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World’s Worst Boss? Marissa Mayer Just Banned Working From Home At Yahoo

Marissa Mayer not be getting a World’s Best Boss mug this year. The CEO of Yahoo just put a ban on working remotely from home and is now calling on all Yahoo staff to report to the office daily. This only impacts a small sect of the company, but it has definitely sent a bad vibe through the larger tech community.

According to AllThingsDigital‘s Kara Swisher, several Yahoo staffers were upset because working from home was part of their hiring package. Swisher obtained the full memo from Marissa:

“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.”

Okay this makes sense, but it is pretty upsetting for people who accepted the job because they could work from home. Some of these employees do not live near Yahoo office locations which means they will have to make major life changes.

I absolutely get why it is good to have people in the office even when they have jobs that are be able to be performed remotely, but parhaps Marissa hasn’t read the 2010 report from the president’s Council of Economic Advisers that shows that flexible work arrangements can reduce absences and company turnover which contributes to overall better production. Companies with flexible work hour arrangements include Best Buy, PNC Financial Services, PricewaterhouseCoopers, General Mills and KPMG LLP.

Working from home is truly becoming the modern American dream. According to a recent study by TeamViewer, 5% of respondents said they would give up their spouse in exchange for working from home. The study found that most Americans believe that more people want the option to telecommute (62%) with an overwhelming percentage (83%) believing that telecommuting is on the rise due to increasing technology access and the use of smartphones and tablets.

But maybe we were actually wrong. If Marissa Mayer is banishing telecommuting at a big company like Yahoo, maybe we’ll see a major trickle-down effect.

TAGS: marissa mayer | news

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