Telecommuting Jobs Can Be Beneficial for the Companies and the Employees
Autor: maryamshfard • February 21, 2016 • Research Paper • 8,117 Words (33 Pages) • 1,149 Views
Telecommuting
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Shuping Shen Maryam Shahkaramifard Dr. Teeanna Rizkallah April 30, 2015 BUAD 501: managerial Communication California state University, Fullerton Table of Content Purpose: 1 Problem Statement: 1 Background/overview……………………………………………………………………….2 Telecommuting………………………………………………………………………... 2 Yahoo!....................................................................................................... ……...……..2 Bank of America………………………………………………………………………. 3 Cisco …………………………………………………………………………………...3 Methodology………………………………………………………………………………. 4 Findings……………………………………………………………………………………. 5 Latest commuting jobs statistics and comparison……………………………………. 5 Yahoo! New work from home policy…………………………………………………. 6 Analyze reasons for Marissa Mayer to ban the work from home ……………………. 6 The goal Yahoo tried to achieve from the policy……………………………………... 6 “My Work Plan” in Bank of America………………………………………………….7 Reasons for ending "My work plan system"……………………...…………………....7 Bank of America BAC Plan…………………………………………………………... 8 The current situation of Telecommuting in Bank of America…………………………8 A successful telecommuting case: Cisco……………………………………………… 9 Summary: Ideas of critics and supporters of no telecommuting policy……………….……9 Recommendation; introducing right jobs for telecommuting……………… …………......10 Business Impacts…………………………………………………………………………..11 Bibliography…….….………………………………………………………………….…..12 Appendix A: Yahoo!’s Internal memo …………………………………………….…...…16 Appendix B: Dvantages and disadvantages of telecommuting jobs……...….……………17 Appendix C: Bixby v. JPMorgan Chase…………………...……….…….………………1 9 Purpose: Telecommuting jobs can be beneficial for the companies and the employees Telecommuting is the use of collaborative technologies to reduce or entirely replace traditional commuting to the workplace. At the present time, with the recent development of information technology, telecommuting is a common scenario in many government organizations and IT companies. There are many advantages for working from home, such as more flexible schedule, more relaxed working environment and less commuting time and expense. In this analysis, we will discuss effects of telecommunicating jobs on employers and employees. There are many companies with a successful background of using telecommuting jobs, for example, Cisco; even though, Bank of America and Yahoo are not happy with telecommuting jobs. Thus, we will analyze what factors need to be considered for those companies plan to have telecommuting as one of the options for their employees. Problem Statement: The problem is efficiency issues involved in telecommuting. While telecommuting is popular, is it efficient enough for the companies to increase work’s productivity? Businesses and researchers don’t agree on consequences of telecommuting. Some believe that telecommuting is a beneficial way for both companies and employees to save money and increase productivity. But, some complain that communicating will decrease productivity because of the lack of supervision and connection between employee and coworkers, managers or customers. Also, telecommuting will increase the costs if employee does not care enough about the job and the company (Leer, 2014). The biggest problem for companies that want to start telecommuting jobs, is the efficiency issue. These companies want to decide whether they should use telecommuting. They are looking for reasons to make sure this strategy will be beneficial for their both employers and employees. In current business practice, there are many companies who are happy with telecommuting; on the other hand, there are some companies that are cutting their telecommuting jobs because they don’t believe in the efficiency of this strategy any more. So, the new companies should overcome challenge of effectiveness to make the best decision. Telecommuting provides tangible benefits to both sides in the relationship. For employers, the big gains are in productivity, retention, and reduced absenteeism, since bad weather or a sniffle won't stop telecommuters from doing work that day. Employees save time and they have less stress about getting the job done. And the drawbacks? Managers who are used to having workers in the office at their desks may have a hard time keeping tabs on their telecommuting staff. For the latter, being isolated from their fellow workers or lacking the self-discipline necessary to focus on work by themselves can seriously disrupt the new routine. Back Ground/Overview: - Telecommuting: In 1876, first telephone was invented by Alexander Graham Bell (The Telecommunications History Group, Inc. 2015). Then in the next a hundred years, people also invented fax machine, computer, e-mail, and Internet. All these inventions changed the way we live and the way we work in business. In 1972, Jack Nilles, began working on a communication system for NASA and referred his situation as telecommuting. In 1980, the first conference about telecommuting was held by Gil Gordon. On September 20, 1994, AT&T celebrated the first Employee Telecommuting Day. In 2010, the U.S. Federal government passed the Telework Enhancement Act (Interprose, 2014). Telecommuting, also known as telework, e-commuting, work at home, e-work, and work from home is a type of working arrangement. It allows employees to have a flexible working schedule. In addition, telecommuting employees don’t need to be physically present at the office. People who have kids to take care are very likely seeking for a telecommuting job.
Yahoo is an American multinational Internet company and listed on NASDAQ. It provides a series of Internet services such as search engine, email, news, and all kinds of information you can get on the Internet. Like all innovations, Yahoo started as an idea, then became a hobby, and eventually grew into a business. Stanford graduate students Jerry Yang and David Filo both majored in electronic engineering and are the founders of Yahoo. In January, 1994, they created a website called “Jerry's and David’s Guide to the World Wide Web”. Then, in April, they turned it to a customizable database called Yahoo where users can search the Internet and efficiently identify the information. It was also known as the search engine and web directory. By the end of 1994, Yahoo had already received 1 million clicks. Yang and Filo realized the website had a huge business potential and then founded the company on March 1, 1995. At that time, Yahoo was already registered by another company, so in order to get the trademark, Yang and Filo had to register the company as Yahoo!. However the exclamation mark is always ignored when people discuss the company (Holland, 2012). Later, Yahoo issued an IPO on April 12, 1996. It was sold for 2.6 million shares at $13 a share and raised $133.8 million. In 2007, Yahoo’s market share and value was declined. After Jerry Yang took up the CEO position again, there was still no obvious recovery (Yahoo! Form 10-k, 2014). On February 1, 2008, Microsoft offered to purchase Yahoo’s common stock at $31 per share, total for $44.6 billion. Yahoo almost turned down the offer immediately because the price was too low. On May 3 2008, Microsoft announced that because the two parties could not agree on the price, it decided to stop the offer to buy Yahoo. According to the letter from Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer to Jerry Yang, Microsoft agreed to pay $47.5 billion, equal to $33 per share to purchase Yahoo, but Yahoo insisted on $37 per share (BBC News, Yahoo rejects Microsoft approach, 2008). Yahoo’s stock price todays is about $43 per share.
Bank of America (BOA) founded in 1920, but its history comes back to 1904. BOA has banking experience for over 200 years. Its founder, Amadeo Giannini, was the owner of Bank of Italy in Italy and Bank of America and Italy in Los Angeles, California. Giannini in 1930 renamed bank of Italy to Bank of America national trust and saving associations. He also merged Bank of America and Italy with Bank of America, Los Angeles. In 1958 BOA created its credit card named BankAmericard. It was second banking credit card that was created after American Express (AMEX). People could use AMEX just for hotels, airplanes and restaurants. But BOA was usable for any kind of shopping (Bank of America, our history and heritage). Bank of America corporation founded in 1958 and provided services for customers. Now, its corporation headquarter is located in Charlotte, North Carolina. BOA has offices over 40 countries all over the world and is recognized as one of the big four banks in United States beside Wells Fargo, JP Morgan Chase and Citigroup with up to 5000 banking centers and 16000 ATMs and 4200 retailer customers. Bank of America operates under 4 main business fields: Consumer banking, commercial banking, Investment banking and assessment banking (Bank of America Corporation - Company Profile, Information, Business Description, History, Background Information on Bank of America Corporation).
In December, 1984, Cisco System was founded by three computer operations staff members at Stanford University, Leonard Bosack, Sandy Lerner and Richard Troiano. The company was named after San Francisco and used the image like the Golden Gate Bridge as its trademark. Cisco Systems is one of the largest networking system providers in the world. It has about 39000 employees all around the world. It was once listed as 95th largest U.S. companies in Fortune magazine. The company was based in San Jose, CA. In 1993, it became one of the first companies in Silicon Valley that adopted telecommuting (Giglio, ND). In 1995, John Chambers was named as CEO of the company after he resigned his management job at IBM. Since then, Cisco expanded its growth because Chambers insisted on research which turned out to be a right move for the company. In 2000, the company’s capitalization was valued up to $450 billion. Only Microsoft and General Electric were able to surpass this number (Garza, Stonecypher, 2011). Cisco is a company not only adopts telecommuting technology, but also improves the networking product on its own. It produces equipment and services that allow more people to be connected by the Internet. In 2010, product sales and services each accounted for 81 percent and 19 percent of the sales respectively (Kevin, 2010). The company developed and expanded the telecommuting technology for all mankind. Methodology:
The purpose of this paper is to analyze sample cases regarding telecommuting in real world companies. The companies’ culture are different and also the results of whether telecommuting adopts with company’s culture vary from one company to another company. The real world cases, bank of America, Yahoo and Cisco are usually derived through Internet and newspapers. For example bank of America’s BAC plan is derived from Charlotte business journal.
For those online website resources, they were compared with multiple websites to ensure the bias is minimized. After detailed research for each resource, the organizations and authors are also considered to be well-educated and have high reputation in the field. As in latest telecommuting statistics in 2013, numbers are compared with several other authorities such as Census Bureau. They all showed an increase of home-based workers in U.S. before conclusions are made. Also, information about latest telecommuting jobs statistics for recent years is retrieved from Global Workplace Analytics. This website is active from 2008 and its president, Kate Lister has co-authored three business books including Undress For Success: The Naked Truth About Making Money at Home (John Wiley & Sons 2009). This book has won the praise of top telework and work-life advocates including World at Work, the Canadian Telework Association, the Telework Coalition and etc. Jack Nilles—the father of telework, wrote the foreword for this book. Kate’s other two books are Finding Money–The Small Business Guide to Financing (Wiley, 1995; revised as eBook in 2010) and The Directory of Venture Capital (Wiley, 1996).
Before we dive into the resource, the author is evaluated by the researchers. The author's background, education, and current position are all considered during the research. For example, Beth A. Slagle is a business attorney. In 1990, she received her Juris Doctorate from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. Ms. Slagle has been named to Best Lawyers 2010-2014. Also, for the company information, we pulled data directly from the company's websites Bank of America, Yahoo and Cisco; because those companies are all publically traded. Data on official websites are evaluated by the Security and Exchange Commission, which is a government organization, to ensure all financial data released by the companies are accurate.
For the statistics collected from researches, they are either articles reviewed by peers or numbers copied directly from the company websites. For example, the telecommuting statistics for California state in 2015 are published by Flexjobs, an online platform that offers job listings. Therefore, the numbers are collected from each job postings, and then consisted to the percentage of each criterion. Also, numbers in advantages and disadvantages of telecommuting’s charts come directly from managerial perceptions of telecommuting in two large metropolitan cities article. Findings:
During the years, more and more companies found telecommuting could be a great alternative for them to increase profitability. From 2005 to 2006, telework community rate increased about 26.2 percent in just one year, and the community grew slowly since after, but there was still weak growth of about 5 percent each year (Latest Telecommuting Statistics, 2013). A research conveyed by globalworkplaceanalytics.com, a website for increasing organization’s and communities’ understanding of emerging workplace strategies such as telecommuting, hotline and etc., in September 2013 indicated that about 3.3 million (2.6 percent) of U.S. employees work from home for over half of their work time. Also, while the total work force decreased by 1.5 percent from 2011 to 2012, telecommuting jobs actually increased by 3.8 percent (Latest Telecommuting Statistics, 2013). These numbers showed that in the recession time, companies preferred to have more telecommuters than usual. One of the reasons could be that because telecommuting can cut cost for employers. According to Ronald Barba, a senior writer at Tech.co, California is the state which has most telecommuting jobs, with a 5.2 percent of the state’s total employees who telework (Barba, 2015). These statistics clearly showed that telecommuting is expanding all over in California.
On Feb 22, 2013, Yahoo’s CEO Marissa Mayer carried out a new policy about employees work from home policy. The policy required that Yahoo employees cannot work from home anymore, otherwise, they would be asked to leave (Swisher, 2012). In a leaked internal memo, human resource manager, Jackie Resses, stated that working from home will lower the productivity and quality of the work. In order to develop Yahoo as a whole, the employees have to be a whole first. Yahoo’s decision was first applied to several hundred customer representative workers, but expanded the application to all Yahoo employees including people who only work from home one or two days a week, the policy was officially effective on June 2013 (Swisher, 2012). See appendix A for internal memo.
Marissa Mayer was hired as CEO at Yahoo approximately half a year before she made the no work from home policy. Before she came to Yahoo, she was an executive at Google for about 13 years. She knew what the IT Company looks like in Silicon Valley. People come late in the morning, and leave early in the afternoon. This phenomenon makes team member’s relationships very difficult and inconvenient to discuss issues with each other. Mayer also thought that a company is more productive when the employees are physically together. From her experience when she was working at Google, she executed many of programs and products that were excellent, but none of them were invented by a single person. Those program and product belonged to at least two people or a team. Yahoo started as an excellent search engine company in the early 90s. It has provided numerous Internet services to the customers. But in 2012, its biggest competitor Google was taking over 80 percent of the market share. Yahoo experienced a recession in the period (Holland, 2012). As a new CEO, Mayer had to take actions to guide the company towards a way that it could compete with Google. She thought about many ways to keep employee stay at the company more often. For instance, she tried to provide free food, cell phones and onsite gym. And then the next thing she wanted to do was to make people come to the office to work together, and ban the work from home policy.
Marissa Mayer first talked about the ban policy on April 19, 2013 at the Great Place to Work conference. She defended her decision by first saying that people are more productive while working alone (Tkaczyk, 2013). It is understandable; there are many time that people can work more efficient when they are working alone with less distractions. Then she commented that, people are more collaborative and innovative while they are working together (Tkaczyk, 2013). Yahoo was first listed on the Fortune’s 100 best companies to work for three times before 2008, but not anymore after then (Fortune, 2014). Mayer’s action was meant to reset the culture for Yahoo and made it as her priority list. The work from home ban policy not only could achieve the goal to implementing a new culture, but also could solve another problem at Yahoo, which was to lay off employees. We could imagine how many people would be opposing to the policy, for personal reasons or simply against the decision. Mayer pointed out that people can go with the change or they will be asked to leave if they don’t follow. Telecommuting may be working for other IT companies in Silicon Valley. However, Yahoo was under a critical situation which the company needed the action and needed it fast. The time needed by telecommuting was not affordable at Yahoo.
Bank of America started My Work Plan on 2005 and reduced it on December 2012. While according to Global Workplace Analytics, the workplace research company, teleworking was increased about %80 from 2005 to 2012, Bank of America was named as one of the best companies that everyone wanted to work for in Working Mother Magazine because of its consideration to employee’s families and policies like flexible work hours or child care centers. The program, since it introduced in 2005, had expanded significantly and was extremely known as a money saver plan for companies and employees. It was also popular between employees who could save on commuting costs like gas and family costs like babysitting. (McClatchy, 2012) BOA's program, My Work, was supposed to save about $5,500 per employee each year or totally $110 million annually. Bank of America was planning to hire nearly 20,000 employees, twice as before, around the world and increasing participation of its 283,000 staff from 7 percent to 14 percent. Call centers were the first locations to start testing My Work plan. (Kite, 2011). BOA’s employees enrolled in the program, worked out of office 60% of the time. Most of this time they were working from home. Telecommuters were supposed to leave their offices and work stations. When they were in the bank, they had to use communal areas or plug their laptops into mobile work stations based on a first come, first serve basis. This had allowed Bank of America to get rid of many leases and subleased extra rooms that were not used any more. The most important consequence was saving money. (Kite, 2011).
In fact, BOFA's employees liked the program just a little bit too much apparently, and then the word on the street was that the company wanted to reign it in. The bank was “committed to an environment that fosters teamwork and integration,” That included “providing opportunities for in-person collaboration and bringing employees together in the same physical space” (Bank of America makes flex work less flexible, 2013). The bank declined to disclose how many of its employee’s nationwide work from home. Bank of America didn’t say anything formally about this no more My Work Plan policy. But a person who was familiar with Bank’s policies revealed that it was a part of Project New BAC, the bank’s broad-based plan to decreasing costs and saving money parallel to increasing productivity. This new plan required to decrease $8 billion of costs and laid off 30,000 employees (McClatchy, 2012).
In 2011 Bank of America needed to cut $8 million in annual costs. Ending telecommuting jobs was a part of a large cost cutting move called Project New BAC. The BAC’s project announced in April 2011 and had 2 different phases. First, consumer facing businesses and second commercial and institutional businesses. This project included job cuts, branch closure, management streamlining and etc. Bank reduced its branches from nearly 6000 to 4947 and its employees from 247,943 to 229,538 (O’Daniel, 2014). The three and a half year old project’s goal was reducing $5 billion of expenses and 30000 jobs in consumer and technology areas by the end of 2013 during the first phase and eliminating $3 billion by making undisclosed cuts in capital markets by mid-2015 during the second phase (Brown, 2012). In October 2014, Moynihan and chief financial officer Bruce Thompson reported project new BAC’s goal had been met.
The key to a successful workplace is making employees as much productive, efficient and creative as possible. These factors change overtime and companies should change their policies based on these changes to be safe. For example while Bank of America was decreasing its telecommuters, American Express, City Group and Capital One all were increasing their work-from-home policy. At the same time U.S Bank and Wells Fargo didn’t change their telecommuting policies. So, you should use the right policy which best fits your company’s needs, at the right time (Kite, 2013). Most of the companies look for a quick fix when they are under pressure. They want to show the shareholders that they are making changes to fix the issues. What Bank of America and Yahoo! Were common in was that they were trying to fix their financial problems by changing telecommuting strategies (Kite, 2013). So, for the companies who changed their idea about telecommuting, the issue was not telecommuting by itself. As of Yahoo’s most recent job listing on its website, most editor’s jobs are still required to have flexibility in working hours, which means for these jobs employees will need to work off-site when necessary(Yahoo!, 2015). There are some jobs which are more effective when get done out of the office even for Yahoo. Bank of America didn’t cancel its telecommuting jobs completely. It just updated the specific jobs eligible for telecommuting after reviewing its My Work plan. The result was that fewer bank of America employees were eligible for telecommuting (Kite, 2013). So, BoA’s telecommuting jobs are not dead completely. They have just been eliminated. As we still see telecommuting job advertisements for Bank of America in their official website or in job finders websites. For example: Cyber Forensics Investigator, Leasing Syndications Support Specialist and financial analysis.
June 25, 2009. Cisco published internal survey results of its 2,000 employees regarding working remotely. The results showed that the benefits are overall impressed for both the company and employees. The company reported approximately $277 million saved because it has the telecommute program. On the employee side, report showed 69 percent of employees work remotely stated higher productivity, 67 percent of those said overall work quality was improved, and more than 91 percent of employees claimed telecommuting increased their overall satisfaction of the job. In addition, there are some effects on the environment as well. The report estimated 47,320 metric tons of gas emissions are reduced because less travel is needed (Cisco, 2009). Here is just an example of telecommuting works in certain business. There are a lot of business offer telecommuting as one of their perks and are happy about it. The reasons of why they are successful are based on their management and corporate culture.
Telecommuting is a type of working arrangement. It allows employees to have a flexible working schedule and don’t need to be physically present at the office. In today’s business environment, New businesses who want to use telecommuting don’t know exactly if it is a beneficial way or not. Cisco is a successful company by using telecommuting. There are two different companies that at a specific period of time believed telecommuting does not work for them anymore. The first one is Yahoo as an American multinational Internet company. Yahoo’s CEO Marissa Mayer carried out a new policy in 2012 that required Yahoo telecommuter employees to be back to their offices, otherwise, they would be asked to leave. Marissa’s action was meant to achieve the goal to implementing a new culture. The second case is Bank of America (BoA). Bank of America started a workplace flex program called "My Work" that allowed employees to take advantage of the company's telecommuting centers. Ending this plan was a part of Project New BAC, the bank’s broad-based plan to decrease $8 billion of costs and laid off 30,000 employees. At the present time Bank of America and Yahoo are both using telecommuting jobs in some positions. They just have eliminated their widely expanded telecommuting jobs and telecommuting is not completely dead in these companies.
The companies who want to use effective telecommuting for the first time should be aware that telecommuting is not meant for everyone, it depends on the type of the job, employee’s personality and the management culture of the company. First of all these companies should have some reasons to consider telecommuting as an employee option. Then, companies should hire telecommuters whose attitudes, work ethics and personalities are adaptable with telecommuting. In the next step companies should provide a list of necessary changes for the company to launch its telecommuting plan. For example which equipment should be purchased or which policies should be created. When new companies choose telecommuting as an employee option for their organization and let their employees to telecommute from home, they should have clear rules and procedures in employee’s handbook for it and the policy has to be consistent with everyone (Moss, Writer, 2013). To have a successful telecommuting, companies should define specific work hours and periodic breaks for employers while work from home. Also, clear job description should be detailed. Ideally employees should be able to come to the office once in a while, if not, frequent phone and video calls should be a part of the job. Employer should ask employees to send daily or weekly reports and have at least one weekly skype conversation from employees proposed work space with the supervisors. Employers are responsible to provide a safe working environments for employees when they are working from home. They should have random visits from the location which employee is working in to make sure they work in a safe place. Employers should make it clear that the ability to accommodate telecommuting employees may change at any time (Slagle, 2014). Best jobs for telecommuting are portable jobs. These jobs can be performed from anywhere. Such as: analysis, auditing, calculation, computer programming, design, data entry, documents (writing, editing), graphics, transcribing
Implementing the recommendations in the previous section will have positive impacts. The key to a successful workplace is making employees as much productive, efficient and creative as possible. Telecommuters can save money on gas and cloths. They also are not in rush to commute during traffics. They also don’t have to be worry about their kids and look for a babysitter. These all increase employees satisfaction and productivity. In the short term, telecommuting will have positive effects on both employers and employees. Telecommuting will work as a reduction of demand for office supply and space. By telecommuting employers can decrease financial costs to own, rent or operate an office. Companies can save a lot of money on energy costs and office supplies. In the long term, telecommuting not only impacts on company and employees, but also affects environment, society and economics. Telecommuting works effectively as a traffic reduction. It can reduce human’s effect on the planet and will decrease commute tips and distances which results reduction of automobile use and non-renewable resource consumption. Demand for gas and car will reduce car’s ownership rates. HAC (heating and air conditioning) is one of office equipment that release a large amount of electricity and natural gas to the atmosphere. Telecommuting will limit this dangerous gases in the environment. Also, telecommuting will save open spaces and agriculture lands which are often consumed by buildings and parking lots. ( Marcus, 1995) Bibliography Barba, Ronaldo (2015, February 25). Top 10 States with Most Telecommuting Jobs, Tech Co. Retrieved from: http://tech.co/top-10-states-telecommuting-jobs-2015-02 Bank of America makes flex time less flexible. (2012, December 6). Bank of America makes flex time less flexible. Workplace Diva. Retrieved from: http://workplacediva.blogspot.com/2012/12/bank-of-america-makes-flex-time-less.html Bank of America Corporation - Company Profile, Information, Business Description, History, Background Information on Bank of America Corporation. Retrieved from: http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/history2/18/Bank-of-America-Corporation.html Brittany, H. M., & MacDonnell, R. (2012). Is telework effective for organizations? Management Research Review, 35(7), 602-616. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/01409171211238820 Brown. Abram. (Sep, 20, 2012) Bank of America Planning To Cut 16,000 Jobs by Year End. Retrieved from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/20/bank-of-america-layoffs-16000_n_1899691.html Eschindler, E. (2008, December 30). 17 telecommuting disadvantages. PC World. Retrieved From: http://www.pcworld.com/article/156195/trouble_telecommuting.html
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Slagle, B. (2014). Telecommuting employees increase employer’s liability. Retrieved from: http://www.muslaw.com/articles.asp?id=356 Telecommuting policy, Fortune. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/04/19/marissa-mayer-breaks-her-silence-on-yahoos-telecommuting-policy/ The Telecommunications History Group, Inc. (2015) Timeline, Retrieved from: http://www.telcomhistory.org/timeline.shtml Timeline, (2014), Cisco System Inc. Retrieved from: http://weare.cisco.com/c/r/weare/timeline.html Tkaczyk, Christopher (2013, April 19). Marissa Mayer breaks her silence on Yahoo's telecommuting policy, Fortune. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2013/04/19/marissa-mayer-breaks-her-silence-on-yahoos-telecommuting-policy/ APPENDIX A YAHOO’s Internal Memo 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 Appendix B Tables of advantages and disadvantages of telecommuting based on 75 managers’ ideas. Both employers and employees have found telecommuting to be a mutually beneficial arrangement in many instances. Benefits evaluated by the 75 managers who returned questionnaires: TABLE 4 PERCEIVED BENEFITS OF TELECOMMUTING FOR EMPLOYEES In rank order of benefit (n = 75) Weighted Benefit Mean ________________________________________ Flexible scheduling 1.514 Decreased commuting costs 1.577 No commuting time 1.586 Additional family time 1.754 Fewer interruptions 1.754 Money saved on child care 1.900 Additional leisure time 1.971 More relaxed environment 2.042 Decreased clothing costs 2.159 Money saved on meals 2.332 Environmental concerns 2.493 TABLE 6 PERCEIVED BENEFITS OF TELECOMMUTING FOR FIRMS In rank order of benefit (n = 75) Weighted Benefit Mean ________________________________________ Reduced office space 1.775 Increased employee productivity 1.765 Increased employee morale 1.746 Reduced employee sick leave 1.844 Less turnover 1.970 Reduced energy consumption 2.171 Increased labor pool 2.191 Decreased office staff 2.348 (Roderick, Jelley, 1989) While telecommuting programs have been highly successful for many businesses of all shapes, sizes, and industry orientations, there are potential pitfalls associated with them. Commonly cited drawbacks evaluated by the 75 managers who returned questionnaires include the following: PERCEIVED DISADVANTAGES OF TELECOMMUTING FOR EMPLOYEES In rank order of disadvantage (n = 75) Disadvantage Weighted Mean ________________________________________ Lack of equipment 1.466 Lack of reference materials 1.466 Isolation from Guidelines 1.500 No managerial guidance 1.653 Improper office set-up 1.887 Lack of structure 1.930 More interruptions 2.141 Lower salaries 2.224 Job downgrading 2.388 Decreased job security 2.417 More stressful 2.704 PERCEIVED DISADVANTAGES OF TELECOMMUTING FOR FIRMS In rank order of disadvantage (n = 75) Weighted Disadvantage Mean ________________________________________ Lack of daily interaction 1.329 Loss of face-to-face communication 1.466 Loss of managerial control 1.653 Hardwarelsoftware costs 1.841 Increased security risk 1.912 Increased telephone bills 2.075 Increased training costs 2.281 (Roderick, Jelley, 1989) Appendix C The law now recognizes telecommuting as a viable way for employees to fulfill their job requirements, thanks to a case involving the banking sector. In an important federal ruling last year-Bixby v. JPMorgan Chase -the court said plainly for the first time that advances in technology have made telecommuting a legitimate part of the American workplace, and that old notions of home offices equating to subpar performance no longer apply. David Bixby, a former information technology project manager who said telecommuting alleviated his depression and anxiety, sued Chase for denying his requests to work from home, claiming the company had violated the Americans with Disabilities Act. Chase argued Bixby's request to telecommute was unreasonable under the ADA, because he could not adequately perform his job duties from home. Both parties filed for summary judgment. The judge for the Northern District of Illinois shot down Chase's argument in March 2012, saying it relied on a precedent decided more than 17 years ago, "when the Internet and technology had not yet made remote access to the job site and its operational systems as feasible as it is today." The judge cited language within the old precedent recognizing that advances in technology could eventually make working from home a reasonable option-an eventuality that apparently, in the court's view, has come to pass. Evidence that three other Chase project managers were telecommuting on a full-time, permanent basis made it difficult for the company to convincingly argue that Bixby's request to work at home was unreasonable. The case never went to trial; the parties settled shortly after the judge's ruling. Another ADA case, Core v. Champaign County Board of County Commissioners, was decided later in 2012 in federal court in Ohio, this time in favor of the employer. But in the ruling, the judge quoted the old precedent, stating: "Today, in this court's view, it may not 'take a very extraordinary case for the employee to be able to create a tribal issue of the employer's failure to allow the employee to work at home.' The ultimate determination of reasonableness is a fact-specific inquiry and a question for the fact-finder." The judge in a third ADA decision last year, EEOC v. Ford Motor Co., also analyzed the plaintiff's job requirements to determine whether her telecommuting request was reasonable, before siding with her employer. These decisions have implications outside of the specific confines of ADA case law. Not all of the rulings favored the employee, but taken together they signal how the courts' views have evolved toward a more favorable stance on telecommuting in general. "It recognizes that because of the march of time and technology, the essential functions of some jobs may be performed remotely, without the need to be physically present within the employer's offices," says Christopher J. Moran, a partner in the labor and employment practice at Pepper Hamilton. Paige O. Barnett, an attorney and consultant with Employment Practices Solutions, agrees. "It will always be a fact specific inquiry and depends in large part on the position in question," she says. "But given the well-established ease and low costs of telecommuting, companies may have a hard time credibly arguing that a given employee must be physically present in the workplace five days a week." Moran says that in the absence of clear, uniform policies, it could be unwise to let individual managers, who may have their own biases for or against telecommuting, determine who works from home. Barnett says it's ok for managers to make the decision, so long as the option to telecommute is consistently implemented. "Allowing one employee the benefit of working from home but denying another in a similar position with similar responsibilities exposes an employer to potential liability," she says. -S.K (Kite, 2013) |
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