Yahoo and Yahoo From Home
Since the leaking of the Yahoo Work From Home Memo, I have heard lots of people talk about the impact of the memo. While people write about the impact of the end of working from home at a company, very few people talk about specifics at Yahoo. People have really been writing about how this move impacts them at another company. That seems very strange to me. Lots of companies have lots of different cultures. If Yahoo changes this, I doubt my company will change this. I am not worried about changes outside Yahoo's gates. Any argument that is makes me think people are just popping their own jersey.
When Marissa Mayer took over at Yahoo people said this was a major job. She was the third Yahoo CEO in 2012 alone. I remember people talking about a Yahoo death watch. I am not sure she can make these changes by not calling plays from her own playbook.
I have been on multiple sides of the Work From Home issues. I have worked with great remote co-workers and poor remote co-workers. I have had co-workers who never made time to work on my project, but wanted me to work on their projects all the time. I have had co-workers who got more done at home and others who slowed everything down. I have seen lots of different outcomes.
The hardest relationships are when you have a dotted line relationship with someone in another department. I have had problems where someone had action items I needed done, but it was hard to get it out of them. I did not always have the leverage to get them to respond to me. This is a problem because it might take four people to get something done where it would only be two people if we were in the same location.
In the last couple of jobs I have had, being in the office has been important. I like to establish one day a week to work from home, but I do not like working from home too often. I feel that it disconnects me from what is going on in the office. It limits my exposure to the rest of the company and that is usually bad.
This being said, I don't know what is going on at Yahoo. All my friends left Yahoo years ago. I am not sure what their culture looks like right now. I am not sure how the office feels or how people react to Working From Home. I am not sure how the people in the office feel about the people not in the office. Without that information, I cannot criticize Marissa Mayer's call to make this change.
I am not super worried about everyone in Silicon Valley following Yahoo's lead. My experence is that Google, Apple, and Facebook all have very strong and very different cultures. Not very company is trying to be like one of these three companies.
I want to defend what Marissa Mayer is trying. Lets get everyone in the office for a while. Lets see which groups work well with other groups. Lets see who works well with other departments.
Changing culture in a company like Yahoo is very hard. You need to take bold steps and be willing to disrupt things. If Marissa Mayer is trying to keep Yahoo from going away, she should do this.
Time will see if this is the right choice, but it does not do any good to say it is not any good before we see what happens.
When Marissa Mayer took over at Yahoo people said this was a major job. She was the third Yahoo CEO in 2012 alone. I remember people talking about a Yahoo death watch. I am not sure she can make these changes by not calling plays from her own playbook.
I have been on multiple sides of the Work From Home issues. I have worked with great remote co-workers and poor remote co-workers. I have had co-workers who never made time to work on my project, but wanted me to work on their projects all the time. I have had co-workers who got more done at home and others who slowed everything down. I have seen lots of different outcomes.
The hardest relationships are when you have a dotted line relationship with someone in another department. I have had problems where someone had action items I needed done, but it was hard to get it out of them. I did not always have the leverage to get them to respond to me. This is a problem because it might take four people to get something done where it would only be two people if we were in the same location.
In the last couple of jobs I have had, being in the office has been important. I like to establish one day a week to work from home, but I do not like working from home too often. I feel that it disconnects me from what is going on in the office. It limits my exposure to the rest of the company and that is usually bad.
This being said, I don't know what is going on at Yahoo. All my friends left Yahoo years ago. I am not sure what their culture looks like right now. I am not sure how the office feels or how people react to Working From Home. I am not sure how the people in the office feel about the people not in the office. Without that information, I cannot criticize Marissa Mayer's call to make this change.
I am not super worried about everyone in Silicon Valley following Yahoo's lead. My experence is that Google, Apple, and Facebook all have very strong and very different cultures. Not very company is trying to be like one of these three companies.
I want to defend what Marissa Mayer is trying. Lets get everyone in the office for a while. Lets see which groups work well with other groups. Lets see who works well with other departments.
Changing culture in a company like Yahoo is very hard. You need to take bold steps and be willing to disrupt things. If Marissa Mayer is trying to keep Yahoo from going away, she should do this.
Time will see if this is the right choice, but it does not do any good to say it is not any good before we see what happens.
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