Best Buy ends work-from-home program • Hacker News Board

Re: Best Buy ends work-from-home program

#41

Post by netcan » Wed, Mar 06, 2013, 10:07 AM UTC

jfoutz wrote: post #12

mindcrime wrote: post #8

Marissa Mayer might be a trendsetter. Just one week after the Yahoo CEO banned telecommuting at her company, Best Buy is ending its own flexible work program. Well, one insightful HN'er, christopheraden, sorta called this[1], back in one of the earlier threads[2] on the Yahoo decision. Unfortunately it looks like people might just be following Mayer's lead here (even though she hasn't exactly "turned Yahoo around" ju…

It's just for dying companies. Yahoo and Best Buy are facing life and death changes. It makes sense to go into full panic mode. Maybe they'll come back, if they get small enough, maybe they'll be nimble enough to make some cash. Finding the really loyal employees is probably a good move. Scaling back benefits is a good way to do that.

Any painful, unpopular decision is mostly for dying companies. That doesn't necessarily mean its a bad one.

Re: Best Buy ends work-from-home program

#42

Post by stock_toaster » Wed, Mar 06, 2013, 10:52 AM UTC

moocow01 wrote: post #21

waterlesscloud wrote: post #13

So the message is now clear- ending telecommuting is something failing companies do.

To me its more clear that these companies have pretty clueless managers that have no idea if their people are working or not.

They must not have shown up in Yahoo!'s VPN logs either. ;)

Re: Best Buy ends work-from-home program

#43

Post by benjaminwootton » Wed, Mar 06, 2013, 10:54 AM UTC

enraged_camel wrote: post #29

mikescar wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yahoo stock is up from $15 under Scott Thompson to almost $23 with Mayer, so not sure what point you're trying to make. Please, since you are so familiar with the ins and outs of Yahoo, what would you have done differently?

I'm sorry, but are you implying that stock price has anything to do with how well the company is doing? Because it doesn't.

Er, surely the stock price has something to do with how well the company are doing!

Re: Best Buy ends work-from-home program

#44

Post by dfxm12 » Wed, Mar 06, 2013, 2:59 PM UTC

benjaminwootton wrote: post #43

enraged_camel wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sorry, but are you implying that stock price has anything to do with how well the company is doing? Because it doesn't.

Er, surely the stock price has something to do with how well the company are doing!

It's more a measure of the traders' perception of how the company is going to do in the (not so distant) future.

Sometimes perception becomes reality. Sometimes traders have no idea what they are doing.

Re: Best Buy ends work-from-home program

#45

Post by tjtrapp » Wed, Mar 06, 2013, 4:05 PM UTC

yuniu wrote: post #25

tjtrapp wrote: post #24

i don't understand what type of work gets done at home when one works for a retail company like best buy. when i think of best buy, i think of people in blue shirts trying to sell me the latest widget. if i think harder, i can imagine people who have to get stuff on the store shelves and maybe managers who have to create reports or something. what type of jobs are actually "work from home" jobs at retail stores?

Are you really that retarded? Payroll, HR, finance, the website, tech support for in-store systems, planning for growth, product selection, manufacture liaison, operations planning for distribution, legal... Or are you under the impression that Best Buy stores appear out of nowhere, with stock selected and shipped from nowhere with no planning, with staff recruited and paid by nobody, no legal support, no tech suppor…

Ive never worked in retail.

After reading your comment, my question does seem silly.

Also did not know that its possible to down vote in HN.

Anyways, thanks 4 the info.

Re: Best Buy ends work-from-home program

#46

Post by skore » Wed, Mar 06, 2013, 6:27 PM UTC

georgemcbay wrote: post #27

doktrin wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At the micro level, I have seen many teams pull everyone in to the same physical location when faced with a sprint or deadline. It doesn't strike me as inherently illogical, and is a strategy that IME has yielded results. What yahoo and BB are doing is essentially this, but at scale. They are both companies under significant duress and pressure and are attempting to rally the troops. While it remains to be seen wheth…

I have no opinion one way or another about either Yahoo or Best Buy, but in my experience (when I've seen these sorts of things go down in person at previous companies) once a company starts down the path of emergency policy changes to right the ship, the death spiral is more or less irreversible. The top employees are already either out the door or actively looking for their next gig, and in a couple of months the r…

I find it particularly interesting that Mayer goes to Yahoo from Google and straight away implements things that would surely make Google look like the better place to work at. At least for me (and I guess the HN audience type of people in general, judging from the comments on this topic so far). It's like a Trojan Horse that you can sell with a straight face as being tough on failure and driven for success and all that. Probably good for marketing and the chairholders to feel smug, will probably boost stocks... company will likely still fail.

Re: Best Buy ends work-from-home program

#47

Post by pyre » Wed, Mar 06, 2013, 6:48 PM UTC

smtddr wrote: post #14

pyre wrote: post #7

| "In the context of a business transformation, it | makes sense to consider not just what the results | are but how the work gets done," Furman said. | "It's 'all hands on deck' at Best Buy, and that | means having employees in the office as much as | possible to collaborate and connect on ways to | improve our business 1. The "all hands on deck" thing is a bit over the top. It makes it sound like he thinks that peo…

>Are these companies doing so poorly that they feel that chance meetings in the hallways or at the water-cooler will be their salvation? For what it's worth, that is exactly the logic Google is using for the design of their new building near SF. http://www.dezeen.com/2013/02/26/google-reveals-plans-for-ba...

I would see them as similar if Google was creating this new building for the sole purpose of these chance meetings. These changes by Yahoo and Best Buy seem to put a lot of focus/emphasis on these spontaneous meetings/ideas/exchanges.

Re: Best Buy ends work-from-home program

#48

Post by kevinconroy » Wed, Mar 06, 2013, 11:34 PM UTC

98709870987 wrote: post #22

kevinconroy wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe the fundamental problem that these companies face is that they've grown so big and complex that many fiefdoms have developed. There are isolated teams within the larger organization. Frankly, it doesn't matter if the teams are in the office or working from home. The Real Problem (TM) that they're facing is that they've forgotten how to innovate, communicate internally, and be agile at scale. They want a qui…

>>The Real Problem (TM) It is really getting annoying to see the TM sign in every other phrase now. It doesn't make anybody look clever so please guys stop it.

Humor is In the Eye of the Beholder (TM)