Yahoo’s new CEO has informed the employees that effective June they will have to bring their talents into the office. No more working from home. Once this information was released to the workers we have heard the debate. Is this fair? So many working moms were able to do their work from home and now they have got to punch the time clock. In some cases the employees that telecommute have been able to do it from out of state locations and with the new policy they will no longer be able to work for Yahoo. I do feel for that group, but for the workers that live within driving distance of the office it is time to say “it was good while it lasted”. Working from home is a privlege it is not a right. Companies have the right to set their own policies and they do what will work most effectively for the business. Remember companies are not concerned about your quality of life. They are concerned about the bottomline–making money. Apparently in this season Yahoo believes workers need to be back in the cubicles, and if the telecommuters don’t want to do that there are millions of unemployed Americas that would love to drive to work.
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It is a “privilege not a right”, but only if the employees affected were hired with the ability to work from home as a stipulation. I work for a company that hires many people to work from remote locations and go into an office when necessary. If they were to change that policy, out of the blue, requiring people to quit their jobs, this wouldn’t be fair and, it seems to me, grounds for a lawsuit.
The tone of this blog completely threw me today. Perhaps because I am currently in the situation where I was hired at a job that allowed working from home only to have that “privilege” revoked when the merger with another company occured. It may be a “privilege”, but when you have negotiated to receive it..it’s not fair to the employee. Besides the fact that companies every day ask for more and more loyalty from their employees and offer less and less. YAHOO became its name…only a YAHOO company would go backwards and not move forwards.
Both commenters have brought up valid points. You are correct that if this is what you negotiated initially it is unfair to change the rules. However the company is going to do what is best for the company in spite if whether the employee thinks its fair or not, but I do see your point.
EM I am in total agreement with you on the original post. As to the previous commenters who raise the point of working from home as a negotiated arrangement, there is nothing unfair about the employer changing that arrangement as the conditions of their business changes. It is unfortunate for the employee that such a change is implemented but not unfair. Sometimes the business climate changes to such an extent that the employee’s services are no longer needed at all. This too is unfortunate but not unfair. Businesses don’t exist to serve the personal needs of their employees. They exist to address and serve the needs of their customers. Hiring employees to help them to accomplish this objective is merely a byproduct of the process.