Thursday, March 7, 2013

Podcast - Remote Workers - is Yahoo Right?

Hot topic lately, and time will tell if old school work-at-your-desk policies will save Yahoo. Personally, I think remote working is great for certain types of people and situations, but for the masses, bad idea. Gee, can you tell that I work from home?

I could host my own podcast on that ornery topic, but you're much better served with a diversity of views, and that's exactly what come out on this week's UCStrategies podcast, moderated by Phil Edholm. We had voices on both sides of the issue, but the general sentiment was positive. As I noted, nothing drives the need for UC like remote working, so this shouldn't be surprising given our collective focus on this space.

While a lot of people talk about the merits of technology as a driver for remote working, it's all about trust to me. I don't care how many tools you throw at remote workers - some people are cut out for this, but a lot are not. Companies will get great productivity out of some employees from home, but if you're laissez faire about it, you end up on a slippery slope downhill. They work you, right? Not the other way around.

Enough rose-colored wishful thinking. Every business has its own comfort level with the leash they keep on employees, and that's the way it should be. Now its time to hear what everyone else thinks - here's the link, where you can also read the transcript if you don't have the time to listen to the podcast.

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