The problem is many of the remote employees were the truly valuable ones. Talented engineers get spooked pretty quickly and a flexible work schedule is a very good reason to stick it out at a struggling large company. The more of those reasons you take away the more you'll find yourself with less desirable engineers.
Definitely - I don't think this was a good decision.
The only reason it might have looked good enough to take is that axing remote at a stroke gets pretty much everyone, good and bad. I suppose a few young/single/unemployable people might move to the office, but my memory was that Yahoo lost most everyone who was remote.
That's marginally better than the usual "make the workplace intolerable" option, where you lose exclusively the good. Of course, it's still much less good than actual dismissals, where you (hopefully) keep the good engineers in particular.
At my company, we only approve remote employees who are proven to be dependable and self-directed. usually senior hires who are willing to take paycut because they want to live where their spouse can work or care for family/kids.
Not just engineers. sales and ops folks who are close to clients/vendor offices are also prime for remote work.
