Yahoo-ing to work

So the internet has been up in arms about Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer’s diktat to her employees to report to office for work or presumably quit their jobs if they couldn't do so. Working from home is no longer an option. Given how Yahoo has been doing the past few years, it is pretty obvious that ‘work’ isn't the only thing happening at home. But dear Yahoo employees. Worry not! As you grumble your way to work on a Monday morning, here are a few things to look forward to which you probably wouldn't get sitting at home:

1.The free coffee
Cups and cups of it. Considering that coffee is almost half the monthly budget as a student, free coffee is second only to free food. Additionally, the 3 feet between the coffee machine and the sugar stack has probably replaced the water cooler as the best place to swap gossip about your boss. Which when you have a boss like Marissa Mayer, might not necessarily be a bad thing!

2.The joy of the best parking spot
Big companies, lots of people (duh!). Lots of people, lots of cars. And what can be a better start to the day, than to find a parking spot right next to the door. The joyous realization that you don’t have to negotiate 10 minutes through the ice (or heat) to that damned entrance which seems to be at the other end of the world otherwise. Surely a day can’t get too bad when the first omens in the morning are so encouraging. The feeling is second only to the one when you head out for lunch and then come back and grab someone else’s ‘prime location’. Accomplishment!

3.Switching off and still working
The overly long staff and status meetings. You stand up, do your 5 minutes and then for the remaining 55, you try to fight off drowsiness as you listen to people who you would have no interaction with otherwise, trying to peacock their way into the boss’s good books. Aided by that ubiquitous cup of coffee of course. But here is the best part. Those 55 minutes when you sit and contemplate your plans for world domination if you weren’t encumbered by the trappings of office, still count towards the 8 hours of work!

4.The co-worker who can always be heard
Now there are several people who have become used to the home space and might have difficulty finding their way around the big office in their first few days. So if you get lost sometimes, there is a quick fix. There will always be one person who can be heard from any corner of the office. Locate that voice, set your bearings and home in on that location. And voila! You are in familiar territory again. If you are particularly poor at negotiating directions, there is tremendous satisfaction to be gained from finding your seat without losing yourself atleast twice in a big office!

5.The quirky co-worker
Mayer might have touched on this when she said, that working from home doesn’t encourage collaborations with other co-workers. But there is more to it than meets the eye. More than collaborating, the quirky co-workers will make the workplace a really fun place to be. The chatty one who will always want to know what you did on the weekend till Wednesday and then grill you on your plans for the weekend on Thursday and Friday. The one who exists to eat and will drag you to every restaurant within a 15 minute radius for lunch. The sleepy one who can be found taking a snooze behind his screen once a day. The flustered one who is permanently busy and is forever running around complaining that 24 hours are not enough in a day. They make work a fun place to be! Even the weary one who has been waiting to quit for a lucrative job for the last 20 years.

So all you Yahoo-ites or Yahoo-ers or whatever you call yourselves, get out of that house and head back to office. There is much to look forward to!