Via Slashdot, the San Jose Mercury News is reporting that HP is canceling telecommuting for its IT employees. This move seems to be about efficiency, teamwork and “HP's determination to free itself from what new executives view as cumbersome costs and an outdated corporate culture.â€
The architect of the HP division's change, Randy Mott, is regarded by Wall Street as a mastermind of operational efficiency based on his days as chief information officer at Wal-Mart Stores and Dell. Since joining HP as CIO in July, Mott's philosophy on building a strong IT workforce starkly contrasts with that of competitors, who encourage telecommuting to retain skilled workers who desire better work/life balance.
Mott said by bringing IT employees together to work as teams in offices, the less-experienced employees who aren't performing well -- which there are "a lot of" -- can learn how to work more effectively.
The really ugly part is that, according to the SJMN, the thousands of HP IT workers around the globe must be working in one of 25 designated offices during most of the week – by August. Those who don't will be out of work without severance pay, according to several employees affected by the changes.
The SJMN article doesn’t give many details, but since the IT division is the only affected by this mandate, I bet this is more about bottom line issues -– like office consolidation, or workforce reduction (via this kind of “attritionâ€) -- than reining in work at home slackers.
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