The Yahoo memo and Marissa Mayer
The backlash against the leaked Yahoo memo banning telecommuting work was as swift as it was comprehensive. Innovative CEOs such as Richard Branson were "perplexed" by the move. Telecommuting advocates fretted that Marissa Mayer, the company’s CEO, was attempting to turn back the clock on flexible workplace advances. Working moms worried that Mayer — herself a new mother — had turned into an evil caricature of a woman who wanted to have it all. And management gurus were quick to point out that telecommuting workers were actually more productive than office workers.
But take a deep breath and consider a few things. Mayer is a young celebrity CEO who hangs with people like Wyclef Jean and Matt Lauer. She’s not an out-of-touch Old School CEO without any idea of how this Internet thing works. She knows how the Googleplex works, inside and out, since she was the 20th person ever hired at Google. . . .
So, if the Yahoo memo is not a bone-headed move that shows how out-of-touch the company’s CEO is with the way Silicon Valley works, then what is it?
It might just be one of the biggest “bet-the-company” moves to create a culture of innovation that we’ve ever seen in Silicon Valley. Marissa Mayer is essentially saying to her employees, “If you’re not 100 percent vested in making Yahoo one of the greatest companies in Silicon Valley once again, then you’re not the right fit for us anymore.” The telecommuting ban functions much like a tempting buyout offer from a company trying to slim down via attrition.