Courtesy of a plethora of very irked Yahoo employees, here is the internal memo sent to the company about a new rule rolled out today by CEO Marissa Mayer, which requires that Yahoo employees who work remotely relocate to company facilities.
“Speed and quality are often sacrificed when we work from home,” reads the memo to employees from HR head Jackie Reses. “We need to be one Yahoo!, and that starts with physically being together.”
Painfully awkward as this is phrased, it means every Yahoo get to your desks stat!
I reported earlier today that the move will apparently impact only several hundred employees, such as customer service reps, who work from home full time. But numerous sources told me that the decree extends to any staffers who might have arrangements to work from home just one or two days a week, too.
The changes begin in June, according to the Yahoo memo.
After that, employees who work from home must comply without exception or quit. One top manager was told that there would be little flexibility on the issue.
The anger from impacted employees was strong today, because many felt they were initially hired with the assumption that they could work more flexibly.
In fact, even waiting for the cable guy is questionable. “And, for the rest of us who occasionally have to stay home for the cable guy, please use your best judgment in the spirit of collaboration,” wrote Reses.
The tone and tactics have infuriated some at the company. Wrote one impacted Yahoo employee to me: “Even if that was what was previously agreed to with managers and HR, or was a part of the package to take a position, tough … It’s outrageous and a morale killer.”
Most tech companies encourage workers to stay on their campuses, offering free food and other perks. But none enforce such rules beyond staff needed to operate an office.
“Our engineers would not put up with that,” said one tech exec. “So, we’d never focus on it.”
In the comments section of my first story on the HR change at Yahoo, WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg wrote:
“For anyone who enjoys working from wherever they like in the world, and is interested in WordPress, Automattic is 100% committed to being distributed. 130 of our 150 people are outside of San Francisco.”
The issue is an interesting and controversial one, with some certain that working at home is the wave of the future, while others considering it hurtful to productivity.
Well, we’ll presumably see which this way goes in time.
Earlier, when asked about the change, a Yahoo spokesperson said the company does not comment on internal matters. The memo was released after my story on the change was published this morning.
But, you don’t need any comment when you can read for yourself the new working order at the Silicon Valley Internet giant:
YAHOO! PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION — DO NOT FORWARD
Yahoos,
Over the past few months, we have introduced a number of great benefits and tools to make us more productive, efficient and fun. With the introduction of initiatives like FYI, Goals and PB&J, we want everyone to participate in our culture and contribute to the positive momentum. From Sunnyvale to Santa Monica, Bangalore to Beijing — I think we can all feel the energy and buzz in our offices.
To become the absolute best place to work, communication and collaboration will be important, so we need to be working side-by-side. That is why it is critical that we are all present in our offices. Some of the best decisions and insights come from hallway and cafeteria discussions, meeting new people, and impromptu team meetings. Speed and quality are often sacrificed when we work from home. We need to be one Yahoo!, and that starts with physically being together.
Beginning in June, we’re asking all employees with work-from-home arrangements to work in Yahoo! offices. If this impacts you, your management has already been in touch with next steps. And, for the rest of us who occasionally have to stay home for the cable guy, please use your best judgment in the spirit of collaboration. Being a Yahoo isn’t just about your day-to-day job, it is about the interactions and experiences that are only possible in our offices.
Thanks to all of you, we’ve already made remarkable progress as a company — and the best is yet to come.
Jackie
@pams.uncle I agree, everyone should really rethink their approach in the matter.
The memo is shocking, unprofessional, and demoralizing. And it is that with the first nonboilerplate word: Yahoos. Really? Yahoos? It goes on to say "Being a Yahoo isn’t just about your day-to-day job, … ."
Is calling your employees Yahoos (capitalized) supposed to be clever humor? If I were an employee, I would not be amused. How about it if upper management reserves the term "Yahoos" for themselves, and refers to their salaried and contract workers as "employees" or "professionals." How humorous would that be?
"We Yahoos have introduced a number of policies to our employees."
Great post, nice to see the details and the memo itself. I've been reading so much on this story - it's pretty hard to miss the media attention it's caught. And it's clearly a huge operational change.
However, what I find interesting, is elements to the story which seem to have barely been touched upon. Whether intentionally or not (and I am convinced the former, at least partially), this is a great PR scoop for Yahoo. They're still lagging miles behind Google (yes, it differes from country to country, but in the bigger scheme of things), and they need to be noticed. Big change can make this happen. And just look at the attention and media coverage they have now got - I read yesterday that apparently job applications at Yahoo are up over 20%. And I think what has added to this has been the fact that this is a women in a high power position making radical changes - another extremely newsworthy item.
Nowadays there are so many talented people within their field who are able to have the family life they want along with sustaining a career they love thanks to the joys of technology. If a person isn't responding to emails quick enough or doesn't pick up the phone on the third ring, but everyone else internally does, then maybe that's something that should be written into a contract at the start. However if someone is still managing to get everything done on time and with the business integrity that was there originally when they were employed, then what's the big deal?