CEOs Square Off: Is Working From Home Good or Bad?

Yahoo! vs. Virgin on the value of remote employees

The freedom to work in your underwear is a luxury not available to most. But should it be? According to Virgin CEO Richard Branson, yes. The "rock star billionaire" pushed back against a controversial memo from Yahoo! head Marissa Mayer telling staffers that they'd better start coming into the office - or else.

"Beginning in June, we're asking all employees with work-from-home arrangements to work in Yahoo! offices," stated Mayer. "It is critical that we are all present in our offices; some of the best decisions and insights come from hallway and cafeteria discussions, and impromptu team meetings."

It's an ethos Branson is calling "backwards" among other things:

"To successfully work with other people, you have to trust each other," stated Branson, as reported by Business Insider. "A big part of this is trusting people to get their work done wherever they are, without supervision."

But while the trends in working environment echo Branson's point of view - more and more folks are working remotely all the time - it might behoove those in love with their home office to follow Mayer's lead. According to Stanford University researchers, working from home reduces the likelihood of promotion by 50%.

What was that saying? "Out of sight, out of mind"?

Via Business Insider and the Wall Street Journal.

Is it better to have employees work at home, or in the office?

[vws]

Worked from home and in an office environment - pros and cons with both. Sad that a corporation in a computer market could be so short sighted.

[Litdes]

I tend to agree that coworker interaction leads to unforeseen benefits of knowledge sharing, which often lead to advances that would never come from an environment where workers did not interact with one another face to face.

[NavinRJohnson]

And so does not interacting with the same people and ideas every day. Some of the best ideas in many areas came from an outside perspective.

[methinks]

Ever hear of "Go to Meeting?"

[Realthinker]

Why does it have to be one or the other? Can't it be a combination of the two? Wouldn't the ideal combination of the two also vary from one employee to another? Where is each individual the most productive? Would some people become more productive away from constant interruptions? There are no one size fits all answers.

[g4me]

How is it that Yahoo is still relevant with leadership such as this?

[BossTweed]

She was brought to Yahoo to try to save it. Letting the workforce stay home hasn't worked out so well for them so changing it up is worth a try.

[MarkColwell]

@BossTweed What she should give up on is one size fits all solutions.

[jessejaymes]

@MarkColwell and maybe she shouldn't have taken maternity leave after taking the CEO job and STAYED HOME. What a bitch.

[Hireman]

@MarkColwell if she was brought on because one size fit none, then this may be the solution

[g4me]

@Hireman I certainly dont see how.

[Chromalord]

If interaction is key then why not equip them with skype?

[DARSB]

These CEOs are coming from different circumstances. Yahoo! is an Internet dinosaur hoping to rejuvenate itself under the leadership of a former Googler. Branson is, well, he's Richard Flippin' Branson. I'd give up body parts (not mine, of course) to work for Virgin. Yahoo!... not so much.

[methinks]

Amen to that!

[Dan_Tien]

Telecommuting and teleconferencing are not only efficient but reduce the use of cars, fuel, emissions and probably lower the number of traffic accidents as well. What's not to like? Maybe it's just time to stop promoting people based on the shmooz factor.

[g4me]

Looks like Mayer didnt get that memo.

[SmedleyButler]

There are other industries relying on the use of cars, including government. They won't say that, but they do. Look at what happened with hybrid cars, Govts were bitching about loss of tax revenue and wanted to raise taxes and fees on them. She'll get her wish because, all the CEO's get together (they are the ones running the country) they're going to stop the telecommuting trends.

[methinks]

It also works if you're home and sick so that you can still work and not infect everyone else in the office! The same holds true when the kids are home from school, puking in the bathroom down the hall!:)

[marine1]

It's tough to have an affair if you work from home all the time:}

[g4me]

Is that all you men ever think about?:P

[martydotcom]

@g4me the quality/intellect of respondents and where their mind's reside must be taken into account (yes, they can vote too)!

[PNWest]

Does your neighborhood have a lot of stay at home moms? Just sayin'.

[marine1]

@PNWest carefull, Joking around on this one has consequences

[martydotcom]

She's been CEO for how long? Since January 2013. Not muchntime to build a loyal team and make the BOD's real comfy. She'll have a limited lifespan in this role? Any bets she'll be as successful as Carley Fiorina was in destroying HP?
Yahoo will be taken over within 6 mos. It's hard to believe she was a Google exec. An impressive resume, first female engineer at Google, a pretty face, always in the right place, at the right time and about to blow it real fast

[PNWest]

I'm hoping that she'll do better than Carly Fiorina. Of course that shouldn't be too hard considering the damage Carly did to HP. Give her a bit of time and see if she can turn things around. Yahoo has been on life support for years. Give her 18 months at least and see where Yahoo stands. Hopefully she'll clean it up and either make it relevant again or get things stable enough to get it bought out with a boost in stock price.

[martydotcom]

@PNWest y. I'm betting a deal before July. Keep an eye on the options price an activity

[PNWest]

@martydotcom I'll keep an eye on it.

[jessejaymes]

She has ZERO credentials to turn around yahoo. She was not an innovative Google Exec. She was the token pretty face woman exec. Let's be honest here.

[martydotcom]

@PNWest movement already on yahoo + .26 on 10k. call

[ctc]

You bounce a novel idea off someone at work and the company owns it....you do it at home and you're a billionaire.

[PNWest]

Just don't ever mention that you came up with the idea while your were employed by the company. Many companies claim ownership of anything you come up with while you are an employee whether it has anything to do with what you are working on or not. Check your employment contract or whatever you signed when you hired on.

[tomincali]

@PNWest you can say that again,one of my brother n laws is a county accountant found a few million overlooked,the person above got the credit with no mention of him, even got a bonus for my brother n laws work.

[tomincali]

some can do their job at home until someone screws something up and you have to go straighten out the mess.

computer and cameras work well for alot of things. jobs can be ran from home alot of the times.

[BelinKS]

I used to love to go to work! But I now have SLE lupus. It reared its ugly head with the pregnancy of my 7yr old. At first I was happy to stay at home with her, now I am sick a lot. Being sick would not stop me from working at home! Now, I just wish I knew how to find a legitimate work at home job!!! I am about to start classes through Penn State to get a degree in a field that is not as physically demanding. But if I could find a stay at home job, I would take it over college! I spent too many years in college already for a job I can no longer physically do.

[fistv]

Tough to find, lot of scams out there, one I do know is medical coding where you transpose doctors hand written charts to spread sheets for billing. Some community colleges offer courses in it. Any job that you have to put money up front for is pretty much a scam, be careful and good luck. I build custom computers at home on the side for a bunch of gamers, video and audio people, not a great profit margin but it lets me play with bleeding edge hardware and software and it's not steady.

[BelinKS]

@fistv
You can get that online. I already was in the medical profession and am well versed in medical terminology. I made a 100% A when I took the class in collge. I'll look up what more they would want me educated in. Thankyou.

[ASmith]

This issue shows once again how clueless are yahoo's CEOs. Even a typical rightwingnut can understand the value of having employees work from home.
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Telecommuting is a cost saving measure for companies. With fewer desks and fewer parking spaces needed, it means companies can have smaller buildings and smaller operating costs. Employees could still come in physically when need be (both to monitor productivity and for specific projects).
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For employees, working at home means no commuting, two more hours of free time per day and more time with the family. It means less risk of car accidents, fewer operating costs of a car. It means working from anywhere, like taking extended vacations that include some work.
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It's also better for cities and the enviroment. It means less pollution, fewer cars, less resources used. Telecommuting works for everybody, but yahoo are too dumb to get it.

[norezen]

Its not a tough one, but both have advantages. I think you get more raw productivity from at home work as far as routine things. There are generally fewer distractions, scheduling is easier, and you waste less time fixing your appearance (in reference to being in underwear). But you probably get better creativity and problem-solving from working in a team all on site. An idea that a person would second-guess themselves on before they put it in an email can be blurted out and bounced off the minds of people who can do something with it. But I guess that can be mitigated if not eliminated using skype. But its still not the same.

[MarkColwell]

Why should it be one or the other? Work from home 1-2 days a week and commute to the office 3-4 days a week. That should allow for the benefits that come with collaboration, and the benefits that come from working with less distractions from home. If you want to invert that schedule then schedule regular meetings where everyone gives updates on the progress of their projects(s). "I worked on X, Y and Z... X and Y are coming along really well however we seem to be falling behind schedule on X because... then let the whole group offer suggestions."

[AMSCountryboy]

different strokes for different folks right? If your getting the job done who cares where your doing it from?

[jessejaymes]

I think "working at home" is less productive because so many people won't stay on task. Having said that, the never ending "meetings" on site of most corporations are mere vehicles for the top level to take credit when it goes well and beat up on those below them when it doesn't. We just need to face some things./ Yahoo is in the toilet. Everyone they bring in makes it worse. They've resorted to the blonde bimbo now. I don't know how they expect that to help but they've tried everyone else. What they don't do is give any value for pricing or decent customer service. God forbid you get to back to basics. That's not America today. And the American worker has to be one the laziest people on the face of the earth. Skyping, Texting, Tweeting, chatting, phone, games. Last weekend I had a chat with a guy running a small business that I invested in. He can't find workers who will sty off that damn phone. I suggested he give them an opportunity. Give everyone a 1,00 an hour raise and confiscate the phones as they come in the door. They can have them for breaks and lunch and back in the basket they go. Productivity should skyrocket well beyond the dollar an hour raise. He's gonna give it a shot.

[JoeJared]

First, I've worked at home for 13 years now, but in a self-employed fashion. Work from home has significant overhead advantages that allow even the little guy to compete. Done properly, it's even possible to compete with foreign corporations.

[Real4WheelDrv]

what do you do exactly? Working from home is my only real option, self employed or not, and i've been desperately looking for legit opportunities.

[culinary]

My job allows me to do both. I am no less productive at home than in the office. What does happen is I save a lot in fuel because I have a long commute. Anything I need to do at the office I save for one or two days a week. We have meetings via live meetings online more often than not. I think its something all employers should think about.

[PayThatCEO]

This is one of the common sense moves that is overrode by suspicious bosses and companies scared to death someone might wash a load of clothes on company time.

Here's the big picture. Most big cities are struggling with major traffic congestion and must constantly be taxing citizens for more roads or transportation options. Hence, people working at home aren't on the road. The decrease in gasoline use would help the overall economy as workers would have a little extra money in their pockets. Companies could, in fact, save money by not having so much office space.

Employees who can SHOULD work from home. It makes sense all the way around. Come to the office one or twice a week, perhaps, but many of us (myself included) do most of our job through machines and that can be done anywhere. If productivity is hampered by being at home, THEN an employee should have the privilege taken away.

Employers should stop treating their employees like children whose every working minute must be monitored. If the work and tasks are being completed proficiently, why does it matter WHERE that happens?