According to a recent Newsday article, Yahoo Inc. has implemented a telecommuting policy, which bans its employees from working remotely. The reasoning behind this new policy is to encourage innovation with “side-by-side” communication and collaboration among employees.

Mark Fasciano, co-founder and chairman of Karma411 and managing director of Canrock Ventures, thinks that Yahoo made the right decision. “For entrepreneurial innovation teams, there is simply no substitute for physically being close to your teammates,” he said. “Ninety percent of the trust and progress a team makes happens in the informal interactions at desks, water coolers, coffee breaks, pizza parties.”

Heads of other Long Island based companies had differing views. Louis Basso, who heads Alcott HR Group, believes that telecommuting is an effective, short-term solution to scheduling problems when employees have to deal with personal matters. Adrienne Giannone, head of Edge Electronics, believes that productivity is better with telecommuters.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, approximately 21 percent of employed people did some or all of their work at home in 2011. This number is even higher for college-educated workers. Although Telecommuting continues to be a big part of American worklife, Fasciano believes that the scope of telecommuting has morphed into a one-size-fits-all perk.

“Telecommuting to accommodate workers’ flexibility somehow went from once-in-a-while to the norm, said Fasciano. “And while it may work for some big companies, it definitely doesn’t work for building new products to market.”