Latest news, weather, high school sports for Michigan’s Upper Peninsula

Poll: Working from home no more?

Those hired by the Internet giant, Yahoo, with agreements that they could work partly, or entirely, from home are no doubt peeved over new CEO Marissa Mayer’s decision to end the company’s flexible location policies. In a memo issued last week, all employees were told they’d have to show up for work in the office starting in June, according to a report in AllThingsDigital. (Yahoo didn’t respond to requests for comment.) The memo says working from the office facilitates more brainstorming. “Some of the best decisions and insights come from hallway and cafeteria discussions, meeting new people, and impromptu team meetings,” it says.

But while studies suggest that those who work from home tend to be happier than the average cubicle drone, the chance to work in one’s pajamas often comes at a cost. Controlling for performance, working from home reduced rates of promotion by 50 percent, according to a report published last week by professors at Stanford University, which reviewed a working-from-home program at a 16,000-employee, Nasdaq-listed Chinese travel agency over nine months. One reason for the bleaker career prospects:  less on-the-job training.

With its new policy, Yahoo is moving in the opposite direction of much of corporate America. The number of people working from home has almost doubled in 30 years, from 2.3 percent in 1980 to 4.2 percent in 2010, according to the latest U.S. Census. In fact, the Census data found that about 10 percent of the workforce works from home at least one day a week, and the wage discount for working from home--30percent in 1980--has effectively vanished. The company saved around $2,000 per employee, primarily because it paid less rent for office space and increased productivity, the study found.

(Story courtesy of www.marketwatch.com)

Tonight in the Daily Pulse we're wondering:  Do you agree with Yahoo's new CEO Marissa Mayer's decision to require Yahoo employees to work at the office instead of working at home?