What do you call the process by which an employer who offered flexible work arrangements to employees for years suddenly decides to retrograde flexibility?

Unflexing.

I decided to give it a name because it seems to be a small but growing trend in Corporate America. First Bank of America announced late last year it would be scaling back its flexible work arrangements; and just last week Yahoo threw its hat in the unflexing ring by sending out a memo to employees saying telecommuting is soon to be a perk of the past.

The memo was included in an All Things D article. Here’s an excerpt:

We need to be one Yahoo!, and that starts with physically being together.
Beginning in June, we’re asking all employees with work-from-home arrangements to work in Yahoo! offices.

It’s a disturbing trend that doesn’t seem to make a lot of business sense if (more…)

We’ve all heard how commuting back and fourth to work in our gas guzzlers is killing the environment.

I’m here to tell you that retiring the car and working in your pajamas may end up killing you.

OK, maybe I’m being a bit extreme this morning. I mostly work from a home office and today both my kids are home from school because the school year ended yesterday. They start camp in a few weeks but I figured since I work from home it would be easy to have them hang out here while I do my job.

This is just one of many work-at-home delusions my friends. (more…)

A while back I did a blog post on the growing number of work-at-home scams on Twitter and I included a list of job opportunities provided by RetirementJobs.com that the website had vetted as legitimate.

Recently I’ve gotten several emails from individuals telling me one of the firms on the list is a scam. The company owner claims they’re disgruntled employees.

This situation shows how dicey the whole work-at-home phenomenon has become. (more…)

There is this warm fuzzy feeling that comes over me when the kids scream in joy after hearing school has been canceled because of snow.

It reminds me of the joy I felt when I was a kid. I would celebrate when I woke up and saw my Queens neighborhood blanketed in snow, knowing there was no way the yellow buses were going to make it through the hood.

It also reminds me of the work world pre-Internet. A blizzard often meant you’d miss a day of work, or half a day at least. And of course, that was also cause for revelry.

But no more. A snow day is just like any other day for we weary telecommuters. (more…)