Best Buy Copies Yahoo, Kills Work At Home Program

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What do you guys think? Smart move or simply a case of monkey see, monkey do?

Best Buy Co. said Monday it has ended its program that allowed corporate employees to control their schedules and how often they showed up at the company’s Richfield headquarters. Known as Results Only Work Environment (ROWE), the company evaluated employees solely on performance versus time worked and office attendance. Employees worked when they wanted and wherever they wanted just as long as they got the job done.
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I'm not sure I get the deal here.
if you can do the work from your home office
that you could do in a cubicle in some office building 25 miles away, needing a commute, gas money, the pollution it creates.....why not do it at home?

unless you require a group effort what does it benefit the company to be "in the office"?
 
I think this is their way of cutting people without firing/laying off.
 
magoo said:
I'm not sure I get the deal here.
if you can do the work from your home office
that you could do in a cubicle in some office building 25 miles away, needing a commute, gas money, the pollution it creates.....why not do it at home?

unless you require a group effort what does it benefit the company to be "in the office"?
Click to expand...

As long as the same amount of work gets done. I know when I'm up against the wall with a mountain of work, I get more done at home. When I just have a bunch of small things to do that don't have an immediate or critical deadline, I tend to get more done at work (even when you account for the 45-60 minute drive it takes me to get there).
 
magoo said:
I'm not sure I get the deal here.
if you can do the work from your home office
that you could do in a cubicle in some office building 25 miles away, needing a commute, gas money, the pollution it creates.....why not do it at home?

unless you require a group effort what does it benefit the company to be "in the office"?
Click to expand...

You have to remember what company the article is about though, smart decisions and logic don't seem to come naturally.
 
magoo said:
I'm not sure I get the deal here.
if you can do the work from your home office
that you could do in a cubicle in some office building 25 miles away, needing a commute, gas money, the pollution it creates.....why not do it at home?

unless you require a group effort what does it benefit the company to be "in the office"?
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Yeah I agree completely. But as a corporation, they may not think as logically as everyone else.
 
ROWE for life, baby. Who gives a shit if you do you job from home or at an office downtown as long as long as the work gets done it the time specified?
 
magoo said:
I'm not sure I get the deal here.
if you can do the work from your home office
that you could do in a cubicle in some office building 25 miles away, needing a commute, gas money, the pollution it creates.....why not do it at home?

unless you require a group effort what does it benefit the company to be "in the office"?
Click to expand...

how would you gauge how much work you can get done in the office vs. at home though?
 
I choose to work 5 days a week because I spend too much money when I'm at home :D
 
My guess is the free loaders blew it for everyone. Best Buy was probably wondering how they would get out of it without pissing everyone off for the freeloading degenerates, then along comes Yahoo. Perfect opportunity.

I had a cool director who told his team of about 50 people everyone could work 1 day a week from home, no worries....but turned out a few people were flying for long weekend, etc. So he had to pull it. Damn freeloaders.
 
I think you guys missed a pit of the article ;)

Telecommuting is not completely ruled out as an option for the company's 4,000 non-store employees, but workers will need to seek managerial approval first.
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ol1bit said:
My guess is the free loaders blew it for everyone. Best Buy was probably wondering how they would get out of it without pissing everyone off for the freeloading degenerates, then along comes Yahoo. Perfect opportunity.

I had a cool director who told his team of about 50 people everyone could work 1 day a week from home, no worries....but turned out a few people were flying for long weekend, etc. So he had to pull it. Damn freeloaders.
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The whole name for the program starts with "Results Only" .. by definition it is the managers job to revoke privileges from people who are abusing it.

I prefer to go to an office to work, it helps me focus. Too many distractions at home.
 
I'd love to know how they can spin getting rid of 'results only work environment', what are they going to instead? 'appearances only work environment'?
 
"The change comes as Best Buy has been trying to cut costs while dealing with sluggish sales."

So apparently someone's idea of cutting costs is to make all the employees come back to the office so the utility bills will go up. :rolleyes:

And there are still people who wonder why BB is always doing so poorly.
 
Working from home would be a pretty awesome luxery. If you are disciplined you can be more productive.

On the other hand think if I could work from home I'd feel like an antisocial hermit. At least at work I get to interact with people. For my particular job I don't mind showing up as it's only 5 minutes away but I can understand why someone with a 20+ minute commute would rather just work from home if the option is there.

I think to reduce greenhouse gases and other environmental impacts working from home needs to be made more standard, not taken away.
 
Spidey329 said:
The whole name for the program starts with "Results Only" .. by definition it is the managers job to revoke privileges from people who are abusing it.

I prefer to go to an office to work, it helps me focus. Too many distractions at home.
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Where as I'm quite the opposite. It's easier for me to focus at home as I have more distractions at the office. Flexible work arrangements as a whole aren't going anywhere.
 
Thanks Marisa, with one fell swoop, your stupid ass has dealt a major setback to the progress made in the last few decades for remote workers. I hope you, your worthless company, and best buy all circle right down the drain.
 
I'm sure that the bean counters have worked this one out. Why pay people to do a set amount of work for $xxxx a month when you can get them into the office and push them to get more done than they would at home. Increased productivity means fewer bodies needed to get the same job done. The move has the added benefit of pissing some off enough to quit, meaning they had an attitude and were marginal to begin with, thus saving the company the problem of dealing with them.

/MBA

The squeeze is on, profits must keep going up!
 
DrDoug said:
I'm sure that the bean counters have worked this one out. Why pay people to do a set amount of work for $xxxx a month when you can get them into the office and push them to get more done than they would at home. Increased productivity means fewer bodies needed to get the same job done. The move has the added benefit of pissing some off enough to quit, meaning they had an attitude and were marginal to begin with, thus saving the company the problem of dealing with them.

/MBA

The squeeze is on, profits must keep going up!
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I don't get the impression you've ever actually worked from home long-term.

I work at a very large (think multi-billion dollar) software corporation and have done so for 3 years. It has been entirely work from home. I did a few days a month in Boston for the first five months and did a few trips from training but I haven't been in a physical office for more than 2 years.

Yes, there are the days I sleep on my lunch break, or wake up at 9:30 am when it's slow. But much more often than not I find myself checking emails at night, working over the weekends, or doing jobs at odd hours that you wouldn't be doing if you worked in a normal office environment. It's very easy for me to get asked to deal with customer escalations until 7,8,9 pm etc. I had 9 calls with a client from Friday night to Sunday afternoon over my weekend once. Since my office is in my home the expectation is that you are more or less always available for work if they need you.

If they are cutting these programs I really don't think it's because of productivity issues. That's what managers are for. No one on my team slacks despite 75-80% of us (more than 50 on the team) working from home.
 
Let's flip this on its head: what's so great about working from home if you have to do all the same work you'd do at the office?

At least at the office I have an excuse to dress up, have coworkers to go to lunch with, and can drink all the free tea and coffee I can before I burst.

I already hang out at home enough anyway.
 
there will always be a bunch of retards that ruin it for everyone else - my offices have it - that is why it is hard to leave the company but easier to jump from groups to groups - I used to see emails from retarded coworkers about taking their kids to the museum on their work at home day - some claim they will be working on their boats during their telework days - few times in the meeting - people have to tell the idiots at home to mute their damn tvs or the cell phones because we can hear they are washing dishes or watching ellen at home - so yeah there will always be some bad seeds that ruin it for all - especially the ones that never answer their emails or their office ims when at home - then some even install ims on the phones to pretend they are at home "working" - I hate those people
 
If you're an extrovert, you'll probably find working at the office and be around your coworkers greatly increases your productivity.

If you're an introvert, working at home by yourself helps you concentrate and avoid stresses like office politics. Productivity increases. Jobs get finished quickly.

Then there are the people in between who can't decide which they like better. So they do both. These people like it both ways.
 
snowcrash said:
If you're an extrovert, you'll probably find working at the office and be around your coworkers greatly increases your productivity.

If you're an introvert, working at home by yourself helps you concentrate and avoid stresses like office politics. Productivity increases. Jobs get finished quickly.

Then there are the people in between who can't decide which they like better. So they do both. These people like it both ways.
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This is dead on.

I used to telecommute about 90-95% of the time for the past 5 years. I avoided so much wasted time with the typical people who want to chew your ear off/spending more time to go to the bathroom or going for food/drink etc.

The time I saved not doing all the things I would have to do to get into the office and operate in the office plus commuting was a huge saving to me, but also a huge savings to my employer. A lot more work got done, and in a quicker fashion. Sure I used some time to get laundry/dishes etc done, but most of it was multitasking while on conference calls etc.

I saved, the company saved, the environment saved (I'd probably drive about 3,000 miles a year on average.. so less pollution less gas costs).

I never once received complaints about my performance, in fact my reviews were stellar. It's simple, you keep 30-40% office space and those that can't effectively work from home aren't allowed to.
 
To all of those who are rabble rabble babble brrraaaaaaa, find a job somewhere else. The job market is on fire for developers right now - and I for one just took a new job going from work at home to 5 days in an office.

I actually enjoy working with other people, and love creative/constructive feedback from my peers. I was lacking that environment at home so I sought out change.
 
I worked for a Danish company, with a large part of it located in the US. My manager was based in the US, and I in Denmark.

He was a young guy, younger than me, and had no prior managerial experience, in a fairly big company which was run by clowns and old fools.

After 6 months working under him, he fired me for working from home too much, and also his inability to relate to the fact that we were 8 hours apart, and my family did not like his constant phone calls at 11pm most nights, and he felt that was me not being committed enough.

I worked from home because it meant that I could work hours that actually overlapped his working hours more, so we could communicate, and work better. But he could just not deal with home working aspect at all. He was the atypical American office worker, telling me that if your in the office, you get to see other managers and get the chance to network with others. However I do not bullshit and brown-nose that way. I let my work speak for me, which is how it is here in Europe.

He used to come over a couple of times per year, and he just called all the Danes lazy, as they were "never here", and worked very short hours (because they were not present in the office). I tried to explain to him that's how it works in Europe, we work hard, but we work around our families, because most of us work to live, and not live to work like American managers seem to. Most Danes work 6 hours or so in the office, and work the rest from home until all sorts of hours, because you have to get the task done!

I actually worked it out that we worked more hours than all of our colleagues in the US, by at least 4 hours per week, but we were not in the office the whole time. Also it was fact that we got the work done, while they were "networking" round the coffee machine, and having bullshit meetings with vendors and managers that had nothing to do with the projects we were running, but they were using it as a way of impressing other managers, so they could be the "go to" guys if that manager had a problem.

Now this kind of work setup is becoming more the norm, and now if American companies start banning home-working, it's going to catch on in Europe too, as for some reason managers here just get misty eyed when they see an American manager.

This will be a real big loss for people with families, and commitments outside of work.
 
Rizen said:
I don't get the impression you've ever actually worked from home long-term.

I work at a very large (think multi-billion dollar) software corporation and have done so for 3 years. It has been entirely work from home. I did a few days a month in Boston for the first five months and did a few trips from training but I haven't been in a physical office for more than 2 years.

Yes, there are the days I sleep on my lunch break, or wake up at 9:30 am when it's slow. But much more often than not I find myself checking emails at night, working over the weekends, or doing jobs at odd hours that you wouldn't be doing if you worked in a normal office environment. It's very easy for me to get asked to deal with customer escalations until 7,8,9 pm etc. I had 9 calls with a client from Friday night to Sunday afternoon over my weekend once. Since my office is in my home the expectation is that you are more or less always available for work if they need you.

If they are cutting these programs I really don't think it's because of productivity issues. That's what managers are for. No one on my team slacks despite 75-80% of us (more than 50 on the team) working from home.
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The "/MBA" closer should have been a clue that I was wearing my imaginary MBA 'hat'. Common sense doesn't matter to those types, whether or not they are right or wrong is usually found out after the fact. When a company is financially stressed change has to happen.

Too often that's when the bad ideas usually take over.
 
The problem is simple... fire the idiots who don't produce. My home is my office of I'm not required on a customer site. I get my work done, then time is my own. I get paid for results, not for long busy with stupid manager honey do lists.
 
Well obviously in this case, there's not much in the way of results from the company. It's Best Buy we're talking about, here.

In addition, it takes quite a bit of support in some cases to enable people to work from home. I have to support about 100 people working from home at my workplace, most of which are not technically savvy. And when you consider the extra equipment and servers required (VM users at home, mostly), you might think this could just be a way for the company to stop losing money like a sieve.
 
wait, what exactly were these "work from home" people doing? coming up with lame ass marketing ideas that would then blow up in their face....i.e. $50 off $100 when you use a visa?
 
sfsuphysics said:
how would you gauge how much work you can get done in the office vs. at home though?
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I don't think you need some odd-ball metric, you are given a specific task and a specific timeframe/deadline.......get it done early or by the deadline, simple.

For me, if I could work at home, I'd probably try and get my projects done ahead of schedule so I could have more time off.

It would be cool to work a couple hours extra and have more days off.

I sympathize with anybody who has an hour or more commute both ways......
My city is so small, it takes me 10 minutes to get to work and home.:D
 
magoo said:
I'm not sure I get the deal here.
if you can do the work from your home office
that you could do in a cubicle in some office building 25 miles away, needing a commute, gas money, the pollution it creates.....why not do it at home?

unless you require a group effort what does it benefit the company to be "in the office"?
Click to expand...

Well see, you have a common theme. Failing companies that blame management for their failure. They can't manage the customers into showing up, and management has been purged and tasked with doing something, so they are going to exert their will on the one aspect of the company they can, namely the employees. THey will probably start working salaried people lots of hours and claim they have increased efficiency. Which means jack shit because they won't have brought in a single dollar more by doing this.
 
Sounds like they are just trying to find something/someone else to blame for why their businesses suck.

Hmmm, kinda reminds me of how piracy gets blamed for low sales figures of crappy games.
 
I prefer a mix. On the days where I just don't feel like going in but need to get work done, I like to be home. Otherwise, I'd rather be in the office. I take public transportation and it's an hour each way door to door, so it isn't so bad for me. I need to be around people (not in that creepy way), I'm not the type to stay to myself for too long. When I seek solitude, it's normally just to decompress for bit and then I'm ready for the next round of chaos(or whatever).
 
Aluisious said:
Let's flip this on its head: what's so great about working from home if you have to do all the same work you'd do at the office?
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if you reside in the snow belt, where an ordinary 20 minute commute can turn in to a two hour ordeal...
 
Aluisious said:
Let's flip this on its head: what's so great about working from home if you have to do all the same work you'd do at the office?
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not sure where you work, but id be willing to bet you can't walk in on a given day in your tighty whities, or butt as naked for that matter, and continue to keep your job :D
 
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