Did Yahoo! Make the Right Decision Banning Work-From-Home Arrangements? (Pt 4)

However, just because other Silicon Valley companies have implemented remote work arrangements, that doesn’t mean every company allowing working from home takes a completely hands-free approach to the act, simply installing an IP telephony system and telling their employees to do their work whenever they want, wherever they want, as long as they get it done. In fact, the most successful companies with the most successful remote work arrangements tend to build their workforce from the ground up with remote-oriented employees, or they place firm boundaries on their remote working policies, or they give their employees all the freedom they could ever want while simultaneously incentivizing them to spend every waking hour at the offices.

Essentially, the most successful forward-thinking companies use work arrangements as an addition to traditional work structures instead of as a substitution. Not only that, these companies think through and organize their remote work structures with a lot of care, a lot of thought, and a lot of oversight, something to keep in mind when implementing your own remote work policies.

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Did Yahoo! Make the Right Decision Banning Work-From-Home Arrangements? (Pt 3)

Yahoo Home WorkerThe only response Yahoo! released regarding their work-from-home ban illuminates an important facet of the debate. After reaffirming the company’s commitment to not “discussing internal matters,” Yahoo!’s PR reps stated:

“This isn’t a broad industry view on working from home- this is about what is right for Yahoo!, right now.”

In other words, Yahoo!’s basically saying they aren’t laying down an indictment of work-from-home arrangements across the board. Instead, Yahoo! hints the problems lay internally, they lie within how the company itself was handling its work-from-home arrangements, a point reiterated in comments made by some of Yahoo!’s ex-employees speaking on the matter.

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Did Yahoo! Make the Right Decision Banning Work-From-Home Arrangements? (Pt 2)

The fact of the matter is- the way Yahoo! announced and implemented its ban on work-from-home arrangements, and the fact the company refuses to discuss the matter, is just as problematic as the actual logistical ramifications of the decision itself. The decision was sent via an internal memo to the company’s employees, a memo that was quickly leaked by disgruntled Yahoo! employees.
Here’s what the memo says, in its entirety, in case you haven’t read it yet and to refresh the memories of most of you who have read it already:

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Did Yahoo! Make the Right Decision Banning Work-From-Home Arrangements? (Pt 1)

No more work from homeOver the last couples weeks a single piece of news has hit the tech world hard and been the focus of spirited debate, with different publications, bloggers and popular writers taking both sides of the discussion.

In late February Yahoo! decided to effectively ban work-from-home opportunities for their employees. While it’s unlikely any other company is going to follow Yahoo!’s lead and put a stop to their own work-from-home opportunities, the ban itself and the debate it’s inspired has brought to light many of the Pros and Cons of remote work arrangements, which may influence the way you choose to implement these arrangements in your own workplace, and which may convince you these arrangements aren’t right for your organization either.

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A Grad Student Hacks Cisco’s VoIP Tech! Should We All Freak Out?

One of the main arguments against IP telephony revolves around security. More specifically, there are some people out there concerned that IP telephony isn’t as secure as traditional telephony, and as such it isn’t viable to use in serious organizations, including large business or any group working in a highly competitive industry. This concern sounds legitimate at first, but it really doesn’t pan out when thoroughly explored, even when a big news story drops talking about a systemic vulnerability, as just happened when a 5th year grad student researcher at Columbia breached security in a Columbia VoIP phone and managed to record its calls.

First thing’s first, let’s start with the grad student’s achievement to evaluate whether it’s really as significant and ground-breaking as the media wants to make it seem.

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