In the wake of the controversial order by Yahoo Inc. CEO Marissa Mayer, Comverse Inc. (Nasdaq: CNSI) has also banned employees from working at home and told them to come to the office.
An email sent to employees yesterday by the senior vice president human resources said:
Dear Colleagues,
Working together as a team is key to our success. Teamwork, a core Comverse value, is defined as the process of working collaboratively with a group of people in order to achieve a goal. As we build our culture of teamwork and collaboration, we need you to participate.
We’re finding that a number of employees are not coming regularly to the offices. Comverse team members are required to perform their roles in local Comverse offices. It’s important to connect with your colleagues and managers. Face-time is vital; it helps build trust. Being together enables us to interact, bounce ideas off each other and fosters a spirit of collaboration.
For existing employees who are not within reasonable commuting distance to a Comverse office, there will be no change in your work arrangement. All others will be expected to work in the local office when not traveling, meeting customers or working at customer sites. We are updating our policies to reflect this. Working at home on an exceptional basis (after overnight travel, for example), can be approved by the manager. Any other arrangements to work away from the office need to be approved by the SVP of the group and ultimately by the SVP of Human Resources.
We understand this decision goes against what some other companies allow. We believe this decision is right for Comverse as we position the company for future growth and profitability. We are not alone in this decision. Yahoo recently announced the suspension of their work from home practice. Bank of America restricted work from home and American Airlines doesn’t allow the practice.
Together we can do something very special but we need to execute. I appreciate everyone’s efforts to drive our results in 2013 and to build a great company together.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on March 5, 2013
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