It’s been widely reported that more and more companies are embracing flexible work options—specifically the option to telecommute—as a way to attract top employees, reduce overhead costs, and capitalize on emerging technology. While this is absolutely true, at the same time, unfortunately, there are a number of organizations limiting telecommuting in favor of a more traditional workplace environment.
In a highly publicized pushback on flexible work, Yahoo made the move to ban work-from-home options in 2013—a change the company unveiled in an internal memo that advocated the advantages of “working side-by-side.” Critics of the Yahoo ban said it flew in the face of a seemingly logical march toward remote work, a trend fueled by technology, worker preferences, long commutes, and a wide variety of other reasons.
Yahoo is just one of several companies limiting flex work. Since then, other companies such as Bank of America, Best Buy, and Honeywell have made moves to curtail or eliminate telecommuting in particular. At Hewlett-Packard, an effort to bring “all hands on deck” was not quite a ban on working from home, but an effort to bring previously home-based workers into HP’s newly expanded office space.
While some of these organizations have continued to offer flexible and remote work—often only with approval from higher-ups—there are a few common threads among the reasons for why they are limiting telecommuting, or ending work-from-home options for some employees altogether.
Check out these five reasons why some big companies are eliminating or limiting telecommuting:
1. Geographic Proximity
Long a leader in flexible work options, IBM has initiated a companywide remote worker crackdown as a way to bring marketing professionals, engineers, and other workers into the office at six of the company’s regional hubs.
IBM’s decision to call thousands of employees back to the office is a move the company calls “co-location.” Despite disappointment from many employees, IBM’s chief marketing officer, Michelle Peluso, sought to put a positive spin on the development, calling it a way to bring employees together in “really creative and inspiring locations.”
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Even though IBM and its subsidiaries continue to offer great flexible options, including remote and temporary jobs, the company’s recent “move-or-leave” policy is designed to bolster the company’s competitiveness in the marketplace, according to news reports. In many instances, drawing team members together geographically is central to staying competitive, IBM leadership decided.
2. Collaboration
Forces that drive collaboration—including brainstorming sessions, personal interaction, and socializing—are at the top of the list for some organizations that are limiting flex work. In a companywide video, IBM Chief Marketing Officer Michelle Peluso put it this way: “Bringing people together creates its own X factor.”
In 2014, global online community Reddit asked remote workers, as well as people working in the company’s Salt Lake City and New York City offices, to relocate to the main office in the San Francisco Bay area if they wanted to keep their jobs.
In a well-circulated Quora post in 2014, former Reddit CEO Yishan Wong said the shift wasn’t a “repudiation of remote work.” Rather, Wong wrote, while “remote workers did good work… the separation has kept us from effectively being able to coordinate as well as we needed to on a full-company level.”
3. Face Time
At Bank of America, officials said the effort to pull back on telecommuting was fueled by a desire to increase teamwork and integration. The Charlotte Observer quotes a Bank of America document stating that the decision to scale back on remote work was intended to increase “opportunities for in-person collaboration and bringing employees together in the same physical space.”
However, the “face time” that comes with going to the office doesn’t necessarily equate to a more engaged workforce, some data shows. Recent research from Gallup focused on “active disengagement,” or the notion of employee engagement at work (or the lack thereof) as a factor in driving business operations. The Gallup study showed about two-third of employees in offices or other work settings spend a large part of their workday “killing time” rather than actively engaging with their colleagues.
4. Case-By-Case Basis
When Best Buy announced in 2013 that it was ditching its “Results Oriented Work Environment” program, company officials made clear that they still believed in work flexibility, but that it should be offered in the context of the individual employee’s situation, and in consultation with the employee’s supervisors. Even after publicly pulling back from its broader flexible work program, Best Buy has continued to offer some work flexibility, including remote and seasonal jobs, in the recent past.
At Honeywell, top officials issued a memo stating “no regular work from home arrangements … are permitted” without approval,” according to the Star Tribune of Minneapolis. Working from home should be a rare occurrence to accommodate legitimate individual circumstances,” the memo continued. Like other companies grappling with limiting work flex, Honeywell in recent months has continued to offer remote jobs for specific positions, including sales and engineering.
Wong, the former Reddit CEO, summed up the argument for “situational” work flexibility, writing in his Quora post that “remote work and multiple offices work for some people at some companies, some of the time.”
5. Flagging Innovation
Aetna, the global healthcare leader, announced plans in 2016 to reduce its work-from-home policy, citing studies showing that home-based workers “collaborate less with colleagues.” That lack of teamwork meant less opportunity for innovation, Aetna leaders said. Still, Aetna continues be a leader, offering a range of flexible jobs and leading the FlexJobs list of top companies for remote jobs in healthcare.
Many managers of flexible workers acknowledge that inspiring innovation on remote teams can be daunting. It’s still new territory for organizations of all stripes in lots of ways, and making flexible options work may take a different approach that’s supported at the top levels and is open to cultural change within the organizational structure.
The takeaway on limiting telecommuting:
What’s clear is that even though several big companies have made waves with pronouncements about limiting work-from-home options, many of those same companies—even Yahoo—continue to offer flexible work arrangements—for some people, in specific jobs, and under specific circumstances.
One way to look at the issue is this: rather than limiting work flex, working to understand how flexible work options can make your company more productive, efficient, and even happier might be a wiser use of your energy and talents as a leader in your organization.
Looking for management tips? Check out our articles on how to manage flex work.
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