{"id":7468,"date":"2020-07-14T18:20:23","date_gmt":"2020-07-14T18:20:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/small-business\/blog\/?p=7468"},"modified":"2025-07-03T04:20:34","modified_gmt":"2025-07-03T11:20:34","slug":"work-from-home-cancelled-lessons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/us\/en\/blog\/work-from-home-cancelled-lessons\/","title":{"rendered":"WFH fails: why these 5 companies cancelled remote work"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As management scholar and author of the book, <i>How the Mighty Fall: and why Some Companies Never Give In,<\/i> Jim Collins, says, it\u2019s dangerous to study success.<sup>1<\/sup> Why? Because success stories are often told in hindsight with a clarity that the characters didn\u2019t actually have while going through their journeys. They do inspire a sense of possibility and maybe even enthusiasm in the reader, but tell only half the story.<\/p>\n<p>So, we\u2019ve rounded up a list of companies\u2014some well-publicized, some not so much\u2014that have gone back on their WFH policies. Some of the reasons are predictable, and maybe you\u2019ve probably heard them before. But some might surprise you.<\/p>\n<p>In this post, we\u2019ll cover five companies that cancelled remote working\u2014and what we can learn from them:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"table-of-content\">\n<li><a href=\"Remove work isn\u2019t for everyone\">StatusPage: Remote work isn\u2019t for everyone<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"Innovation\">Yahoo: Less innovation<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"Accountability\">Best Buy: &#8220;Too much freedom&#8221;<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"Work from home became slack off from home\">RLM Public Relations: Work from home became slack off from home<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"Coordination\">Reddit: Lack of coordination<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p class=\"p1\">Want to empower your team to work from anywhere successfully? Grab this free Work-from-Home (-or-Anywhere) Policy template!<\/p>\n<div class=\"download-form-widget standart-download-form\" data-url=\"http:\/\/netstorage.ringcentral.com\/terms&amp;conditions\/general_remote_work_policy.pdf\" data-id=\"69e1fa749377b\" id=\"69e1fa749377b\">\n\t\t<button tabindex=\"on\"  on=\"tap:69e1fa749377b.toggleClass(class='open')\" class=\"open-modal-download-action download-form-button\" type=\"submit\">\u2705 Get the template<\/button><\/p>\n<div class=\"download-form-modal\">\n<div class=\"download-form-modal-body\">\n<div class=\"download-form-modal-content\">\n<div class=\"download-form-modal-title\">\ud83c\udf0e Get your team ready to work from anywhere outside the office<\/div>\n<form class=\"download-form SMB\" method=\"post\">\n<div class=\"download-form-part\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<input class=\"download-form-input\" aria-label=\"Full Name\" aria-required=\"true\" aria-invalid=\"false\" type=\"text\" name=\"fullname\" placeholder=\"Full Name\" data-dl-events-hover=\"true\" data-dl-element=\"text\" data-dl-additional-info=\"download form\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<div class=\"download-form-part\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<input class=\"download-form-input\" aria-label=\"Email (please enter a work email address)\" aria-required=\"true\" aria-invalid=\"false\" type=\"email\" autocomplete=\"on\" name=\"email\" placeholder=\"Email (please enter a work email address)\" data-dl-events-hover=\"true\" data-dl-element=\"email\" data-dl-additional-info=\"download form\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"popup_form\" value=\"1\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"Lead_Entry_Source__c\" value=\"RC Blog\" class=\"download-form-input\"\/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<div class=\"download-form-part\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<button class=\"download-form-submit\" type=\"submit\" data-dl-element=\"button\" data-no-auto-dl=\"true\" data-dl-additional-info=\"download form\" data-dl-name=\"Get it now\">Get it now<\/button>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/form>\n<p> \t\t\t\t\t<button on=\"tap:69e1fa749377b.toggleClass(class='open')\" role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\"  class=\"download-form-modal-close\"><\/button>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<div class=\"download-form-modal-thank\">Thanks! Enjoy the freedom of working from anywhere. \ud83d\ude42<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<hr \/>\n<p><a name=\"StatusPage: Remove work isn\u2019t for everyone\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h2>1. StatusPage: Remote work isn\u2019t for everyone<\/h2>\n<p>The fundamental determining factor of remote work success is whether your leadership and workforce are mentally (and practically) prepared for it.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s face it. Working from home requires people to muster a sense of self-discipline and endurance for loneliness.<\/p>\n<p>With the team at StatusPage\u2014acquired by the same company that made Trello (which ironically powers many remote teams around the world)\u2014neither the leaders nor the team felt that remote work was serving their creativity or the way they naturally communicated.<\/p>\n<p>A couple of years ago, co-founder Steven Klein wrote on Reddit<sup>2<\/sup>: \u201c\u2026 some people just aren&#8217;t wired for working remotely\u2026 For people who are used to and need to be around people to be happy, this can be an enormous problem. To be honest, I haven&#8217;t been myself and I haven&#8217;t truly been happy since leaving [his previous job], and I feel like it&#8217;s due to the isolation of working remotely.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For Klein, technology and even the freedom to work out of coffeeshops were \u201cpoor replacements for normal human interaction.\u201d<sup>3<\/sup><\/p>\n<p>Soon after this post, the company consolidated its team into two locations and ceased to be a fully remote company altogether.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ringcentral.valuestoryapp.com\/remote-readiness\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-48171\" src=\"\/us\/en\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Remote-work.png\" alt=\"remote work readiness quiz\" width=\"1000\" height=\"440\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h3>What we can learn<\/h3>\n<p>Make sure to evaluate prospective hires rigorously for their suitability for working from home, and provide training to managers and employees to help them develop the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/small-business\/blog\/skills-for-working-remotely\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">necessary skills for remote work.<\/a> Are they independent workers and self-starters? Do they have good <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/small-business\/blog\/communication-techniques\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">communication techniques<\/a>? Do they have experience freelancing or working remotely in previous jobs? Ask<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/us\/en\/blog\/7-questions-to-ask-when-hiring-remote-employees\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> the right questions<\/a>!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/remote-work-playbook.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-7470 size-medium\" src=\"\/us\/en\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/image1-219-695x247.png\" alt=\"Remote Work Playbook\" width=\"695\" height=\"247\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<a name=\"Yahoo: Innovation\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h2>2. Yahoo!: Less innovation<\/h2>\n<p>Yahoo! was floundering when it suddenly withdrew its remote work policy in 2013, upheaving the lives of several hundred employees who were working from home full time. The situation was so bad that they were told to comply without exception\u2014or quit.<sup>4<\/sup><\/p>\n<p>The internal memo by the then head of Human Resources, Jackie Reses, was leaked and made public, revealing (to put it mildly) a ham-fisted, disastrous decision, and an even worse memo. \u201cSpeed and quality are often sacrificed when we work from home,\u201d the memo read. \u201cAnd, for the rest of us who occasionally have to stay home for the cable guy, please use your best judgment in the spirit of collaboration.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The memo was revealing of a severe erosion of trust in employees, which in itself is a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/small-business\/blog\/keep-remote-employees-engaged\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">killer of employee engagement, remote or not<\/a>. Employees also anonymously reported that there was \u201clittle effort to stay in touch regularly.\u201d<sup>5<\/sup><\/p>\n<p>In other words, Yahoo! didn\u2019t have a handle on its communication and collaboration with remote employees. It also wasn\u2019t clear whether they had a method of measuring these new <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/small-business\/blog\/productivity-metrics\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">productivity metrics<\/a> either.<\/p>\n<p>Technically, things didn\u2019t really improve at Yahoo! after that.<sup>6<\/sup> So was remote work really to blame? We\u2019ll never know.<\/p>\n<h3>What we can learn<\/h3>\n<p>A remote company just can\u2019t thrive without communication. Besides being the foundation of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/small-business\/blog\/effective-teamwork\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">effective teamwork<\/a>, communication also builds trust and empathy between employees and leaders. (Speaking of which, here are a few <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/small-business\/blog\/virtual-team-building-activities\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">virtual team building activities<\/a> to try.)<\/p>\n<p>To avoid running into the problems Yahoo! faced, invest in a good <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/small-business\/blog\/collaboration-hub\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">collaboration hub<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/small-business\/blog\/communication-tools\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">communication tool<\/a> like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">RingCentral<\/a> that\u2019ll take care of your communication among company members and customers alike.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/remote-readiness\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-45676\" src=\"\/us\/en\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Banner-Image-for-Blog-Promo.png\" alt=\"Remote Readiness CTA\" width=\"695\" height=\"247\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a name=\"Best Buy: Accountability\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h2>3. Best Buy: &#8220;Too much freedom&#8221;<\/h2>\n<p>One interesting thing about Best Buy is that it didn\u2019t call remote work \u201cremote work.\u201d It called it a \u201cResults-Oriented Work Environment (ROWE).\u201d The focus is on the productivity and accomplishments of the employee and not their location or the number of hours they took. This program began in 2004.<\/p>\n<p>Nine years later, Best Buy ended ROWE, saying it gave the employees \u201ctoo much freedom.\u201d Its then CEO, Hubert Joly, reportedly said that ROWE was fundamentally flawed from a leadership standpoint and that he wanted to restore accountability to the culture at Best Buy.<sup>7<\/sup> <sup>8<\/sup><\/p>\n<p>Much like Yahoo!, Best Buy was also struggling at the time and stated that it needed \u201call hands on deck.\u201d It was a huge blow to remote working in general, considering that Best Buy\u2019s ROWE was widely lauded and the subject of many case studies.<\/p>\n<h3>What we can learn<\/h3>\n<p>Best Buy was facing serious leadership and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/small-business\/blog\/keeping-a-remote-team-accountable\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">accountability issues<\/a>\u2014that would have been far harder to resolve than simply shutting a program like ROWE.<\/p>\n<p>Had there been stronger leadership and commitment to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/small-business\/blog\/improving-employee-morale\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">improving employee morale<\/a> and happiness, it wouldn\u2019t have been too hard to revive productivity considering Best Buy\u2019s positive history with remote work.<\/p>\n<div class=\"tip\">\n<div class=\"tip-heading\"><b>Pro-tip: <\/b><\/div>\n<p>Learn about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/small-business\/blog\/time-management-techniques-for-remote-work\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">time management tips for remote workers<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a name=\"RLM Public Relations: Work from home became slack off from home\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h2>4. RLM Public Relations: Work from home became slack off from home<\/h2>\n<p>RLM Public Relations tried allowing its employees to work from home on Fridays, and it wasn\u2019t long before CEO Richard Laermer began to regret it. Employees seemed to treat it like paid time off and would sometimes be away from the city and unavailable for emergency requests to come to the office during work hours. Response times slowed considerably and much like the team at StatusPage, he felt remote work wasn\u2019t for him or his team.<\/p>\n<p>His reasons are well-documented in an article he penned for NBC News.<sup>9<\/sup> \u201cEvery weekend became a three-day holiday,\u201d he\u2019s quoted saying in the <i>New York Times<\/i>. \u201cI found that people work so much better when they\u2019re all in the same physical space.\u201d<sup>10<\/sup><\/p>\n<h3>What we can learn<\/h3>\n<p>Most of the problems Laermer described in his article are ones that could easily have been avoided with a solid <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/small-business\/blog\/how-to-create-wfh-policy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">work-from-home policy<\/a> that set the rules for communication and collaboration in stone, even if employees were working from home just once a week.<br \/>\n<a name=\"Reddit: Coordination\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h2>5. Reddit: Lack of coordination<\/h2>\n<p>It was quite ironic that Reddit, which brings together people from all over the world, decided to do away with remote work two years after deciding to become a distributed organization.<\/p>\n<p>It gave employees just two months to relocate to their office in San Francisco after the announcement was made.<sup>11<\/sup> All this, after extensive time spent on learning from distributed companies and trying to adopt the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/small-business\/blog\/best-video-conferencing-for-small-businesses\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">best video conferencing<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/small-business\/blog\/remote-working-tools\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">remote working tools<\/a>. Speaking of which, here&#8217;s a quick clip from our Remote Work Masterclass on the best remote work tools:<\/p>\n<p><iframe sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-presentation\" title=\"Remote Work Masterclass - ep02\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/402660790?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" sandbox=\"allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-presentation\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>CEO Yishan Wong wrote on Quora \u201cAs it turns out, our teams (within each office) and remote workers did good work, but the separation has kept us from effectively being able to coordinate as well as we needed to on a full-company level. Big efforts that require quick action, deep understanding, and efficient coordination between people at multiple offices just don&#8217;t go as well as we (and our users) needed.\u201d<sup>12<\/sup><\/p>\n<p>While Reddit remained productive in teams, Wong claimed that overall collaboration suffered. \u201cThere were too many times when we just needed to be able to walk over and tap someone on the shoulder and discuss a complex issue in-depth, right away.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"tip\">\n<div class=\"tip-heading\"><b>Pro-tip: <\/b><\/div>\n<p>Learn <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/small-business\/blog\/running-a-productive-remote-team\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">how to run a productive remote team<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h3>What we can learn<\/h3>\n<p>It\u2019s always tough to replicate the kind of instantaneous feedback and chemistry of brainstorming in a room together with a team, or bouncing ideas off one another during a casual stroll by a colleague\u2019s cubicle.<\/p>\n<p>This is why some companies with completely remote workforces like Automattic organize at least one or two meetups a year, which are filled with both leisure and work.<\/p>\n<h2>The price companies pay for canceling remote work policies<\/h2>\n<p>Working from home isn\u2019t right for everyone and certainly doesn\u2019t have to be for you. But know that ending a remote work policy comes at a price. In almost all of the companies that revoked remote work, employees were left extremely upset. Whether the companies managed to turn things around or not, they created problems for their human resources teams that\u2019ll take time to resolve.<\/p>\n<p>To finish off with another quote by Jim Collins, \u201c\u2026 Building a great company is not primarily a matter of circumstance, it\u2019s a matter of choice and discipline.\u201d We\u2019d say that it\u2019s the same with going remote.<\/p>\n<p>It has its benefits, and in most cases, is worth trying it out. But it\u2019s not a matter of \u201ceither it works or it doesn\u2019t.\u201d Sometimes it takes a few adjustments and maybe the introduction of new tools and processes to really smooth things over. Ultimately, it\u2019s up to those at the helm to commit to the decision with the intention of seeing success. Are you ready to commit to remote work?<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<div style=\"font-size: 14px;\">\n<p><sup>1<\/sup> smartcompany.com.au\/people-human-resources\/leadership\/jim-collins-12-steps-to-taking-your-business-from-good-to-great-eloise-keating<\/p>\n<p><sup>2<\/sup> reddit.com\/r\/startups\/comments\/2yxn43\/we_tried_building_a_remote_team_and_it_sucked\/<\/p>\n<p><sup>3<\/sup> reddit.com\/r\/startups\/comments\/2yxn43\/we_tried_building_a_remote_team_and_it_sucked\/<\/p>\n<p><sup>4<\/sup> allthingsd.com\/20130222\/physically-together-heres-the-internal-yahoo-no-work-from-home-memo-which-extends-beyond-remote-workers\/<\/p>\n<p><sup>5<\/sup> acorn.work\/why-did-leaders-in-remote-work-curtail-the-practice\/<\/p>\n<p><sup>6<\/sup> distantjob.com\/blog\/yeah-but-yahoo-learning-from-remote-works-biggest-fail\/<\/p>\n<p><sup>7<\/sup> businessinsider.in\/strategy\/THE-END-OF-WORKING-FROM-HOME-Best-Buy-Kills-Flexible-Work-Program\/articleshow\/21291505.cms<\/p>\n<p><sup>8<\/sup> businessinsider.in\/retail\/big-box\/Best-Buy-CEO-You-Need-To-Feel-Dispensable-As-Opposed-To-Indispensable\/articleshow\/21024011.cms<\/p>\n<p><sup>9<\/sup> nbcnews.com\/think\/opinion\/i-let-my-staff-work-home-then-realized-it-wasn-ncna814751<\/p>\n<p><sup>10<\/sup> nytimes.com\/2020\/06\/29\/technology\/working-from-home-failure.html<\/p>\n<p><sup>11<\/sup> fastcompany.com\/3036660\/reddit-gives-remote-employees-until-end-of-year-to-relocate-to-san-francisco<\/p>\n<p><sup>12<\/sup> quora.com\/Is-Reddit-closing-their-NYC-and-Salt-Lake-City-offices-They-have-asked-all-remote-workers-to-decide-by-the-end-of-2014-if-they-want-to-move-to-San-Francisco-or-leave-the-company?share=1<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As management scholar and author of the book, How the Mighty Fall: and why Some Companies Never Give In, Jim Collins, says, it\u2019s dangerous to study success.1 Why? Because success stories are often told in hindsight with a clarity that the characters didn\u2019t actually have while going through their journeys. They do inspire a sense &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":42735,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17901],"tags":[18351,356,18353],"class_list":["post-7468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-leadership","tag-distributed-team-pitfalls","tag-remote-work","tag-wfh-fails"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v19.3 (Yoast SEO v27.2) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>WFH fails: why these 5 companies cancelled remote work<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Working from home is all the rage. Right? Well, not exactly. Here are some companies that actually stopped working remotely\u2014and what we can learn.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/us\/en\/blog\/work-from-home-cancelled-lessons\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"WFH fails: why these 5 companies cancelled remote work\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Working from home is all the rage. Right? Well, not exactly. 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