Yahoo CEO: No more working remote -- get to the office or quit

This is the single major reason that I'd want to work from home!

 

This is how it has to be, I think. My coworker and I work from home occasionally, if his kid gets sick or I need to be home for some reason. But my dog is in his crate and I only take him out for a walk during my lunch break. I have TV on in the background, but I'm not watching it and I actually get more done at home than I do here, where the allure of free food and people to talk to and foosball kind of breaks the concentration sometimes.

 

Moms are pissed.

http://blog.sfgate.com/sfmoms/2013/02/26/marissa-mayer-angers-moms-with-new/

This is where the argument loses me -- if someone is saying they need to be home because they're a mom or dad, well, they're saying they aren't going to work. I mean, they can say maybe they're shifting the work to a different time, but I don't know how effective that is, and it certainly isn't good for communication and collaboration, and anyway they are also saying they want to be home precisely because they want to be with their kids. You are not working if you are with your kids. I know this. I am a contract worker, and when I have a project I know have to bust my ass to be done for the day by 2 p.m. because my kids are going to be around and work just isn't going to happen then. This is also the reason my wife greatly prefers to go to the office -- she also knows work isn't happening when the kids are home.

 

Definitely sounds like the wrong kind of job and the wrong type of employee to allow him to work from home. Some people will absolutely abuse the priviledge.

In his case, you are probably right about tending to sick children. That said, you shouldn't always make that assumption. Just because a parent has to be at home with a sick child doesn't mean they can't get work done. I've done it with my 9-year-old. Sure, I have to check on her and she'll ask for something here and there, but usually I can get her to rest in her room and leave me be while I work.

The only real reason I normally would take a sick day in those situations is it would keep me from leaving home to cover breaking news.I don't like to bring her to work with me if she's feeling well, I certainly wouldn't do it if she was sick.

 

They have this thing called day care. Yahoo pays well. Pony up.

It's how I get through life.

No remorse.

 

Mayer should do the same.

 

Ummmm.... She DID pony up.

http://www.businessinsider.com/marissa-mayer-who-just-banned-working-from-home-paid-to-have-a-nursery-built-at-her-office-2013-2

That's because when Mayer had her son last fall, she paid to have a nursery built in her office.

 

These folks who are whining about having to go into the office? STFU and get your ass to your job. You're being paid well to do a job, so go work.

I understand that not every job requires you to be in an office (hello, baseball beat writer). I understand the occasional work-from-home day can be very productive. I understand the occasional situation with children (hello, projectile vomiting).

But what I'm hearing a lot of in the Yahoo backlash is people who feel entitled to work from home or have a flexible schedule because they have children. I am tired of covering for parents who rush off in the early afternoons because they choose not to make proper arrangements, and I am tired of managers who look the other way because they don't want to be seen as "family unfriendly." It's not fair to those of us who are putting in the 8-10-12 hours in the office.

I work in an office but we have a few people who work remotely. One of them is a pain to work with, because she has several children. Even when you can get her on the phone, you never have her full attention. It's maddening, and the rest of our productivity suffers when we have to wait for her.

So not a lot of sympathy here for the Yahoo folks.

 

If anything, companies should be glad that people are working from home when their kids are sick. Otherwise, they might just as well take a sick day, and get paid for sitting at home and not getting any work done.

And with this new policy, Mayer better be prepared for a lot of her employees walking out the door at 5 p.m. Won't be too many spontaneous, collaborative meetings at the water cooler when the employees are rushing out to be home in time for dinner and Little Jenny's dance recital.

 

Sounds like you are allowing your judgement to be influenced by your issues with one parent who doesn't know how to be a professional. It's understandable and no way should she get away with that crap. Those are bad employees with weak managers who don't step up and deal with the problem.

I had a similar situation with a woman I used to work with, but she was in the office. Far too often she would disappear early to deal with something related to her kids, or she would be tied up on the phone with personal crap. Point being, unprofessional people who think being a parent excuses them from working as hard as everybody else are an issue even if they don't work from home.

The problem with what Yahoo! is doing is that people accepted jobs there with the understanding that they would be able to work remotely and that is being arbitrarily taken away.

 

For one thing, it's not always because parents didn't make the proper arrangements. Even when they do, things happen. Babysitters are late, or they get sick, or they quit, or they suck at their job and the parents need someone more reliable.

And you can't blame workers for wanting a work-life balance. There's no company loyalty to them, so why should they want to devote countless hours to the company? Like I said on my previous post, Mayer better be prepared for her workers coming right in at 9 and out at 5.

 

Agreed on both points. Usually, if I'm working from home while my daughter is home sick, it's because my work has to get done that day and I'd be neglecting it or dumping things on my colleagues if I simply took the sick day. Not that it has happened very often.

The bigger issue I get stuck with is snow days/early dismissals due to weather. Most of the time when that happens, it's on me because I work either at home or much closer to home than my wife does.