Few human resource policies receive as much hype as Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo’s recent decision to ban telecommuting at the Company did. Employees are enraged at her decision, as are many critics and commentators.
That a technology company has come up with such a move is what makes the decision even more controversial. “Mayer is trying to put together a 21st century technology company using 19th century workplace mentalities,” wrote Steve Woods, business editor at Technorati Media—an Internet search engine for searching blogs.
As to how good or bad telecommuting is: remains a massive debate. What’s important is the nature of work one does. If the job can be easily conducted from the confines of one’s home, there appears to be no reason to discourage employees from doing so. In effect, such a move can actually beef up employee motivation and productivity.
The space where one works is quite critical. Therefore, Mayer’s decision has also been dubbed as close to firing and rehiring employees, expecting a total turn in the way they work. It’s true, though, that there’s a certain degree of responsibility involved with telecommuters. But, greater management and communication with them can make the job seamless.
In Pakistan, telecommuting jobs exist in various capacities in different organisations, though there’s still a long way to go in terms of acceptability of a rapidly rising workplace trend. Technology’s rapid advancement has meant that besides manufacturing sector, services-based jobs can also be conducted online.
Organisations such as Unilever in Pakistan have introduced agile working policies whereby employees have the option of working from home or anywhere else two days in a week. Many organisations involved in writing and web development also allow employees flexibility as far as the place of work goes.
Besides the formal sector, the informal sector in Pakistan also provides livelihood to a lot of home-based workers, mostly women. In fact, the entire cottage industry of Pakistan is set up on women working from home producing unique arts and crafts that are sold locally and internationally.
Unfortunately, however, most of these home-based workers in the informal sector are not recognised as formal employees and do not get any social or legal protection, earning them the name ‘invisible workers’.
The formal sector’s acceptance of telecommuting as a workplace revolution locally is an appreciable change, though there’s tremendous room for improvement. Meanwhile, the informal sector needs to acknowledge and recognise home-based workers, making them more ‘visible’ as part of the domestic labour force.
The outrage over Mayer’s decision shows how strongly people around the world feel about being given the flexibility to choose their place of work. And the sooner Pakistan’s organisations and informal set-ups recognise this, the better.
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