Yahoo, under Marissa Mayer, is eliminating the perk of working at home, and a lot of people are up in arms. I wasn't going to write anything about it, but it's gone out of control online and in the news.
The broad media uses generalizations
Much of the liberal media that has come out against her decision, invariably pulled up women's rights, worker's rights, productivity gains from at-home workers and how working at home was a strong incentive for a workforce. Much of the conservative media that come out in support of her decision, unfailingly cited a CEO's right to dictate direction of a company and how working at home was not a right but a privilege, and should be treated as such.
Literally, you could replace Marissa Mayer's name with any CEO's, and it wouldn't matter. It could have been Meg Whitman and the reaction would have been the same.
For what it's worth, both sides have meaningful arguments on the issue of working at home.
What they're probably not seeing
Having read a couple of books on Google's history, as well as seeing photos over the years from different Google offices, I think I can explain what's really going on here.
Mayer was a very early employee at Google, where she was exposed to and participated in the creation of one of the most coveted (excluding Google haters, that is).companies in the world.
The work place(s) at Google was (and still is) all about allowing employees to maximize their productivity by giving them incredible support in the work place. We're talking dry cleaning pick-up / drop-off, free gourmet cafeterias (for breakfast, lunch and dinner), various exercise facilities, massages, etc.
It is also no coincidence that, if you look at their buildings and work spaces, there are many nooks and niches that allow for people to pull up and have an impromptu meeting. It's all about collaboration. Even Larry Page and Sergey Brin share an office, rather than have their own spacious, private offices.
I don't think Mayer was trying to drive people away from Yahoo. I think she was trying to tell employees that they are extremely talented, but that they're wasting a lot of their talent away (and hurting the company as a result) by not interacting with each other, face to face.
Despite the ease by which you can conduct video meetings, the fact of the matter is, working from home disables accidental / incidental interactions with other people, and meetings become curated events. At home you don't have to answer a phone call if you don't want to; you can respond back in an email, instead of a face-to-face interaction.
Give her a break, and let's see if she can turn around Yahoo.
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