Why Working from Home Doesn’t Work.

Working?

Marissa Mayer, Yahoo’s Chief Exec’s ban on remote working has caused a huge stir. The debate is far from over with commentators and large corporations publicly slamming the Internet giant for such a cost-ineffective standpoint.

It may be good for the budget but what is the real cost of remote working? I would like to put forward the case for good old fashioned office working.

As CEO of enthuse.me, I’ve had to think about various employment options to build the team. I’ve considered freelancers, remote working and outsourcing VS. building a full time team in the office. We decided on the latter.

Why? There is nothing that can compare to face to face communication within the office.

Always having people there to bounce ideas off, brainstorm with is undervalued and it seems a school of thought more and more are unsubscribing from.

Skype, Google hangouts and numerous instant chats just don’t compare to the real deal.

The time it takes to type an idea is often just enough time to think better of it. Shying away from sharing a rough idea that could really be something with the right collaborators.

Lack of innovation has proved to be the order of the day at Yahoo for that past few years. Now is the time for the company to refocus their efforts and gain momentum building great new products and services.

By bringing bodies back into the office Yahoo will (hopefully) inject life back into the business. Who can argue with that?

Dan Jacobs is CEO of enthuse.me, a new site for experts.

Photo (cc) The Life of Bryan.

14 March 2013 by Dan Jacobs
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Comments

What works for some may not work for others.

Submitted by Phil Byrne on Thu, 21/03/2013 - 9:36pm.

I think it is very difficult to say remote working is the right way or the wrong way forward as it comes down to the individual and the business. 

For some individuals and businesses remote working has increased their productivity and has enabled a better work life balance which in turn will benefit the business. 

Running my own business remotely now after years of working from an office base has increased my business immensly as well as my own work life balance. Like with most things in life, what works for some may not work for others. It always comes down to what works for you.