Eileen Brown
Dead
Alive
Dan Kusnetzky
Best Argument: Alive
Audience Favored: Alive (81%)
The moderater has delivered his final verdict.
Opening Statements
Innovation requires face-to-face interaction
Eileen Brown: In this global economic downturn many companies are struggling to survive. In this cut throat market innovation is key to business success. Companies cannot innovate when workers permanently work from home, using asynchronous communication such as Instant Messaging and email, and dialing in to calls and videoconferences.
Face to face interaction inspires and energises workers. Chance conversations in hallways and coffee areas can lead to the next new innovation. Group brainstorming can spark ideas which can get adopted across the company.
This will not happen when workers do not get the chance to regularly spend time with each other.
Occasional days working from home are great to catch up on email, do admin or work on documentation. Isolation from the rest of the team and the company can impact team cohesion, exclude workers from the day to day communication and pulse of an organisation and ultimately destroy workers’ morale.
Technology enables distributed teams
Dan Kusnetzky: Technology today makes it quite possible for teams distributed throughout the world to collaborate as closely as when everyone lived in the same office building and could walk down the hall -- if management awareness, processes and procedures make this possible. The technology is there. Only management willingness and a bit of forethought are needed. Most large organizations have become highly distributed and teams are split all over the planet.
What difference does it really make if those sharing the conference call are in official offices?
Why, then, did Yahoo’s CEO demand that all employees work from offices when it is quite possible for them to work remotely and appear in an official office only when needed? This appears to be an act of desperation having quite a number of unintended negative consequences.
Talkback
Alive.
Not every business will do it, but some will. So it's not dead.
But it's not for every business, either.
Sometimes I wonder if ZDNet bloggers truly understand the concept of "different businesses have different needs."
"Will Yahoo's 'no working from home' rule lead more of us back into the office? Should it?"
It shouldn't. A business should ALWAYS be making its own decisions independently. It should not be following a herd mentality of "do everything the same way as everybody else."
It's not what a lot of people think it is
As far as day to day work, telecommuting has its' place. I like working remotely once in a while but it helps to physically be around the team. Flexibility is an asset.
What a moronic question.
Broadband Required First
That's fine for you but
Actually, if it snows in DC tomorrow I will be telecommuting to work. It's not dead for me or the large company I work for.
Technology may be getting better
There are 3 kninds of workers. Those that can work remotely with minimal/no distractions. Those that work better closer to the team where closeness helps them focus. And those that need to be in the office with a hot poker in the back to keep them productive.
I've worked in a cube for 13 years, 6 years on a technical bench and 12 years in a home office. If your boss thinks that you can be trusted, and earned it, fine. If not then prepare for the drive because you MAY have earned that too.
Moronic Question?
I often worked from home as Director of North America and Pac Rim offices and used the phone/emails for communications, depending on the immediacy of the situation. Working this way saved the company gobs of money in travel and even created some lasting relationships amongst the employees around the world.
I still went to the offices for all meetiings, confidential work and large, world-wide conference calls to keep the foreign offices all up to date.
It's meaningless, really, what the vote might be, as it is what it is and smart companies will manage it to their best advantage.
Depends on the person and circumstances...
I still believe showing up at least 1-2x a week is good though, but cmon don't act like anybody dreams up great work ideas by talking at a watercooler. They are usually talking about their kids, or last night's tv show or sports game.
Lazy
People that "work" from home spend 80% of their time doing NOTHING productive
lazy?