justplainbil

Just Plain Bill

Thank you, Marissa Mayer

It’s been over a year since Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo, communicated to the Yahoo workforce that they’d no longer be allowed to work from home, in the interest of building and supporting the “One Yahoo” spirit. Yahoo’s head of Human Resources, Jackie Reses went on to say, "To become the absolute best place to work, communication and collaboration will be important, so we need to be working side-by-side," To that, Mayer added, "That is why it is critical that we are all present in our offices…We need to be One Yahoo!, and that starts with physically being together." (02/25/13)

In the past 12+ months there’s been an avalanche of responses and commentary – on both sides of the issue - and I want to thank Marissa Mayer for bringing to the fore the subject which is critically important to me - collaboration.

In my work as a professional educator, I’m passionate about collaboration and how it can enrich the place of work, and I know from experience it involves more than just the physical presence of professionals; it’s significantly more than just “where” people do their work.

Collaboration does not naturally occur just because employees work in the same locale, the same office, or the same building. Being “physically together…” does not necessarily result in collaboration and a more productive workspace.

It depends on the example set by leaders at all levels of an organization, and I believe the jury is still out if Marissa can make that happen.

What do you think?