Working from Home Bad for Morale

Chief Executive Officer of Yahoo, Marissa Mayer’s decision to abolish her company’s work from home policy, announced last week, has been criticised as being contrary to Australian legislation by Professor of employment relations, Marian Baird, at the University of Sydney.

The announcement by Mayer has sparked much international debate over workplace flexibility. However, employees of Yahoo maintain that the decision was not a referendum on working remotely altogether, but was targeted at structural and managerial problems specific to Yahoo. The company was described as “aimless” and “low in morale” with a bureaucracy that had completed stripped Yahoo of any competitive values.

The move was championed as an attempt to revitalise the company product by reversing deteriorating morale and culture. Yahoo made a statement to the effect that the change “…isn't a broad industry view on working from home. This is about what is right for Yahoo right now.''

The change was initially ill-received by who had such arrangements and those who occasionally stayed home to care for sick children or receive a delivery. But for the most part, these concerns have been alleviated by managers who assured employees that the real target for the change were those who worked from home permanently.

Baird, however, maintains that the policy is an unusual move that goes against the way legislation in most countries and companies is moving.

Baird explained that “[In Australia] carers of young children or those with a disability have a right to request flexible working arrangements, which would include the right to work from home [unless] there are strong business reasons why that can’t happen.”

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