Earlier today, CBS This Morning (video clip not yet available) mentioned that Mayer had viewed remote workers’ VPN usage, only to discover that employees were not using the virtual private network when and as often as they should be. If true, this would sound alarm bells for any executive, especially one at the helm of a company facing as many challenges as Yahoo does today.

This furthers my belief that telecommuting isn’t the core issue, but rather effective management of the remote workforce. Right now I’m sure everyone at Yahoo is under Mayer’s microscope, including the managers who have done a particularly poor job of handling telecommuting employees.

It may also save Yahoo money to make it unpleasant enough for these workers to quit rather than offer them severance.