A lot has been written about Marissa Mayer's abolition of work from home privileges at Yahoo. Mostly everyone sees this as a regressive move to the pre dot-com era where employees were chained to their desk in some office park somewhere. And while I agree her anti-work-from-home stance seems a little old fashioned I have to wonder if it isn't also a stroke of genius.
In the late 90's Yahoo was an internet darling but by the early 2000's the bloom had come off the rose. The reasons for this are legion - the rise of Google and the social networks, the advent of smartphones and apps, etc. all made the reliance on the AOL-style web portal obsolete. Throughout it all Yahoo remained relatively static and in today's business climate that is the surest path to irrelevancy.
Enter Marissa Mayer. Her resume by now is well known; she was the first female engineer ever hired at Google and her thumbprint is all over their most successful products. When she was hired as CEO at Yahoo much attention was given to the simple fact that she is a woman, was pregnant, and whether or not she could have it all.
So when last week Yahoo announced that employees can no longer work from home, the buzz was all about how Yahoo and Mayer's move runs counter to the Future of Work ethos that says "my office is wherever I am". But here's the thing, it's 2013 and we're talking about Yahoo again.
Its trite to say that "all publicity is good publicity" but I have to hand it to Mayer, she's gotten Yahoo back into the public consciousness with this and other recent moves. The announcement comes on the heels of positive 4th earnings reports and news that they'll use Google's AdSense and AdMob services while securing a partnership with NBC Sports. For the first time in a long time, Yahoo is relevant again.
As for the wisdom of banishing working from home privileges, I have to say I (mostly) side with Mayer. As anyone who's hosted a con call with remote workers can attest, barking dogs, crying babies, fed-ex deliveries, DVR recordings of Top Chef, can make it tough to keep an employee's attention. Skype and email can substitute but the feedback you get from someone's body language can tell you more than a terse (often misspelled but that's another blog) IM.
Certainly Yahoo and Mayer have more work to do to regain their 90's stature. What she'll have those employees do now that they're back in the office will be watched with much anticipation. But, for now, she's making an indelible imprint on the culture at Yahoo and the world is paying attention.
