Marissa Mayer, the chief executive of Yahoo!, has expanded on her decision to cancel the company's work from home policy.

Speaking during a keynote speech at the Great Place to Work conference, Ms Mayer reportedly hinted that the decision could actually have weakened productivity. CNN reported her as saying: “People are more productive when they're alone.”

However, she added that people are “more collaborative and innovative when they're together. Some of the best ideas come from pulling two different ideas together.”

The original company memo read: “Speed and quality are often sacrificed when we work from home.”

Only a minority of the company's employees were affected by the change to its work from home policy, which means that people are now required to come into the office on a daily basis.

Businesses are divided on whether or not to allow workers the option to work from home. However, the general consensus is that at least allowing people the option to work from home on an intermittent basis helps to boost morale.