Okay so I have waited awhile (okay not really the internal memo has really only been out a week or so) but it feels like it has been forever. Why you ask.... not because I disagree with the new Yahoo policy to prevent all workers from working from home (which I do) but because it seems that in this policy there is no other way than her own. Yes we get it Marissa you have decided that you will be superwoman. You will return to work 2 weeks after having a baby, you will work a zillion and two hours a week (from the office apparently), you will rise in the corporate ranks to ceo and your family will not take a backseat (or so you claim) but I would like to propose the counter argument. I too have decided to be superwoman. I returned to work 12 weeks after having both my first and second child, I work ~40 hours a week in the office (sometimes less because inevitably something crazy happens once a week that requires my attention or at least my body to be at home), and I make sure that my family never take a backseat. But what am trying to say is not that my path to working motherhood is correct and hers is not what I propose is that my path is the right path for me
There is no way I could make the choices Marissa had (even if it meant being CEO or whatever fancy title). My choices work for me and my family (and thankfully my boss and company) and they may not haven me ending up in the CEO seat .... but you never know they may. Luckily and thankfully I work for a company that values me as a person. I am allowed to work from home when needed and it is fine that on most days my work stays at work which means I am free to come home and really enjoy my time at home with family not stressing or worrying about missing and email that may come in at 8pm.
But enough about my choices back to the memo at hand. [for those of you who have not read the memo here it is] The memo is what it is and implies that working from home is less productive than going in to the office (which for me it is not but for some it may be) and for her that may be the case but as I mentioned earlier there seems to be no alternative. There are many positions and people that are very conducive (thank goodness for spellcheck I almost really messed that word up) to working from home, granted CEO is not one of those positions, but in this company there seems to be no options for that. There also seems to be no flexibility for those that may need to work from home or even better those that accepted the job with the promise of additional flexibility. For those people a job that now has no flexibility (which may not be what they signed up for) is now their only option if they want a job at all. Although I dont work at Yahoo I can tell you that a move like this from my company would make me fell undervalued and like a number, almost as if my family and life outside of company walls dont matter to them and in my humble opinion there is no quicker way to kill morale and productivity than to make me feel that way.
I am interested to see how this turns out for Yahoo (although I suspect it will crash and burn from a morale perspective). How many people will feel isolated and eventually leave? How much will it drop the morale? How much will people resent the CEO and HR for making this sweeping policy? Only time will tell the answers here but all I can say is Mrs Mayer and I dont see eye to eye on this one because we cant and shouldnt all make the same decisions she has and will but that does not make our choices any less right for us.
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