I am sure you heard back in February the CEO of Yahoo decided to cancel the work from home policy and told employees that by June, they are expected to be working in the office. I have read a number of articles on the topic and have a couple of thoughts.
1. The problem is not a work from home policy. The problem is an enforcement of the policy and providing specific measurable outcomes for employees with which their productivity can be measured. I think it was the head of HR at Yahoo even acknowledged that the policy was not be executed as it should. Therefore, this is not a get everyone in the office problem, it is a get the policy right problem.
2. I think the CEO is getting a bit too much negative press. I read one article and the author commented that the CEO worked from home for a couple of weeks when she has her first baby. Did you get that, they were trying to make a case that she was being hypocrticial because she worked from home for a while after the birth of a child. My guess is, if an employee had a child, they would not be forced to come into the office for a while.
3. I think the thing that is getting missed is the fact that as CEO, she has the right to change the policy in a way that she thinks is best for the business. While it certainly creates a great deal of uphevel and chaos for the employees, at the end of the day, she is the leader of the company and you either need to get on board or get off the bus. And while I don't agree with the decision and think there will be a negative backlash in terms of cost and productivity, at the end of the day, she is CEO and complaining and crying about it won't help.
