Marissa Mayer’s announcement that all flexible arrangements at Yahoo! will end this June has been widely reported in the press recently. Ms Mayer is not the only leading business figure of late to view flexible working as a barrier, rather than a bridge, to a productive working environment. Alexandra Shulman, editor of British Vogue, agrees that this practice doesn’t provide the desired synergy within the workforce.
Does this represent a paradigm shift away from the trend of the last decade toward flexible working? For every ‘dissenter’ there is a fan of flexible working. Heather McGregor, MD of executive search firm Taylor Bennett, wrote a compelling article in the Guardian supporting flexible working. Vodafone UK’s Enterprise Director, Jeroen Hoencamp, also encourages embracing different working practices to allow employers to make significant savings and implement working arrangements wholly suited to their business needs. More…