Telecommuting: Was Yahoo doing it right?

NEW YORK (AP) - Yahoo's leaked edict calling remote workers back to the office lit the Twitterverse on fire -- angering advocates of telecommuting and other programs intended to balance work and home life.

The move comes as a new study from the nonprofit Families and Work Institute shows a tide moving the other way, with more workers now telecommuting, and men much more likely than women to be granted the freedom to work at least partially at home.

One telework supporter says chances are, the tech giant just wasn't doing it right. Kate Lister of California-based Global Workplace Analytics says if the company doesn't know what its people are doing, then it hasn't implemented policy properly.

The leaked Yahoo memo, written by the company's human resources director, suggested face time could result in better insight and decisions. But researchers in the field say there's a lack of credible study confirming any boost in creative flow from face time.