• Wed, Feb 27 - 12:25 pm ET

Marissa Mayer & Yahoo Would Really Like Everyone To Stop Talking About Their Work-From-Home Policy

yahoo-logoMarissa Mayer and Yahoo released the briefest and snootiest of, “Please mind your own business,” statements today concerning the national outrage over their leaked work-from-home policy memo. Apparently, the international company that employs over 11,000 people doesn’t believe that anyone should care about their personal policies. I mean, after all, it’s not like Yahoo is an influential or important company, right?

All that Yahoo had to say about the controversial decision to end work-from-home arrangements, and the serious debate that has sprung up since, is this:

“This isn’t a broad industry view on working from home. This is about what is right for Yahoo right now.â€

I’m not going to pretend to know what’s right for Yahoo. I’m not running the company. It is completely possible that this once-great tech giant has gotten too disconnected and needs some serious team-building time. If that’s the case, then of course this business has every right to decide that they want all employees in the office for the foreseeable future.

That being said, Yahoo, and Marissa Mayer in particular, seem to have such an odd relationship with their place of power and influence in the business world.

On one hand, Mayer wants the attention and press that comes with being a glass-ceiling busting, barrier-breaking executive. She takes the Today Show interviews and the magazine covers. She realizes that as CEO, part of her job is to represent the company. But she doesn’t want any personal decision she makes, like taking a minuscule maternity leave, to be discussed or critiqued by the press. She doesn’t believe that it’s her job to be a role model for working mothers, even though it’s this factor of her historic appointment that’s gaining her so much press.

Now with the work-from-home debate, Yahoo wants to be seen as an industry leader, they just don’t want the scrutiny that comes with being an influential company. They say that their goal is to recruit top notch employees, but they don’t want to discuss why flexibility might be important to those employees. They want everyone to respect them as a company, they just don’t want to be involved in any discussions involving their actual workplace.

Yahoo wants to have it both ways. They want the publicity and PR from being a big, important company with an influential, groundbreaking CEO. And they want you to pretend that their actions and policies only affect their employees and shouldn’t be up for public debate.

The saddest thing is that both of the major issues that have been brought to the forefront by Mayer and Yahoo are important ones, issues that deserve our attention and vigorous debate from both sides. We shouldn’t assume that every woman wants or needs the same maternity leave, but it would be nice if we were working to ensure that every parent got to take the time he or she needs to bond with their child. Working from home is not always the Holy Grail of working parenthood and it can be seriously abused when employees are mismanaged. But job flexibility is increasingly important to households with two working parents and companies need to find thoughtful solutions to these problems.

These topics are important. And even if everyone doesn’t agree with Yahoo’s policy or Marissa Mayer’s choice, they would gain a lot more respect by attempting to have a mature conversation about the realities of the issues. Instead, they’re burying their heads in the sand. They’re proving that Yahoo will continue to be less important and influential than its competitors.

(Photo: Yahoo)

Share This Post:
Related Topics: Work Life Balance • • • •
  • chickadee

    But isn’t she also expected to take the necessary legal measures to pull the company’s chestnuts out of the fire? Did Yahoo hire her to be a female role model or because they thought she could rejuvenate the company? Is she responsible for the fact that people want to talk to her because she had a baby, and is she obligated to make her business life about her personal life? Does she refuse to give interviews because the interviewers want to talk about being a working mother and she does not?

    Maybe Yahoo’s business model is so broken that telecommuting, which perhaps used to work for Yahoo, is causing more problems than it solves. Maybe she will reinstate it when Yahoo is on firmer footing.

    The point is that you don’t know and for some reason you want to make this about mommypower. Maybe she can do more for mothers in the long run by fixing Yahoo rather than talking about how hard it is to be a mom.

  • Tinyfaeri

    I’m pretty sure both Yahoo and especially Mayer would like to think she was hired because she was thought to be the best person for the job and not just because she was pregnant or a woman. I don’t think any company, nevermind a struggling one, hires a CEO to be a female role model, or to trailblaze a new era of working mothers’ rights. Do they mind the press? No. But from a business sense they’d be stupid beyond belief to have that be the only reason they hired her. Just because she’s a female CEO and new mother does not mean she has to be all of everyone’s hopes and dreams for working mothers or working parents. Also, they’re correct that the business decisions they make for their employees regarding their ability to telecommute is no one’s business except perhaps their employees and their shareholders. I think it’s rather reasonable that, as long as a company is not breaking any labor laws (which they are not), they should want to focus more on the product or service they provide than this drama. The change you want is not going to come from one private company, it’s going to come from congress (good luck).
    And for the umpteenth time, working from home with a child is not the utopia people are making it out to be.

    • LiteBrite

      I have never worked from home because of a childcare issue. Today my son’s school and daycare was unexpectedly closed due to the weather, so DH and I split shifts: he worked in the a.m.; I went to work in the afternoon. This meant I was home with the boy for most of the a.m. Oh sure, I gave working from home the old college try. I logged on to my computer, and I was able to get a few things done before he woke up and for awhile while he watched Scooby Doo. But then he wanted breakfast. Then he needed help with his train table. Then he wanted help getting his Spiderman costume on. Then he wanted me to play Legoes with him. Then…on and on and on.

      I do get my work e-mail on my iPhone, so I was able to do a little bit that way, but it was still a choice: answer e-mails on my phone or spend time with my five-year-old. I can’t honestly call what I did this morning true “working from home.”

  • Elyse

    This article is idiotic and its arguments are both flimsy and illogical. The only thing that makes sense is when you say you don’t know how Yahoo works.

    I think you fail to understand that telecommuting is a privilege not a right. Furthermore, it is a privilege only in certain industries (in my line of work is not an option). The thing about with privileges is that when the times are tough they may be taken away or renegotiated in order to keep the company afloat and save people’s jobs.

    Besides that I think it’s really ironic that uber-feminist Mommyish does not realize that all this interest in Yahoo comes from Marissa Mayer being a woman and that no one scrutinizes the policies of Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Apple, etc. who happen to be run by men.

  • GoaG

    Yawn. Same story, different day. Is it THAT hard to be original? No wonder you work for Mommyish.

    You’re right. Ending telecommuting is totally going to keep potential employees away. Meanwhile Google, an actual industry leader, is building a brand new campus complete with amenities and limited telecommuting. But no one is clammering to work for Google. No one.

    • Once upon a time

      Tomorrow it’s Eve’s turn. Stay tuned.

  • Cee

    Working for home is the privilege, not a right of white collar jobs. Talk about this to a police officer, fire fighter, teacher, doctor, bank teller, waiter oh and I don’t know, someone in the military and they’ll roll their eyes at all this bitching going on because guess what? They are parents too and they can’t arrest a shooter in their pajamas behind a laptop. They didn’t put out a fire in the midst of spending three hours playing with their child. No, they made the sacrifice that many people have to do. In mostly any job, if your child or you are sick, you will be able to go home, take a half day, sick day. Most companies have that flexibility, but they aren’t gonna give you time so you can watch Sesame Street with your child every day. I think many blogs criticizing her and her decision are getting so defensive because are trying to defend their laziness and privilege they have of spending time with their child, doing the laundry, meeting with friends, taking a two hour lunch with their friends or walking their dog. That’s all I read about in blogs discussing the critique on Mayer. Its not “Oh telecommuting came in handy when I waited in the emergency room when my kid had a fever,” which any job would let you take off work to do. All I hear is a bunch of whiny privilege.

  • Jana

    What the hell is with the media and blog outlets trying to force some weird legacy on Marissa Mayer?

    I hate to say it, but I don’t think you’d be writing about this had it been another less “famous” woman or a child-free woman or a woman whose recent pregnancy wasn’t in the spotlight (and definitely not if it were a man). I really don’t. It’s woman on woman misogyny. Mommy-bloggers have unfortunately aided in taking (hard-earned) equality away from this woman by thrusting her into this role modely position and trying to hold her to “regular person” standards.

    Where’s the outrage over companies who incite land grabs in third world countries? Where’s the outrage over American run sweat shops? Where’s the outrage over, I don’t know, f-ing Walmart and their stellar operations? Or the companies that don’t pay their long-term interns under the guise of “it’s a learning experience getting someone coffee and reorganizing filing cabinets”? And so on until the end of time.

    Instead we have outrage directed at policy implemented to help save a company. This is mostly pathetic. I understand a lot of people need flexibility, but just as many don’t. Like chickadee said, she was hired to rejuvenate Yahoo, not serve as some mommy-goddess… a MOMSPIRATION! gag. And frankly, I don’t think you (or most bloggers commenting on this) know enough about business to criticize her moves.

  • Eileen

    I wouldn’t say she courted the press. In fact, I remember an article here that was disappointed when she turned down posing for some magazine covers while pregnant (not that that stopped them from putting her on the cover). Yeah, she speaks to the press some…because she’s the CEO and that’s her job. But it seems to me that it’s the press who wants to the spotlight to be on her status as a woman and mother, and, yeah, I do think it’s sexist.

  • Once upon a time

    Do me a favour Lindsay, next time you want to start an entry with, ‘Ad a feminist,’ just don’t, because you’re not.

    I cannot believe you’ve equated Marissa Mayers success with her ovaries. I don’t think I’ve ever been this disgusted with this site.

    • Once upon a time

      *As a feminist

  • LiteBrite

    “But job flexibility is increasingly important to households with two
    working parents and companies need to find thoughtful solutions to these
    problems.”

    I agree with the first part of your sentence. As a full-time working mother who is married to a man with a demanding career, workplace flexibility is important to me and is one of the main reasons I took the job I did, even though the commute is longer. And yes, I’m grateful for the flexibility I have.

    However, I don’t totally agree with the last part of this sentence. It’s not up to the employer to find your work/life balance; it’s up to YOU, whether you’re a parent or childfree. You may find this hard to believe, but Yahoo isn’t the only company that doesn’t offer telecommuting. Many companies do not or they only offer it to select people or groups within the company. My current employer is the only company that I’ve ever worked for that offers it for all employees (my last employer, btw, was a female and – gasp! – a mother), and even though it’s a perk for all of us, the majority of the employees, including me, are in the office the majority of the time.

    As has been mentioned – and will continued to be mentioned – workplace flexibility does not encompass only telecommuting. Yes, it’s a nice perk, but I can’t imagine a company, even Yahoo, denying a working parent the flexibility to leave early for a childcare issue or denying the ability to stay home with a sick child. I’ve never worked for a company that Draconian.

    • Lawcat

      “Companies need to find thoughtful solutions to these problems.”

      Yes! THIS! The sense of entitlement is just outstanding.

      It’s not the company’s job to find a solution to work life balance. That’s YOUR job. You had kids, you take responsibility. Its also not the company’s job to supply me with vegan food. Or a new wardrobe because I have to dress professional. Or any other lifestyle choice.

      As LiteBrite said, telecommuting isn’t the only way to be flexible. It’s not like working parents are leaving the workplace in droves because they can’t telecommute. Additionally, parents aren’t the only skilled workers.

  • faifai

    I agree with everyone else’s comments about how she’s a woman, and a CEO, and not The CEO Superwoman. She doesn’t represent All Working Women Everywhere and we’re (mostly) smart enough to figure that out.
    I’d also like to point out that telecommuting and childcare are two separate and distinct issues. You don’t telelcommute from your big corporate job because you need childcare. You just can’t. There is no way you can devote yourself to a full time corporate suit job and try to take care of your kids in the same space and time. Free lance photography? Sure. But they’re not the ones this no-telecommute policy was written for.
    Stop treating telecommuting as if it’s the right and pleasure of all working parents. I agree with LiteBrite: *you* had the kid, *you* find a way to take care of it. It’s not the company’s problem.

  • Rywo

    Why exactly is it up to companies to figure out how you balance your family life? Maybe try not having kids or having fewer kids. Maybe try shutting the fuck up. This woman’s choices regarding her baby AND her company policies just aren’t your damn business.

  • Rywo

    Here’s my thoughtful solution to your breeding problems – condoms.

  • Pingback: Sheryl Sandberg Marissa Mayer, Working Women, Work From Home, Yahoo