Best Buy ends telecommuting program

[digitalbabe]

CNN Money:

Marissa Mayer might be a trendsetter. Just one week after the Yahoo CEO banned telecommuting at her company, Best Buy is ending its own flexible work program.

Unlike Yahoo's blanket policy, Best Buy (BBY, Fortune 500) said some of the 4,000 non-store employees who took advantage of its work-from home program still may be able to telecommute or set flexible schedules. But as of Monday they'll no longer have the freedom to make those decisions without a manager, as they had in the past.
"It used to be a right about which a manager had no say. Now it's a conversation," Best Buy spokesman Matt Furman said in an email. "We believe in employee flexibility but are looking for it to come in the context of a conversation between that employee and their manager."

Best Buy's terminated program, called Results Only Work Environment (ROWE), was enacted in 2005 to great fanfare. It drew praise from flexible-schedule advocates and garnered a BusinessWeek cover story the following year.

But, like Yahoo (YHOO, Fortune 500), Best Buy has since fallen on hard times, and the company recently brought in a new CEO. The big-box retailer has struggled to compete in a market increasingly dominated by online stores like Amazon (AMZN, Fortune 500), and ROWE didn't fit into the company's turnaround plans.

"In the context of a business transformation, it makes sense to consider not just what the results are but how the work gets done," Furman said. "It's 'all hands on deck' at Best Buy, and that means having employees in the office as much as possible to collaborate and connect on ways to improve our business."

It's yet another blow to teleworking. Debates over the merits and drawbacks of working from home raged last week after Mayer ended telecommuting at Yahoo.

 

[apsmith21]

I worry that this will become a trend with a large amount of companies...people can slack off anywhere, and to believe that one needs to have your butt in a seat for 8 hours is frankly a pretty antiquated notion.

Maybe Best Buy should be focusing on why they are losing business - partly due to their poor customer service and their inability to convey a consistent message & mission to their employees.

 

[Wreck]

They lose my business as I'm so sick and tired of being harassed in the blu-ray section 3x per visit about trying to sell me directTV. I only go in store when I have to ... tho I have no problem purchasing online from Best Buy as overall I do like Best Buy.

 

[digitalbabe]

Yeah, definitely with you guys there...sometimes they have nice exclusives, but they just seem so lost, where the 'big picture' is concerned about customer service, and their overall retail strategy. I really prefer if we still had numerous options to shop, because otherwise there is no reason to have 'exclusives' or price competition. As far as the telecommuting issue, Yahoo started a downward drama a few days ago, so now of course they're all looking at this harder. The 'forward' trend was to allow flexibility to employees in numerous ways, including scheduling and location. While some legacy systems or other things unique to certain companies cannot be accessed remotely (usually by their choice), this backward move to binding people to a physical location to claim higher rates in productivity, or whatever, seems...well, backward in our world of 24-7 access and our ability to 'be anywhere' given technology.

 

[Horhay]

In my last company they hated when I stayed home and worked, because they couldn't physically see me. I was probably less productive in the office than outside lol

In my current company I work from home often, it's not frowned upon. I am very productive so unless my productivity lowers I doubt it will be an issue.

They should really look into why they aren't being very successful, the real reasons, not just what they assume it's an issue.

 

[adrenaline78]

When Circuit City went Kaput, it was Best Buy's time to shine. Instead they didn't change their ways either. I just wish people would realize this a bit more, and not shop there. I now ONLY buy from there when,

1) exclusive release(steelbook or whatever)
2) AMAZING DEAL.. and I'm talking about a deal that Amazon or target won't match.

The last time I was in a best buy, was the upgrade and save event, which I went looking for the steelbooks that were on sale for 10$(so would have been out the door for 5$). I didn't find them.

The previous time was the Nemo viva case. (or Brave, can't recall which was most recent)

The next time. Probably when Zero Dark Thirty comes out.


I am never buying a big ticket item from BestBuy as I don't think they will do the right thing if something happens to it.

 

[Sixteenvolt420]

I can't even tell you the last time i went to Best Buy, there's really no point. Everytime they have an exclusive steelbook, my store is either immediately sold out, or all that is left are ones that are damaged all to hell. Pretty much the only way i get BB steels anymore, is if somebody on here picks up an extra. Amazon gets probably about 80-85% of my money spent on games and blu-rays and such.

 

[blumaster]

They lose my business as I'm so sick and tired of being harassed in the blu-ray section 3x per visit about trying to sell me directTV. I only go in store when I have to ... tho I have no problem purchasing online from Best Buy as overall I do like Best Buy.

when they come up to me I like to hit them with a pre-emptive "have you seen what we have going on today?" I love Best Buy & buy nearly all of my blu's from them, but the DirectTV sales people really do get on my nerves.