There’s been a lot of discussion lately about Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer’s decision to cut off employee’s current work from home arrangements. While most of the talk is condemning her action, there are some who agree with it – including Yahoo! employees.

The big issue with this sort of change is that many don’t consider it a luxury to work from home – they accepted the position under the impression that they would be able to work remotely – either because they don’t live near a Yahoo! office, because they are working parents, or any other variety of reasons. Makes sense they’d be peeved.

However, some people were abusing the privilege. Marissa found that remote employees were slacking off by consulting the VPN logs and made the decision based on cold, hard data. She’s under a lot of pressure to turn the company around, and believed that this decision was necessary for the good of the company.

Sure, she could have just fired those found to be abusing the system, but it goes further than that – she wants to take this opportunity to create a more communicative and collaborative culture.

To quote the memo, “To become the absolute best place to work, communication and collaboration will be important, so we need to be working side-by-side. That is why it is critical that we are all present in our offices. Some of the best decisions and insights come from hallway and cafeteria discussions, meeting new people, and impromptu team meetings. Speed and quality are often sacrificed when we work from home. We need to be one Yahoo!, and that starts with physically being together.”

Marissa didn’t have the luxury of setting these expectations from the beginning, but she is now tasked with making changes that will turn the company around – and she believes this this change in culture is part of the solution. As the CEO, she is responsible for ensuring that Yahoo! attracts and retains the employees that fit in with the culture and expectations to ensure the continued growth and success of the company.

Those that don’t fit in with this culture are encouraged to find one at another company that will be a better fit. In the wrong environment, a person's talents and abilities won't be fully utilized. A person that prefers to work alone cannot, and will not, flourish in a collaborative culture - which brings them, their team, and, potentially, the entire company down.

Marissa knows that the company culture affects the kinds of candidates Yahoo! will attract, and is making the necessary changes now to ensure that she gets the right people into the organization.