Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer's bans telecommuting
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Anonymous
What's your point? So, SHE gets to build an on-site nursery next to her office, but none of the other women at her company can do this??? And then she bans telecommuting at the same time. Wow. |
Anonymous
| Is there an on-site nursery or daycare at Yahoo! already? Maybe she could have built one and put her baby there, making it seem more egalitarian. That and meritocracy are big amongst liberal techies? |
Anonymous
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I get to telecommute 3 days a week because of my type of job. I'm the only one in my office that does this, but I'm also paid commission so my pay is directly effected by the actual # of hours I work. I'm basically freelance as opposed to the rest of the office-based employees.
It's so ironic because the days I do go in to the office are mostly a complete waste of time. I watch the other employees spend the morning over coffee and emails and catching up on what everyone did the night before. Then by around 10:30 they all start the big what are we doing for lunch debate, then lunch, then a few productive hours of emails/calls/meetings, then about an hour before they all leave they start discussing their evenings, plans, shows, etc Very little actual work gets done within the building. When I work from home, sure I end up running a few errands here and there, or throw dinner in the crock pot or oven, but my overall amount of actual work getting done is way higher without the outside distractions |
Anonymous
Actually, I dont get YOUR point. Yes and Yes - she is the CEO grow the fuck up. the workplace is based on a heirarchy, if everyone were equal then we should all be paid the same?? WHAT'S YOUR POINT? |
Anonymous
Maybe it's time for you to turn off the computer and take a nice, calm walk? Or actually to to Nordstrom's yourself and take a few deep breaths? 
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Anonymous
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From today's Boston Globe:
LET’S SET aside last week’s fury over telecommuting. Telecommuting is fine. It is widely accepted and often useful and in no danger of disappearing from the corporate landscape, regardless of what anyone working at Yahoo has to do. The real problem with the tech giant’s human-resources bombshell last week — the pronouncement that employees will no longer be allowed to work from home, except when they briefly need to wait for the cable guy — is that it insults so many people’s intelligence. Insult one: Assuming that a major personnel decision, in a major US company, won’t get attention (or not caring if it does). Insult two: Thinking no one will smell hypocrisy from a new-mom CEO who built a nursery next to her office. Insult three: Hewing to an all-or-nothing paradigm that hasn’t been relevant for years. It’s not that Yahoo’s new policy is completely wrong. Human contact can be good for the company and the psyche. And it’s quite likely that some workers were abusing their work-from-home privileges. Respecting people’s intelligence cuts both ways. But does Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer — who took her post last summer while pregnant and bloated with symbolism — really believe that no one can ever work from home, or be trusted with a flexible schedule? Does she really see herself as the only model of success? The new policy does seem modeled, in part, on Mayer’s own work-life experience. “For me, work is fun, and fun is work,” she said in an interview for the PBS documentary “Makers: The Women Who Make America,” and to some degree, that’s the ideal. As Betty Friedan wrote in “The Feminine Mystique” — the book that turned 50 last month — meaningful work can be its own reward, though the paycheck is useful, too. But Friedan was writing at a time when women were expected to get 100 percent of their fulfillment from vacuuming and making sure their husbands felt relaxed when they got home from the office. A half-century later, Mayer hews to the opposite extreme. In a number of interviews, she's outlined her theories of work-life balance, which have to do with embedding yourself in work, then choosing one thing that helps you recharge: A night off every week to have dinner with friends, or a chance to travel every few months. If that works for Mayer, good for her. It might fit in with the ethos of Silicon Valley, or the ethos of the hungry career climber. (I remember the one-upsmanship between friends when we were just out of college. “I worked 80 hours last week.” “Oh, really? I worked 95, and then I dog-sat for my boss.”) Immersion can move you up the ladder, or earn you the right to ask for flexibility in the future. But immersion is hardly the only recipe for productivity. And an immersive job like Mayer’s, with its the obvious perks, isn’t the only definition of fulfillment — despite what we’re currently hearing from the self-appointed gurus of female career advancement. Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook wants women to “lean in.” Anne-Marie Slaughter of Princeton laments that she couldn’t have a demanding government job with teenagers in another state. To the extent that these women want to be mentors, great. But the truth is that most women — and men — are quite willing to accept tradeoffs. Ramping down from the fast-track to take care of kids or engage in some other pursuit might mean you don’t become the CEO, at least not yet. Being the CEO means you miss out on seeing your family sometimes. Someday, even Mayer’s kid will no longer be contained in a room next to her office. Mayer may be fine with that. (Or, she may figure she’ll be long gone from Yahoo by then.) But her recipe can’t possibly work for everyone. What women need is the tools, and respect, to make career choices for themselves. That’s hardly a secret. So why is it that the corporate top-achievers — so accomplished, so intelligent — seem to be the last to know? |
Anonymous
Not PP but she's a Gen Xer or Yer?? Hierarchy is for old people. Technology is all about access and equality. |
Anonymous
Where can one apply to work in your office? 
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Anonymous
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Because she's the CEO! She has a hugely stressful job, to turn around a failing company and make shareholders happy. When you're ready to take on that responsibility, then you too can build a nursery next to your office. So interesting how when she was first hired at Yahoo, all the DCUMers were singing her praises...so impressed by the fact that she took the job, THEN when on maternity leave....what a brave move....she was changing the direction for all women in the workplace!!! Now that she has turned the notion of WFH on it's ear, all you guys who have been taking this priveldge for granted - and you know who you are- I see you all over DC pretending to work while at Nordstrom shopping or getting your nails done - all of you feel suddenly insecure about what this means for your cushy ass job and future. I used to work in Silicon Valley for what was at the time, in 1999-2000, the biggest and hottest tech company, and on Fridays that campus was like a ghost town. everyone was WFH on Fridays. yeah, no they weren't. They were in Napa or Half Moon Bay or Santa Cruz. Its been happening for a long time, and its about time someone called a spade a spade. This is so true for many. I have a fed colleague who for some reason confides in me that when she works her three days a week from home she gets a 7 mile run in each day and then meets friends for lunch. She is proud of this and almost seems smug that she has everyone at work fooled. |
Anonymous
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Here is something I read this morning - many of you are right about those 'working' from home.
How Marissa Mayer Figured Out Work-At-Home Yahoos Were Slacking Off http://www.businessinsider.com/how-marissa-mayer-figured-out-work-at-home-yahoos-were-slacking-off-2013-3 Like a lot of companies, Yahoo has something called a Virtual Private Network or VPN. Remote workers can use it to securely log into Yahoo's network and do work. After spending months frustrated at how empty Yahoo parking lots were, Mayer consulted Yahoo's VPN logs to see if remote employees were checking in enough. Mayer discovered they were not — and her decision was made. |
Anonymous
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PP, I am a fan of telework options, and there's no way I could do my job as a single mom without workplace flexibility, but damn. The proof is in the pudding.
Work's gotta get done. What bums be out (and has been since the birth of my child) is that when folks DON'T look into what their employees are actually doing, butt-time in the seat is sometimes seen as moire valuable than work that actually gets done. |
Anonymous
Hierarchy isnt for old people. if that were true, why not hire a 25 yr old to run your company? and please dont point your finger at facebook - Im talking about real companies with real earnings and decades of performance based on providing services and goods. What you're saying is run corporations the way Obama would like to run our country - where everyone is at the same level? I bet you don't agree that everyone should be accepted to your precious Ivy!! why not let the 2.0 gpa'ers into Yale? why not?? because life is about heirarchy and earning a position or earning being accepted into a top tier school, or becoming a CEO. grow up or move to Europe where you would fit right in. |
Anonymous
Brilliant on her part. And if you think that other CEOs aren't watching what she does and getting ideas, you're wrong. Stand by for more CEOs doing away with liberal WFH policies. I think all companies should start tracking their VPN log ins AND the actual activity that comes out of those laptops. |
Anonymous
Brilliant on her part. And if you think that other CEOs aren't watching what she does and getting ideas, you're wrong. Stand by for more CEOs doing away with liberal WFH policies. I think all companies should start tracking their VPN log ins AND the actual activity that comes out of those laptops. First of all, I'm skeptical of the claim she checked VPN records, but let's say she did. A good leader puts every slacker employee on warning. One month to shape up or ship out. Then fires or demands relocation as needed. If people don't have enough to do or are mismanaged then that's a management issue. Her actions are the 'easy' way to cut back rather than address hard corporate culture issues. |
Anonymous
I am so tired of this handwringing over Mayer's decision and holding her up to a special standard because she is a mom. As CEO, her number one priority is the success of her company. She has made a business decision that there has been abuse of telework, and is ending the program. After seeing the data, she should have looked the other way and kept telework going because of the backlash she would feel? I am a lawyer and work in-house. My boss is an incredible person, feminist, and very supportive of working mothers. She will not bat an eye if you need to work from home one day here or there, or have a sick kid etc. But...we have very demanding clients and the work's gotta get done. She's not going to pull here punches when the shit hits the fan because someone is a mom. She assumes that when you've gotta get something done, you will figure it out. At the end of the day, work comes first, not feminist ideology (and I say this as a feminist). |