Marissa Mayer, the 37-year-old chief executive of Yahoo, raised eyebrows when she announced in February that Yahoo employees would no longer be allowed to work from home.
“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,” Mayer’s memo said. “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.”
Not surprisingly, Mayer’s edict rankled working parents and other advocates of workplace flexibility. But it caused a few chuckles at one Billings company.
Pine Cove Consulting, which designs and manages technology solutions for school districts and private business throughout the region, just might be the poster child for the work-at-home movement. Most of Pine Cove’s 20 employees are spread across Wyoming and Montana in nearly a dozen locations and work from their homes. But don’t get the impression that they’re left in the dark. They remain in close touch via video conferencing and other forms of electronic communication.
“This video medium allows us all to get together, and it’s fantastic,” said Rick Vancleeve, founder and chief executive of Pine Cove Consulting.
Working from the basement office in his home in Billings, Vancleeve can easily communicate with one or more employees by video to discuss projects and efforts to bring in new business.
Full Story: http://billingsgazette.com/business/ ... 8b1491.html
By Tom Howard
http://www.matr.net/article-54966.html
