How working from home can be good for the employer and employee.

The blogosphere and Twitter is abuzz with the leaked memo from Yahoo! HR effectively putting an end to Yahoo!'s employees working from home from June 2013. Reactions have pretty much been consistent and it is scathingly against Yahoo!. In this post, I share my experiences as an engineer who has occasionally worked from home for different employers and what it means.WFH: Life happensOver the years working from companies in the East and West Coast, my wife and I have had to work from home occasionally. Most of these occasions were driven by the usual reasons- cable installation, furniture arriving, plumber coming in, feeling sick, kid is sick and cant go to school, etc. And every one of these occasions were not conjured up out of thin air. It was specifically to address a problem. And unless you have someone at home all the time, it is a recurrent event in every employee's life.WFH: More work hours.Consider a typical workday for most of us. We head out before 9. Drop the kid. Head to work. Leave before 6. Pick up the kid. Come back home. If any work is pending, catch up after the kid has gone to bed. Now if it was possible to start working at 9 and work all the way until 6.15 when the kid comes back, you get the full day without the commute, the time to settle at work, the time to wrap things up, the lunch hour and what not. It is a definite hour or two of extra work just within the work day.WFH: When used wisely, it is less distraction.One of the key reasons why we have a workplace is to collaborate. This is true and valid for 90% of the time in a year. But for about 10% of the time (maybe more for some others), it may help to block out the collaboration and focus just by oneself on one or more problems that need individual attention. The workplace may not be amenable to such a requirement due to all the work related and unrelated distractions. On such days, working from home could be a huge difference maker. I have in the past done the occasional day from home only to catch up on emails and small work tasks that I otherwise never seem to get to.The DownsideYes, working from home can be and is probably misused by a small portion of people. This is applicable everywhere. But if that is the reason to worry, those folks are probably slacking in the office anyway and will find a way to slack anywhere. They are less productive wherever they are. And no amount of rules and restrictions will change that.Yahoo!I am a big fan of Marissa Mayer and do think that she is an extremely capable CEO who is well aware of the backlash such a move would generate. If she chose to take the decision nevertheless, it speaks of dysfunction that could otherwise not be cured as this article speculates. That said, it will not sit well if Yahoo! is trying to entice the best of the best in the Valley to come work for it. Already, popular web companies are starting to appeal to Yahoo! engineers to make a switch. Smart engineers are extremely protective of their independence and a company banning telecommuting will be viewed as infringing that freedom.I work in a lab and most of my time has to be spent at the office anyway. But Yahoo engineers are web developers who could function just fine from wherever they choose to work. Collaboration is critical- yes, but it will happen if there is vision. If engineers believe in an organizational vision, they will work together to make it happen. If there is lack of vision, even the best will have no incentive to collaborate and make a difference.The motives are genuine from Yahoo! management. Unfortunately the execution  may leave a sore taste in the mouth not just for current employees but potential new hires which are hard to entice in the current technology boom. It will also be viewed as a not so friendly move by employees who place a significant amount of focus on their family lives as many do. Hopefully all this furor will give Yahoo! a moment to think before the move reportedly goes into effect in June.