probably much less damaging to morale, and they can always ease the restriction or set up a more rationale policy down the road.

http://www.sfgate.com/technology/businessinsider/article/Why...

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