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Best Buy Follows Yahoo in Banning Remote Work

Posted by Soulskill on from the no-retailing-from-your-garage dept.

bednarz writes "Is telecommuting the new scapegoat for poor performance? Best Buy, in the midst of a corporate restructuring, has canceled its flexible work program and expects corporate employees to put in traditional 40-hour work weeks at the retailer's headquarters (they used to be able to work whenever and wherever they wanted). The announcement comes on the heels of Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer's decision to end telecommuting, which ignited a firestorm of criticism. It also follows news of Best Buy's plans to lay off 400 corporate workers as part of a plan to cut $725 million in costs and restructure its business. This could signal the beginning of a trend, or be an indication that telecommuters need to actively justify their preference for working outside the office."

13 of 317 comments (clear)

  1. Terrible move by a dying entity by ModernGeek · · Score: 5, Informative

    This is a terrible move by a dying entity that is showing its irrelevance by going back further into the dark ages.

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    1. Re:Terrible move by a dying entity by MrEricSir · · Score: 5, Funny

      Are you referring to Best Buy or Yahoo?

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    2. Re:Terrible move by a dying entity by Radres · · Score: 5, Interesting

      It's just a way to lay people off without having to pay severance.

    3. Re:Terrible move by a dying entity by afidel · · Score: 5, Funny

      Yes

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    4. Re:Terrible move by a dying entity by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yes

      Indeed. BestBuy has been closing stores and laying off. I have a Yahoo! account, and haven't noticed any improvement in years. I started using their email service in 1998. Three minutes later I realized that, although I could put mail in folders, there was no way to create sub-folders. So I could have a folder for "Friends", but I could not have a folder for "Friends/Joe" and "Friends/Betty". I didn't see how that could work for any serious email user, so I sent off an email, and received a response that said plenty of people had asked, and it was a "top priority". Today, fifteen years and fourteen thousand employees later, still no sub-folders. I am curious what any of these employees actually do.

       

    5. Re:Terrible move by a dying entity by c0lo · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Any management that tries these techniques needs to be fired by the shareholders immediately. The people who leave voluntarily when pushed by these types of harassment are always the most valuable ones, who funnily enough find it easy to get a job elsewhere. The ones you're left with are the ones who are pulling you down in the first place (along with the management team, who are obviously deficient if they think reducing headcount is all that matters in saving their ass).

      It bears a name: it's called Dead Sea effect.
      After a while, you know for sure which employees you don't want to have: the ones that are still with you... So the best you can do: fire them and close the business.

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  2. As a former Employee by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    I can tell you Best Buy treats their employees like total crap. I did not work in a retail store, I worked in one of their service centers. Worst run company ever. They actually had a VP come down one week and tell us we needed to tape yellow lanes on the floor to tell people where to walk and then 3 weeks later another VP came down and made them change it to red tape, then 2 months later another VP came down and wanted all the lines moved because he didn't think it was clear which areas were for walking and which areas were work areas. Ridiculous.

  3. MBAs and Investment Bankers ruin companies. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Look at the history of companies like DEC, Compaq, Dell, the list goes on an on.

    They all did great until MBAs and Investment Bankers got control.

    Then the value was squeezed out and the carcass disgarded.

  4. Re:What firestorm by MickyTheIdiot · · Score: 5, Informative

    This while she was building a nursery in her office so she could spend time with her kid at work.

    http://healthland.time.com/2013/02/28/how-yahoo-ceo-marissa-mayer-is-building-a-nursery-by-her-office-and-dissing-working-moms/

    If that's not her giving her workforce the finger then I don't know what is.

  5. Best salaried employee behavior by bobstreo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Work exactly 40 hours per week, and not at all from home.

  6. Just Do Something (even if it's dumb) Management by ebno-10db · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Person sits at desk from 9-6. Person taps keys. Appears to be breathing. It tells you nothing about whether they're doing their work, so if you can't tell by other means, you're an incompetent employer. And if you can tell by other means, then there's no problem with telecommuting.

  7. OT: /. drives traffic to corporate sister site by guanxi · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Should Slashdot include a disclaimer when linking to a corporate sister?

    In case you don't know, Slashdot is owned by Dice Holdings (see the bottom left of the page you are reading), which also owns this link from the front page story:
    http://news.dice.com/2013/03/05/yahoos-telecommuting-policy-could-find-fanboy-ceos/

  8. Re:What firestorm by c · · Score: 5, Funny

    If that's not her giving her workforce the finger then I don't know what is.

    She was at Google for a long time. Probably has a heck of a lot of pent up Evil she needs to burn off...

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