Quitting from Google and joined Yahoo which was thought as a declining giant, Marissa Mayer has been trying to prove that she has the ability to lead this Internet giant to reverse the decline. In order to boost the low morale of the employees, Meyer tried to transplant Google's work culture to Yahoo with office decoration, free lunch and issuance of smart phones, these generous measures let her win the applause of the Silicon Valley.
But a recent ban issued by Meyer has attracted a lot of controversy because she touched one invisible welfare of Silicon Valley employees: work from home. Meyer decided to ban employees work from home, and requires each employee to come to the office in order to improve efficiency and enhance its creativity.
Some industry sources believe that Meyer is against the tide line and Yahoo employees may be unsatisfying about it But are Silicon Valley employees really care about work from home? Which one can bring more efficiency,work from home or work at the office? I did a little survey to see how Silicon Valley engineers look at this issue.
A Yahoo engineer (half an hour from the office): I work in Yahoo for more than a year, the company never has working time requirements. I personally support Meyer's decision to prohibit work from home) this only affects those who work at home for long time, these people are just a small number of them. In fact, the company just hopes that we try to work in the office, but occasionally work from home is also fine, The media is reading too much!
I rarely work from home because it's inconvenient to communicate about work, the home environment is not suitable for work as well. What's my opinion to the changes after Meyer took office? Good! We are happy after Meyer took office. Everyone gets a new phone and telephone charges paid by the company. Of course, the new policy is sure to make a small number of people unhappy, but no colleagues who work from home in long term around me.
A Pinterest Engineer (One and half an hour from office): I think this is the right decision for Yahoo. Yahoo needs to improve work efficiency, start-up companies usually do not have dawdle people, but the big companies are not the same. It's hard to say which one brings high efficiency between work from home and work in the office, the commuting takes time and effort, there will be more interference in the office. There is no policy about work from home in Pinterest, most people work in the office everyday, people who are far away from the office may work from home one day a week, the pay will not be affected.
Silicon Valley usually has no attendance requirements, and have not never heard about swiping card here. Although people usually work at 10:00am, but basically there is no limit, some people will come to work at 11:30am. But we still guarantee the effectiveness of the work, a lot of people are overtime at night. In short, there is no rule for this, but for start-up companies, people are self-motivated and they will not be lazy at work.
I used to work at Twitter, a lot of people work remotely at home and come to the office every few weeks, Twitter would return reimbursement for airfare and hotel fees. Colleagues work from home can communicate and collaborate via e-mail, telephone and tools such as Campfire, Hipchat, in fact, we also need to use such software even in the office. Although I am one and a half hours away from the office, basically I would go to the office every day, the office is always more convenient.
A Facebook engineer (nearly one hour from office): I do not like to work from home, I am used to go to the office every day. There is no hard and fast rule about this at Facebook and employees do not need to swipe card as well. In fact, the employees time arrangement is very flexible and they can choose when to work and when to leave. But I always come at around 9:00 and leave at around 19:00 every day, average work nine hours a day.
A Juniper Engineer (40 minutes to office): I think Yahoo is laying off employees in another way. To improve work efficiency. Cisco also used this way before.This is a good thing to the company but a bit harsh to the employees. In fact, a lot of programmers will take the computer home to write code after they leave the office. In Silicon Valley, working from home is very common, a lot of people are still in Hawaii! But I do hardware R&D, during the day I will go to the office, at night, I am often at home and if I work overtime, I will remotely login through a VPN.
A Groupon Engineer (40 minutes to office): The company is very relaxed about working from home, basically its decided by our own. Colleagues who have children and live far away from the office can work at home on Monday,Wednesday and Friday. I may work from home for two days each week since we can communicate and collaborate through the VPN login. Groupon has no attendance requirements as long as it does not affect their work.
A Cisco engineer (half-hour to office): I rarely work from home and I am used to go to the office every day. Cisco has no strict requirement about working from home. I used to work from home for six weeks because of the surgery, this is also quite normal.
Google engineers (take a shuttle bus to office): Google is more flexible about working hours, everyone can choose work from home if he can ensure the efficiency of the work. But I rarely work from home. I'm not familiar with Yahoo, so I am not sure about their policy, but it might be more helpful to improve work efficiency.
An Apple Engineer (half-hour to office): If there is something to do at home, I will be working from home, keep in touch with colleagues by phone and e-mail. Apple does not prohibit this. In fact, Apple is not so rigid about attendance requirements, but the content of our work requires us to work in the office. Of course, work in the office is the best. You must accept the heavy workload and long working hours at Apple. I usually go out at 10:00am every day and get back until 9:00pm. This is Apple.
A Microsoft Engineer (40 minutes to office): In addition to the special positions of colleagues, most of our people are free to work from home, the effectiveness of the work is the most important. Perhaps Yahoo would like to improve efficiency but which would allow programmers to hell.
What's the situation in your company? How do you think about working from home? You can share with us by commenting below.
Source : http://tech.sina.com.cn/i/csj/2013-03-07/10018122210.shtml
