Marissa Meyer Wants All Yahoo! Employees to Work Together…Literally

Yahoo CEO Marissa Meyer made yet another ballsy move to get the company back in shape by eliminating Work-From-Home(WFH) option for all Yahoo employees. The memo circulated to the employees by HR head Jackie Reses reads “Speed and quality are often sacrificed when we work from home. We need to be one Yahoo!, and that starts with physically being together.” This move shouldn’t come as a surprise considering the fact that Marissa Meyer took on the role as the CEO of Yahoo! when she was five months pregnant and bounced back into her role after just two week of maternity leave.

The move to stop WFH option is expected to mostly affect employees who work from home full time and NOT employees who wish to avail the facility for a day or two in a week as being reported in this quora thread. Ever since Marissa Meyer took the helm at Yahoo! she has been keen on building employee morale by giving out free food, iPhones but the policy to revoke WFH is generating strong opinions both within the company and on Twitter. Well you cannot expect life to be sunshine and rainbows all the time. Tough times call for tough measures.

The changes comes into effect from June and employees who do not cooperate will have to quit. Looks like a good strategy to fire employees without actually firing them. Let us just hope that Yahoo workforce will shed only the slackers and not the bright ones.

The complete memo from AllThingsD:

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

This article has been reproduced from Sridhar’s blog.