Anonymous wrote: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

Where can one apply to work in your office?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work from home 100%. There are lots of folks on our team not pulling their weight. I happen to live fairly close to our "designated meeting site" but because we are a remote team others live 60-90 miles away. If the WFH option was suddenly removed, I wouldn't have a problem with it. It is a nice perk and I absolutely work 60 hours/week but it is not a right, it's a privilege. I wish the people abusing the WFH privilege would get fired so we can get better skilled, more productive people on our team. Marissa Mayer was hired to turn around a company that is a complete mess. Tough decisions have to be made and I don't believe for a second that she hasn't thought through all of the consequences of her decision. I don't think I could work for her because she seems too driven for my taste and I'm not that kind of ambitious but you aren't a 37-yr old CEO of a Fortune 500 company without having some tiger lady qualities. Go Marissa!!!!!

Bullshit. Then why is ONLY she allowed to have a nursery built next to her office?????

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.

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.

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?

Not PP but she's a Gen Xer or Yer?? Hierarchy is for old people. Technology is all about access and equality.

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 wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work from home 100%. There are lots of folks on our team not pulling their weight. I happen to live fairly close to our "designated meeting site" but because we are a remote team others live 60-90 miles away. If the WFH option was suddenly removed, I wouldn't have a problem with it. It is a nice perk and I absolutely work 60 hours/week but it is not a right, it's a privilege. I wish the people abusing the WFH privilege would get fired so we can get better skilled, more productive people on our team. Marissa Mayer was hired to turn around a company that is a complete mess. Tough decisions have to be made and I don't believe for a second that she hasn't thought through all of the consequences of her decision. I don't think I could work for her because she seems too driven for my taste and I'm not that kind of ambitious but you aren't a 37-yr old CEO of a Fortune 500 company without having some tiger lady qualities. Go Marissa!!!!!

Bullshit. Then why is ONLY she allowed to have a nursery built next to her office?????

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.

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.

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?

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?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work from home 100%. There are lots of folks on our team not pulling their weight. I happen to live fairly close to our "designated meeting site" but because we are a remote team others live 60-90 miles away. If the WFH option was suddenly removed, I wouldn't have a problem with it. It is a nice perk and I absolutely work 60 hours/week but it is not a right, it's a privilege. I wish the people abusing the WFH privilege would get fired so we can get better skilled, more productive people on our team. Marissa Mayer was hired to turn around a company that is a complete mess. Tough decisions have to be made and I don't believe for a second that she hasn't thought through all of the consequences of her decision. I don't think I could work for her because she seems too driven for my taste and I'm not that kind of ambitious but you aren't a 37-yr old CEO of a Fortune 500 company without having some tiger lady qualities. Go Marissa!!!!!

Bullshit. Then why is ONLY she allowed to have a nursery built next to her office?????

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.

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.

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?

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

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 wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work from home 100%. There are lots of folks on our team not pulling their weight. I happen to live fairly close to our "designated meeting site" but because we are a remote team others live 60-90 miles away. If the WFH option was suddenly removed, I wouldn't have a problem with it. It is a nice perk and I absolutely work 60 hours/week but it is not a right, it's a privilege. I wish the people abusing the WFH privilege would get fired so we can get better skilled, more productive people on our team. Marissa Mayer was hired to turn around a company that is a complete mess. Tough decisions have to be made and I don't believe for a second that she hasn't thought through all of the consequences of her decision. I don't think I could work for her because she seems too driven for my taste and I'm not that kind of ambitious but you aren't a 37-yr old CEO of a Fortune 500 company without having some tiger lady qualities. Go Marissa!!!!!

Bullshit. Then why is ONLY she allowed to have a nursery built next to her office?????

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.

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.