Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer has decided to eliminate her employees’ ability to telecommute<\/a>. \u00a0She proposes that elimination of telecommuting and the increase of face-time interactions will improve Yahoo’s creativity and productivity, serious issues currently facing their organization right now.<\/p>\nThe blowback from this policy include: She’s a woman! She’s a MOTHER!! The good employees are going to leave because of how important telecommuting is! \u00a0People don’t need to be present to work well and be creative with each other!!<\/p>\n
Since I am also a woman and a mother and I study virtual work and online interactions and I love telecommuting, I think most folks think I agree with these criticisms. \u00a0But, alas, I do not.<\/p>\n
First, yes, she is a woman and a mother and that gives her insight into working mother issues. \u00a0However, she is also CEO of a company that is in dire straights. She took this job while pregnant, and I don’t think anyone expected her to take a long maternity leave to transition into motherhood and put Yahoo viability on hold. She has been criticized for having the ability to build a nursery near her office so she can be next to her baby during the workday. \u00a0My perception is that she is not taking time off during the day to play with her baby or rock her to sleep: \u00a0she’s probably still breastfeeding (or was at the time she built the office) and it’s a lot more efficient to have a direct delivery system than to pump. \u00a0I’m also more than sure she has a night nurse. \u00a0I don’t think she should be criticized for having more resources than other mothers have and making these choices work for her. \u00a0I also feel it’s sexist to assume that she is supposed to put her roles and woman and mother above her role of CEO. \u00a0When did we last criticize a male CEO for NOT putting his family (and other fathers) over his organization? Never.<\/p>\n
Second, what about telecommuting and creativity, productivity, and connection? \u00a0That’s even murkier. \u00a0Yes, virtual teams can be very successful and telecommuters can be very productive. \u00a0But these is something to be \u00a0said about face-to-face interactions. \u00a0More information is exchanged more quickly. \u00a0More intellectual and social connections are made. \u00a0Since the beginning of telecommuting, we’ve been waiting for that “killer app” to be developed which can replace the water cooler for employees to have those important, informal social interactions and it hasn’t happened yet. \u00a0I think it’s reasonable to want employees to be on site together more often to increase those connections which *could* improve the organization’s performance.<\/p>\n
Here, though, is where I think Ms. Mayer is wrong: \u00a0there is absolutely no need for employees to be on site 5 days a week. \u00a0And indeed, one or two days a week of working at home will likely improve performance and satisfaction. \u00a0That’s where her mistake is. \u00a0I think the benefits of being FtF will accrue with three or four days of being on site and the performance benefits won’t diminish if people still have one or two days to work in a quiet environment at home. \u00a0That is where she is going to have unnecessary morale and turnover problems and probably what she is either going to regret her policy or going to change it.<\/p>\n
It will be interesting to see how this all plays out. \u00a0If Yahoo turns around, telecommuting may be\u00a0jeopardized\u00a0for many employees. \u00a0If she hastens the organization’s demise because all the good employees leave, telecommuting may become even more the norm of some jobs. \u00a0We shall wait and see.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I am coming to the Yahoo Telecommuting brouhaha a little later than most, but I think it’s given me time to process others’ reactions as well as better formulate my own. The gist of the story is that Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer has decided to eliminate her employees’ ability to telecommute. \u00a0She proposes that elimination […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":124,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p67nDP-3C","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":387,"url":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/2020\/03\/16\/ctrl-alt-del\/","url_meta":{"origin":224,"position":0},"title":"Ctrl-Alt-Del","author":"Anita Blanchard","date":"March 16, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"I don't know if that reference is only relevant to Boomers, geeks, geeky boomers, or geeky Gen Xers. In any case, the world is about to reboot. We are fixing to see (now, I know that's an old time Southern phrase) what happens when we all start working at home\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/03\/The-Interesting-History-Behind-The-3-key-Control-Alt-Delete-Combination.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/03\/The-Interesting-History-Behind-The-3-key-Control-Alt-Delete-Combination.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/03\/The-Interesting-History-Behind-The-3-key-Control-Alt-Delete-Combination.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/03\/The-Interesting-History-Behind-The-3-key-Control-Alt-Delete-Combination.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":264,"url":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/2014\/06\/20\/online-classes\/","url_meta":{"origin":224,"position":1},"title":"Online Classes","author":"Anita Blanchard","date":"June 20, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"I would love to start a discussion of online classes in this post (so I must remember to turn on comments). So, I just finished my second online class. \u00a0Despite being someone who studies online groups and who has been on email since ((gulp)) 1984, I have not wanted to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":188,"url":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/2012\/05\/23\/open-cubicles-and-behavior-settings\/","url_meta":{"origin":224,"position":2},"title":"Open Cubicles and Behavior Settings","author":"Anita Blanchard","date":"May 23, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Sometimes, I get a little freaked out when the New York Times has stories that seem to be focused all towards issues and interests in my own life. \u00a0(I'm sure that's what all the paranoids say, but I'm way too optimistic to be a paranoid. \u00a0I just think how lucky\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":184,"url":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/2012\/05\/10\/aspirational\/","url_meta":{"origin":224,"position":3},"title":"Aspirational","author":"Anita Blanchard","date":"May 10, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"The final papers for my writing and thinking class are starting to arrive. \u00a0I don't know whose bright idea it was for the due date for the papers to be two weeks after the last class because I am already feeling the summer schedule. \u00a0Oh, yeah. \u00a0That was me. \u00a0Well,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":335,"url":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/2018\/03\/16\/spring-break-study-abroad-to-prague-part-3\/","url_meta":{"origin":224,"position":4},"title":"Spring Break Study Abroad to Prague: Part 3","author":"Anita Blanchard","date":"March 16, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"This entry should be titled: Professors Learn Things, too. In addition to focusing on what the students can learn about multicultural teams in multinational organizations, I also used this trip as a way to enrich my own understanding of work and employees.\u00a0 I'm an organizational scientist.\u00a0 Nonetheless, I do not\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":239,"url":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/2013\/10\/07\/doing-the-right-thing\/","url_meta":{"origin":224,"position":5},"title":"Doing the Right Thing","author":"Anita Blanchard","date":"October 7, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Seminar's can have different themes and foci, even if you are ostensibly reading the same material. \u00a0Last year, in our Organization Science overview class, we focused a lot, especially at the beginning, at the problems of duality in research and how the next generation of research and researchers will solve\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/124"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=224"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":225,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224\/revisions\/225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}