Don’t Underestimate Mayer’s Huge Gamble at Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO)

Maybe Mayer’s decision has galvanized other companies like Best Buy to take control of their workforces in a similar way, but really, I’m more inclined to believe these are companies whose workers lost their passion a long time ago. That’s never a good sign..

More positive ways to shake up the status quo

On the face of it, Mayer’s high-profile controversial decision looks terrible. When Mayer talked about heightening “communication,” she was on the right track, but to force it by taking awa flexibility is where she lost the plot.

A better way to address real issues is to come up with real performance goals for work-from-home employees and hold them to it. Get rid of workers who truly are taking advantage of a good thing instead of helping the company move forward. Cracking the whip with across-the-board mandates is hardly productive.

Thinking differently and thinking forward builds the best companies. Mayer may have been left with a mess on her hands, but shareholders should be mighty concerned that this blanket statement on the efficiency and productivity of remote workers will actually make the company less competitive.

Meanwhile, Mayer had better have a positive and dedicated workforce to take on her former employer Google and other companies in key areas like Yahoo! search, an area she indicated is first priority in January. That’s an aggressive plan and a formidable opponent; a demoralized workforce isn’t a motivated one, so hopefully she’s got major tricks up her sleeve to make all this new office face time a value-creating initiative.

We’ll see how Mayer’s leadership works out for Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO)’s long-term health, but I doubt this decision will help matters in the least. Workers are the lifeblood of a company, and when they’re not motivated for the fight to return to health, it’s hard to recover.

The article Don’t Underestimate Mayer’s Huge Gamble at Yahoo! originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Alyce Lomax.

Alyce Lomax has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Google. The Motley Fool owns shares of Google.

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