Is this really the end to working from home?

By March 1 2013, 11:06 am 6 Comments
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So, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer has put the kibosh on working from home.

For her, the main reason is that innovation doesn’t happen in isolation. It’s the face-to-face bouncing of thoughts and ideas that leads to breakthroughs and change.

I agree. Partly. Probably because our agency is precisely that kind of place. But isn’t it a bit idealistic though? To think that all company buildings are buzzing hives of collaborative innovation? After all, even when some employees are in close proximity to one another, you’ll still find them pinging emails rather than talking; or not even sharing eye contact, let alone a new theory of general relativity.

The fact is that there’s no reason for an ‘all or nothing’ approach to home v work.

Isn’t the truth that – home or workplace – it depends on the individual as to how productive they are? The driven employee will always deliver the goods. And the slacker will always, well, slack. Show me one chap buried away for hours in their home office and I’ll show you another wiling away ‘work hours’ with Loose Women.

Surely ‘in-the-office’ time isn’t always productive either, is it Marissa? Just because someone’s face is there, doesn’t mean there heart is too. And, those people who are always buzzing around might actually be achieving very little – other than making a power play for promotion.

Home. Office. It’s an irrelevance. It’s a question of trust. The focus should be on hiring talented people you can depend on to get the job done; whether it’s in the shed, the local Starbucks or the number 534 bus to Putney.

www.thisistda.com

  • Martin Ballantine

    Good piece!  Strange attitude from a purportedly modern firm’s CEO.  Question of balance/horses for courses, as ever…

    • Mollycatz

      I’ve worked from home and bounced ideas off co-workers over IM I chat with people all over the world, talking in type has become so natural i often do it when I’m in the same building as others.. Ironically Yahoo chat is my favourite tool. It is always the extraverts who want to get us “talking”.

      • Mark Tomkins, TDA

        That’s the point. Chat etc aren’t weird other-worldly modes of communication any more. They’re just a natural part of our day-to-day communications with co-workers. Skype, Google Hangouts… there are just so many ways to keep in touch. And, some people might be more willing to venture ideas – than when they’re in an room full of people where only the ‘shouty types’ shine.

    • Mark Tomkins, TDA

      Thanks Martin. Yes, it just sounds so draconian. Almost as if the troops have been misbehaving.

  • Grazia

    I worked for Yahoo! for a while.  I wasn’t in the office every day, usually two or three days a week, but when I was in, I might as well have been at home.  People sat in front of their computers with their headphones on.  If you wanted a conversation, even if they we just next to you, you had to interrupt their listening, so everything was done via email or IM.  Certainly not the “water cooler”.

    Also, I had international responsibilities, so, in fact, I couldn’t talk face to face with any of my team or my colleagues elsewhere as they were all in different countries or locations.

    My boss was based in Switzerland, me in Paris. No water cooler there. 

    Mayer gives the impression that she doesn’t realise she runs a global company, on the internet.  And what about people who were hired for the abilities rather than location?  Will they have to move or lose their jobs?

    I hated being in the office as I felt invisible, no buzz, no team spirit.  (Same where I work now as well TBH). 

    Forcing people to be in the office will not engender a team spirit; it’s a question of attitude.  A team spirit will only grow if the people are that way inclined.  Having worked in agencies for half my career, I really miss that buzz but many offices no longer have it – nothing to do with home workers.

    Being old enough to have started work before the advent of the commercial internet and the excessive use of email, I do partly blame the technologies we use as well.  Social media has cut down on the very act of being social, and this is equally so in offices.  When I speak to the person next to me at work, she looks at her screen instead of listening to what is being said about work matters.  I know she listens more attentively when I call her…from home!

    • Mark Tomkins, TDA

      Hi Grazia. It seems to be a matter of semantics too. ‘The office’ is quite an old-fashioned description – conjuring up images of typing pools and people smoking at their desks. Today, ‘the office’ should simply be wherever colleagues congregate – be it in the cloud, in a room or at the local park.