Yahoo!: A Female CEO and New Mother Forbids ...

Journal of Organizational Behavior Education 7: 65-78. 2014 NeilsonJournals Publishing.

Author Version

Yahoo!: A Female CEO and New Mother Forbids Working from Home Ryan Heatherman and James S. O’Rourke University of Notre Dame, USA

Abstract. Marissa Mayer’s decision to end Yahoo’s work from home program sparks a firestorm of media scrutiny. Yahoo, whose business it is to connect people over the Internet, finds itself at the center of a nationwide debate on workplace flexibility – even though Mayer never intended to make a broad industry statement about working from home. This case examines communication efforts to contain the conflict, and it may spark lively debate over where and when worker productivity and creativity are most likely to occur. Keywords: employee communication, reputation management, flexible work rules, work from home, corporate turnaround, working mothers.

1. Introduction On September 24, 2012, Yahoo’s General Counsel Ron Bell warned, “It’s never OK to share information in an internal memo…we will fire employees who leak company confidential information and we will avail ourselves of all other legal remedies to protect those confidences.” Ironically, Karen Swisher of All Things Digital posted Bell’s confidential warning hours later on her popular technology website, www.allthingsd.com. In her column, Swisher suggested that Bell’s efforts were futile, quipping “Memo to Ron Bell: Humans like to talk and they like to share, especially at a media company.”1 Not long after that, Swisher received another “confidential” Yahoo memo. She cited a “plethora of irked Yahoo employees” as her source for the latest leak: a memo announcing that Yahoo was ending its long-standing “work-from-home” policy. According to the memo, all Yahoo employees working remotely had a few short months to begin daily commutes to Yahoo offices. The “confidential” news circulated quickly and widely throughout the media.2 1.

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Swisher, K. (2012), “Yahoo’s Top Lawyer Says Leaked Memos Are ‘Uncool’” (According to Oops - A Cool Leaked Internal Memo). AllThingsD. Published 9/24/2012. Retrieved 4/12/ 2013, from Swisher, K. (2013), “‘Physically Together’: Here’s the Internal Yahoo No-Work-From-Home Memo for Remote Workers and Maybe More”. AllThingsD. Published 2/22/2013. Retrieved 4/12/2013, 2013, from

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Yahoo!: A Female CEO and New Mother Forbids Working from Home

A storm of scrutiny quickly descended on Yahoo’s newly appointed CEO Marrisa Mayer, who less than one-year prior was one of Google’s most celebrated executives. Yahoo hired the young Silicon Valley superstar to help reinvigorate and save the company from a prolonged fall from grace. Mayer’s move to end Yahoo’s long-standing “work-from-home” policy stemmed from a desire for a more connected company culture and increased employee productivity. However, once leaked to the media, the employee engagement issue turned into a major corporate communication challenge for her and Yahoo’s Global Public Relations Director Anne Espiritu. Many interpreted Yahoo’s “work-from-home” memo as a broad industry statement on working from home. As a result, the leaked memo sparked nationwide debates on everything from women in the workforce to Yahoo’s ability to modernize.3 Only a few months into the job, Espiritu’s first major communications challenge came quickly. Espiritu was previously a member of Mayer’s PR team at Google when Mayer was a key spokesman for the company and widely considered a “PR guru”. Mayer became Espiritu’s mentor at Google as the two worked closely together for seven years. Mayer successfully recruited Espiritu in the summer of 2012 and placed her in charge of Yahoo’s global public communications efforts. Soon after the hire, Espiritu tweeted, “Someone please pinch me. Just to make sure I’m currently not in a state of dream.”4 Espiritu knew from her formal weekly meetings and countless other informal meetings with Mayer that the new Yahoo policy was simply an employee engagement issue, uniquely intended for Yahoo at that time.5 Her mentor never intended to make a broad industry statement on working from home.6 When asked by a journalist to comment on Mayer’s new policy decision, Espiritu initially wrote back in an E-mail, “We don’t comment on rumors, speculation or internal matters.”7 However, as the storyline continued to gain momentum, the negative impact on Yahoo’s already fragile reputation grew difficult for the 3.

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Bailey, B. (2013), “Yahoo Responds to Outcry, Says Work-From-Home Ban Is Not an ‘Industry View’” - Silicon Valley Mercury News. Published 2/26/2013. Retrieved 4/12/2013, 2013, from Olanoff, D. (2012), “First Poach: Marissa Mayer Brings over Google PR’s Anne Espiritu to Yahoo!”. The Next Web. Published 8/2/2012. Retrieved 7/12/2014, 2014, from Bercovici, J. (2013), “Marissa Mayer Can Curl*, and Six Other Things You Didn’t Know About Yahoo’s CEO”. Forbes. Published 8/26/2013. Retrieved 8/12/2014, 2014, from Bailey, B. (2013), “Yahoo Responds to Outcry, Says Work-From-Home Ban Is Not an ‘Industry View’”, Silicon Valley Mercury News. Published 2/26/2013. Retrieved 4/12/2013, 2013, from Pofeldt, E. (2013), “Can Yahoo Really Be Doing This?” Forbes. Published 2/26/2013. Retrieved 8/12/2014, 2014, from

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company to ignore. Espiritu needed to form a plan on how to respond to an internal matter run amuck in the media. 2. The E-mail YAHOO! PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION — DO NOT FORWARD Yahoos, Over the past few months, we have introduced a number of great benefits and tools to make us more productive, efficient and fun. With the introduction of initiatives like FYI, Goals and PB&J, we want everyone to participate in our culture and contribute to the positive momentum. From Sunnyvale to Santa Monica, Bangalore to Beijing — I think we can all feel the energy and buzz in our offices. To become the absolute best place to work, communication and collaboration will be important, so we need to be working side-by-side. That is why it is critical that we are all present in our offices. Some of the best decisions and insights come from hallway and cafeteria discussions, meeting new people, and impromptu team meetings. Speed and quality are often sacrificed when we work from home. We need to be one Yahoo!, and that starts with physically being together. Beginning in June, we’re asking all employees with work-from-home arrangements to work in Yahoo! offices. If this impacts you, your management has already been in touch with next steps. And, for the rest of us who occasionally have to stay home for the cable guy, please use your best judgment in the spirit of collaboration. Being a Yahoo isn’t just about your day-to-day job, it is about the interactions and experiences that are only possible in our offices. Thanks to all of you, we’ve already made remarkable progress as a company — and the best is yet to come. Jackie Source: www.allthingsdigital.com8

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Swisher, K. (2013), “‘Physically Together’: Here’s the Internal Yahoo No-Work-From-Home Memo for Remote Workers and Maybe More”. AllThingsD from

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3. Yahoo! Started by two Stanford Ph.D. students in 1994, Yahoo grew to be massively influential by 2000. However, Yahoo’s Internet search engine prominence waned substantially throughout the next decade. While competitors continued to innovate and change their business model after the dotcom bust, Yahoo stuck to its old methods. As a result, Google and others remained steps ahead of Yahoo in paid-search-advertising, advanced search algorithms, social media, and app development for mobile devices.9 By the spring of 2013, Yahoo’s stock traded at only 16% of its peak value in January 2000. Google’s stock price, on the other hand, had risen in value to more than 900% of its 2004 initial public offering.10 After rotating through five new CEOs in five years, Yahoo set its sights in 2012 on one of Google’s most famous leaders, Marissa Mayer. Analysts initially hailed the hire as a step in the right direction. Mayer was instrumental in Google’s success and a well-known leader in the technology community. Although Yahoo missed opportunities for growth and sales continued to fall, Yahoo still had influence and hope. Many original Yahoo users never bothered to change their email or search engine habits.11 As a result, Yahoo had the third largest mobile reach in the United States with 68-million users. Moreover, Yahoo owned successful web-based and mobile application offerings such as Flickr, Yahoo! Finance, and Yahoo! Sports.12 When Mayer took the helm, Yahoo employed 11,500 people in more than 20 countries across the globe; however, a declining reputation in the technology industry hampered their ability to retain and recruit the top talent needed to return to prominence. Yahoo was struggling to fill 900 open positions, 8% of its total payroll. “We don’t typically run into Yahoo,” said Alan Shapiro, the owner of San Jose-based software engineer search firm, Technology Search International. He said, “When we represent a candidate, we’ll ask who else they’re talking to. Yahoo is not a name that’s frequently mentioned.”13 9. 10.

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Ulanoff, L. (2012), “Yahoo Then and Now: Diagnosing a Sad Decline”. Mashable. Published 4/05/2012. Retrieved 4/12/2013, 2013, from Dunbar, L. (2013), “In Defense of Marissa Mayer: Hello, People! It’s a Turnaround!” CommPRO.biz.. Published 3/18/2013. Retrieved 4/12/2013, 2013, from Carlson, N. (2012), “Marissa Mayer Announces a New Yahoo Mail – And It’s By Far The Most Important Move She's Made Yet”. Business Insider. Published 12/11/2012. Retrieved 4/ 12/2013, 2013, from Miller, C. C. & Perlroth, N. (2013), “Yahoo Says New Policy Is Meant to Raise Morale”. New York Times. Published 3/5/2013. Retrieved 04/12/2013, 2013, from Oreskovic, A. (2013), “Yahoo’s Mayer Gets Internal Flak for More Rigorous Hiring”. Reuters. Published 3/12/2013. Retrieved 4/12/2013, 2013, from


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In addition to Yahoo’s inability to attract top talent, the company also faced significant branding challenges. While Yahoo generated a fair amount of positive business press under Mayer’s first year of leadership, it was not clear that the Yahoo brand had improved in the eyes of the general public or even those of Yahoo's core user base.14 4. Marissa Mayer Marissa Mayer developed a passion for computers after learning how to operate a mouse for the first time during her freshman year at Stanford University. She went on to earn both a Bachelor of Science degree in symbolic systems and a Master of Science degree in computer science and artificial intelligence. Mayer joined Google in 1999 as the company’s 20th employee and first female engineer. Over the course of 13 years, she moved up the ranks, eventually managing 8,000 of the tech giant’s 33,000-person workforce. As one of the most highly visible women in business and a celebrity in the tech community, Mayer was accustomed to headlines and controversy. She made a splash in the summer of 2012 when she took over as President and CEO of Yahoo at age 37, becoming not only one of twenty female Fortune 500 CEOs, but also the youngest. Additionally, hours after her move to Yahoo was announced, Mayer revealed that she was six months pregnant, becoming the first ever pregnant Fortune 500 CEO. Mayer recognized that she had to get comfortable with taking risks. “I always did something I was a little not ready to do,” she said of her best decisions. “That feeling at the end of the day, where you’re like, ‘what have I gotten myself into?’ I realized that sometimes when you have that feeling and you push through it, something really great happens.” As a result, Mayer developed a reputation over her 14-year career for defying stereotypes. “I refuse to be stereotyped. I think it’s very comforting for people to put me in a box. ‘Oh, she’s a fluffy girlie girl who likes clothes and cupcakes. Oh, but wait, she is spending her weekends doing hardware electronics.’” Mayer’s barrier-breaking career caused many to hold her up as role model for a new generation of women business leaders. But, Mayer played down the role of gender in obtaining success in the computer sciences, asserting instead, “I’m not a woman at Google, I’m a geek at Google.” She identified passion as a “gender neutralizing force” that opens doors for everyone, regardless of whether you are a man or woman. Mayer also shied away from the phrase “feminism”, believing it to have a negative connotation. She stated, “There are amazing opportunities all

14. Hare, B. (2013), “How Marissa Mayer Writes Her Own Rules”, CNN Tech. Published 3/13/ 2013. Retrieved 4/12/2013, 2013, from

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over the world for women, and I think that there’s more good that comes out of positive energy around that than negative energy.”15 5. Telecommuting: In General Modern technology by 2013 made working from home a very real and practical option for many employers. Workers could use real-time data, video, and voice telecommunications to operate from remote locations in the same manner as they would a traditional business office. While companies were looking to fill full-time and part-time jobs with telecommuters, the practice had yet to match the pace of the overall technological evolution. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, United States employees who worked remotely for at least one day a week increased only to 9.5 per cent in 2010 from 7 per cent in 1997.16 Most work-from-home proponents advance four main professional and societal benefits of telecommuting. First, working from home eliminates wasted time in the car and reduces stress caused by a daily commute, improving overall worker productivity and morale. Second, a reduction in traffic results in less pollution and energy consumption, helping the environment and saving money. Third, the company saves money with lower overhead and real estate costs. Fourth, the opportunity to work from home provides a better work/life balance and increased opportunities for otherwise would-be high performing employees, especially the disabled, elderly, stay-at-home parents, and rural residents.17 Critics of working remotely, on the other hand, offer three main reasons in support of employees sharing the same physical space: innovation, direction, and culture. First, the innovation necessary for modern companies to thrive often comes from everyday conversations that start over lunch or in the hallway. Additionally, these conversations provide employees with a better overall understanding of the company’s direction and mission, enabling them to execute superior and more effective business strategies. Further, positive corporate culture develops when teams work and socialize together side-by-side, increasing morale and organizational loyalty. Moreover, this personal familiarity allows managers to better identify high performers and weed out shirkers. Finally, instead of facilitating work/life balance, telecommuter technology actually 15. Indvik, L. (2013), “Marissa Mayer Is Turning Yahoo Around”. Mashable. Published 7/16/ 2013. Retrieved 7/12/2014, 2014, from 16. Garling, C. (2013), “Yahoo Decree Reignites Work-from-Home Debate”. The Denver Post. Published 3/3/2013. Retrieved 3/29/2013, 2013, from 17. Kotkin, J. (2013), “Marissa Mayer’s Misstep and the Unstoppable Rise of Telecommuting”. Forbes. Published 3/26/2013 Retrieved 3/29/2013, 2013, from


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creates more conflict and less balance in society. The Hard Truth About Telecommuting, by Noonan and Glass, mused: “telecommuting appears, instead, to have become instrumental in the general expansion of work hours, facilitating workers’ needs for additional work time beyond the standard workweek and/or the ability of employers to increase or intensify work demands among their salaried employees.”18 6. Silicon Valley Telecommuting Mayer’s outright ban was a first in the region considered to be the birthplace of telecommuting. Other Silicon Valley companies quickly responded to All Things Digital by reaffirming their more progressive work-from-home guidelines. A Google spokesperson said, “We do not have a formal policy and leave Googlers to use good judgment.” Facebook responded similarly, confirming a “policy to provide flexibility as work permits.” Business networking site LinkedIn says that they also allow for employees to work from home, but have “no formal policy at present.” A Hewlett-Packard spokesperson responded, “We do not ban [work from home] and many HP people do it ... it is not at all an issue at HP and hasn’t been for years. Some folks have a regular schedule, while others can do it from time-to-time with the okay of their supervisors.” A Netflix spokesperson elaborated on their flexible work policy, “We don’t measure people by how many hours they work or how much they are in the office. We do care about accomplishing great work.” AOL, IBM, Microsoft, and Twitter all responded similarly, offering their employees the ability to work from home.19 7. Yahoo: Backlash Yahoo’s surprising hard line stance came as a shock to many. Mayer’s decision fueled a flurry of mainstream and social media commentary. Although reaction was decidedly mixed, those who opposed Mayer’s decision were particularly incensed. News websites, blogs, and social media outlets reported a wide range of disapproving views from impacted employees, business leaders, tech experts, and women’s rights advocates. Swisher reported that many affected employees felt betrayed because they took their Yahoo job with an understanding that they would enjoy a more flexible work arrangement. Others believed Mayer should 18. Noonan, M. & Glass, J. (2012), “Monthly Labor Review, June 2012: The Hard Truth about Telecommuting”. Retrieved 3/29/2013, 2013, PDF, Page 39. From 19. Swisher, K. (2013), “Survey Says: Despite Yahoo Ban, Most Tech Companies Support WorkFrom-Home for Employees”. AllThingsD. Published 2/25/2013. Retrieved 3/29/2013, 2013, from

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have handled the situation better. One employee wrote to All Things Digital, “Even if that was what was previously agreed to with managers and HR, or was a part of the package to take a position, tough ... It’s outrageous and a morale killer.”20 Much of the widespread media exposure focused on women’s rights and work/life balance issues. So-called “mommy bloggers”, a large and influential online community of mothers, already scorned Mayer months earlier when she returned to work from maternity leave after only two weeks claiming, “The baby’s been way easier than everyone made it out to be.”21 The new telecommuting policy expanded the rift, especially because Mayer constructed a private nursery inside of her Yahoo office. Kara Baskin, a work/life blogger for Boston.com wrote, “While she might have the luxury of making such an arrangement somehow workable, she’s thoroughly out of touch with the majority of her employees ... With her draconian, snobbish decree, she’s robbed women and men of their freedom.”22 Ruth Rosen, historian of gender and society, told The New York Times, “The irony is that (Mayer) has broken the glass ceiling ... but seems unwilling for other women to lead a balanced life in which they care for their families and still concentrate on developing their skills and career.”23 Bonnie Erbe, host of the PBS show To The Contrary, wrote that “Mayer was six months’ pregnant when she started work and was widely expected to be familyfriendly, instead of decidedly family-unfriendly.”24 Many in the business community claimed Mayer’s decision was out of touch and destructive. Forbes contributor Adam Hartung stated that ultimately, “Bringing these employees into offices will hurt morale, increase real estate costs and push out several valuable workers who have been diligently keeping afloat a severely damaged Yahoo ship. And (in the) short-term hurt productivity of everyone.”25 Several high-powered technology leaders agreed. Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Group, criticized Mayer in his blog stating, “We like to give 20. Swisher, K. (2013), “Physically Together: Here’s the Internal Yahoo No-Work-from-Home Memo for Remote Workers and Maybe More”. AllThingsD 21. Beck, K. (2012), “Marissa Mayer Says You Made Motherhood Out to Be Way Harder Than It Actually Is”. Mommyish. Published 11/28/2012. Retrieved 4/2/2013, 2013, from 22. Baskin, K. (2013), “Marissa Mayer Is Snobbish, One-Dimensional, and Out of Touch”. Boston.com. Published 2/26/2013. Retrieved, 2013, from 23. Miller, C. C. & Rampell, C. (2013), “Yahoo Orders Home Workers Back to the Office”. New York Times. Published 2/26/2013. Retrieved, 2013, from 24. Erbe, B. (2013), “Erbe: Marissa Mayer’s Telecommuting Bomb Hurts Many”. Newsday OpEd, Scripps Howard News Service. Published Feb. 27, 2013. Retrieved 4/12/2013, 2013, from


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people the freedom to work where they want, safe in the knowledge that they have the drive and expertise to perform excellently, whether they at their desk or in their kitchen. Yours truly has never worked out of an office, and never will.”26 Bill Gates also disagreed with Mayer’s strategy. “If you’ve got development centers all over the world,” he said, “you’ve got a sales force out with the customers, the fact that tools like Skype, digital collaboration are letting people work better at a distance, that is a wonderful thing.”27 Matt Mullenburg, CEO of prominent blog company WordPress, used the media attention to recruit in the All Things Digital comment section: “For anyone who enjoys working from wherever they like in the world ...[we are] 100% committed to being distributed. 130 of our 150 people are outside of San Francisco.”28 The tech blog community was also immersed in the conversation. Venture Beat, a top technology blog, posted, “Must we go back to limiting ourselves to the talent that happens to reside within 25 miles of the office and the people who sit in a cubicle during traditional business hours?”29 Slate’s Farhad Manjoo predicted that Mayer was going to regret her decision. He wrote, “It’s myopic, unfriendly, and so boneheaded that I worry it’s the product of spending too much time at the office. (She did, after all, build a nursery next to her office to house her new baby).”30 Tech blog readers also weighed in on the debate. In a survey, 93% of Mashable blog readers overwhelmingly favored the benefits of telecommuting.31

25. Hartung, A. (2013), “Yahoo Investors Need to Worry about Marissa Mayer”. Forbes. Published 3/1/2013. Retrieved 4/11/2013, 2013, from 26. Groth, A. (2013), “Richard Branson Says That Marissa Mayer Got It Wrong About Remote Employees”. Business Insider. Published 2/25/2013. Retrieved 4/12/2013 from 27. Bort, J. (2013), “Bill Gates on Marissa Mayer’s Telecommuting Ban: Ever hear of Skype?” Business Insider. Published 3/10/2013. Retrieved 4/13/2013, from 28. Swisher, K. (2013), “Physically Together: Here’s the Internal Yahoo No-Work-From-Home Memo for Remote Workers and Maybe More”. AllThingsD. Published 2/22/2013. 29. Bisharat, J. (2013), “Yahoo and Best Buy Are Wrong: Great Work Can Happen from Anywhere”. VentureBeat. Published 3/6/2013. Retrieved 4/13/2013, 2013, from 30. Manjoo, F. (2013), “Marissa Mayer Has Made a Terrible Mistake; Working from Home Is Great for Employees - and Employers”. Slate. Published 2/26/2013. Retrieved 4/13/2013, 2013, from 31. Akalp, N. (2013), “Why I Dropped the Work-From-Home Policy Long Before Yahoo”. Mashable. Published 3/1/2013. Retrieved 4/13/2013, 2013, from

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8. Silicon Valley: Collaboration Some in Silicon Valley thought the debate was misguided. Although working from home was common in the Valley, the “home work” was usually performed in addition to the 40-plus hours spent in the office. Sarah McBride, San Franciscobased blogger, explained, “Despite the area’s image as a freewheeling space that makes much of the technology that allows people to work remotely, Bay Area workers tend to head into the office, especially at start-ups.”32 Research published in the MIT Sloan Review revealed that telecommuters were less likely than those who work in the office to receive promotions.33 Surprisingly, this result held true even for California tech companies that encouraged employees to work from home.34 Jack and Suzy Welch expounded: “Companies rarely promote people into leadership roles who haven’t been consistently seen and measured. It’s a familiarity thing, and it’s a trust thing. We’re not saying that the people who get promoted are stars during every ‘crucible’ moment at the office, but at least they’re present and accounted for. And their presence says: Work is my top priority. I’m committed to this company. I want to lead. And I can.”35

Harvard Business Review research showed that innovation happened faster and culture was easier to control when companies used “daily huddles” and “roundings” as ways to bring everyone together to share physical space. Sahil Lavingia, founder of Silicon Valley startup Gumroad, said of his company, “Every idea we have is a result of more than two people sitting in a room, riffing on or trying to think up a clever solution to a certain problem.” He furthered, “Things like that you can’t do over any Internet protocol.”36 While Yahoo’s direct approach was a first in Silicon Valley, other area companies indirectly encouraged employees to share physical space. Even though Google employees could officially work wherever they want, CFO Patrick Pichette explained about their work-from-home culture: 32. McBride, S. (2013), “Valley Workers on Yahoo Dustup: I Work from Office and Home, Who Cares?” Silicon Valley Mercury News. Published 2/28/2013. Retrieved 4/13/2013, 2013, from 33. The Economist (2013), “Working from Home: Out of Sight, Out of Mind”. Published 10/13/ 2012. Retrieved 4/1/2013, 2013, from 34. Cable, D. & Elsbach, K. (2013), “Why Showing Your Face at Work Matters”. MIT Sloan Management Review. Published 6/19/2012. Retrieved 4/13/2013, 2013, from 35. Power, B. (2012), “In Praise of Face Time. HBR Blog Nework”. Harvard Business Review. Published 12/21/2012. Retrieved 3/29/2013, 2013, from 36. McBride, S. (2013), “Valley Workers on Yahoo Dustup: I Work from Office AND Home, Who Cares?” Silicon Valley Mercury News. Published 2/28/2013.


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“The surprising question we get is: ‘How many people telecommute at Google?’ And our answer is: ‘As few as possible’ ... There is something magical about sharing meals. There is something magical about spending the time together, about noodling on ideas, about asking at the computer ‘What do you think of this?’ These are [the] magical moments that we think at Google are immensely important in the development of your company, of your own personal development and [of] building much stronger communities.”37

In fact, Google employed “people analytics” managers in order to “create the happiest, most productive workplace in the world.” New York Times reporter James Stewart described his tour of Google’s campus as a “dizzying excursion through a labyrinth of play areas; cafes, coffee bars and open kitchens; sunny outdoor terraces with chaises; gourmet cafeterias that serve free breakfast, lunch and dinner; Broadway-theme conference rooms with velvet drapes; and conversation areas designed to look like vintage subway cars.”38 Data storage giant NetApp constructed a $4 million fitness complex on the first floor of its headquarters building which includes basketball courts, massage rooms, and exercise rooms that accommodate 34 weekly exercise classes. Eventbrite, an online event planning firm voted best work place by SF Business Times best work places, provided its employees a “never ending snack supply,” access to Legos, and a “Bring your pet to work day.” The company also facilitated outside social breakfasts, bike rides, and team trips to the trampoline park.39 9. Yahoo: Support Yahoo so firmly embraced telecommuting that “WFH” (work-from-home) refrigerator magnets were sold in the company store. Former Yahoo executives speculated that Mayer’s move was likely an effort to change the Yahoo corporate culture and reduce unproductive, dispassionate employees. Despite Swisher’s “many irked” Yahoo contacts, not everyone at Yahoo disapproved of the change. One source close to the company reported to businessinsider.com, “There isn’t a massive uprising. The truth is, they’ve all been [upset] that people haven’t been working.” Gawker’s Maggie Lange reported that many former Yahoo workers claimed a significant amount of abuse of Yahoo’s former work-from-home policy.40 One Yahoo employee wrote anonymously on Quora, “I have been at 37. Swisher, K. (2013), “Survey Says: Despite Yahoo Ban, Most Tech Companies Support WorkFrom-Home for Employees”. AllThingsD. Published 2/25/2013. 38. Stewart, J. B. (2013), “Looking for Lesson in Google’s Perks”. NYTimes. Published 3/15/2013. Retrieved 3/29/2013, 2013, from 39. The Next Web (2012), “12 Tech Companies That Offer Their Employees the Coolest Perks”. Published 4/9/2012.

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Yahoo for four years and let’s just say the house needed and still needs a lot of cleaning up and Marissa is doing just that. So I am glad that the change in policy was made.”41 While the majority of Mashable readers strongly believed that Yahoo should not eliminate the work from home option, many agreed that yearlong losses were a good reason for Mayer to do something different.42 Forbes contributor Peter Cochran described Yahoo’s productivity problem: “Google’s 53,861 employees generate $931,657 in revenue per worker, 170% higher than Yahoo’s $344,758 worth of revenue per employee. Google is heavily populated by super-smart engineers who invent new businesses that help it to boost its top line. And new business ideas get better when smart people from different disciplines randomly bump into each other in the same building to discuss and refine those ideas.”43

Harvard Business Review’s Michael Schrage wrote, “I’m pretty confident this reflects a data-driven decision more than a cavalier command. In all likelihood, Mayer has taken good, hard looks at Yahoo’s top 250 performers and top 20 projects and come to her own conclusions about who’s creating real value – and how – in her company.”44 Reaction from the tech blog community was widespread. Kelly Faircloth of Beta Beat defended Mayer’s move as an attempt to simply make it less of a “complete bummer” to work at Yahoo.45 New York Times technology section described Yahoo’s work environment: “Parking lots and entire floors of cubicles were nearly empty because some employees were working as little as possible and leaving early. Then there were the 200 or so people who had work-at-home arrangements. Although they 40. Lange, M. (2013), “Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer Installed a Nursery in Her Office”. Gawker.com. Published 2/26/2013. Retrieved 4/13/2013, 2013, from 41. Quora. Marissa Mayer Ends WFH (February 2013): “What Has Been the Internal Reaction at Yahoo to Marissa Mayer’s No-Work-from-Home Policy?” Anonymous. 42. Fee, J. (2013), “The Reaction to Yahoo’s Ban on Working From Home”. Mashable. Published 3/2/2013. Retrieved 4/13/2013, 2013, from 43. Cohan, P. (2013), “4 Reasons Marrisa Mayer’s No-Work-At-Home Policy Is an Epic Fail”. Forbes. Published 2/26/2013. Retrieved 4/12/2013 from 44. Schrage, M. (2013), “Marissa Mayer Is No Fool”. HBR Blog Network. Harvard Business Review. Published 2/26/2031. Retrieved 03/31/2013, 2013, from 45. Faircloth, K. (2013), “Report: Marissa Mayer Was Just Trying to Make Working at Yahoo Less of a Complete Bummer”. Published 2/26/2013. Retrieved 04/09/2013, 2013, from


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collected Yahoo paychecks, some did little work for the company and a few had even begun their own start-ups on the side.”46

The Verge tech blogger Elizabeth Spiers suggested that a male would have been applauded in the tech community for his tough love approach. She wrote, “That’s the sad reality for women at the highest rungs of the executive ranks in corporate America. Everyone applauds when they shatter that glass ceiling. Then they pick up the shards, and start cutting away.”47 Discussion Questions 1. What are the critical issues in the case and who are the stakeholders? 2. In general, should Yahoo publicly discuss “leaked” internal matters? 3. Does Marissa Mayer have a duty to represent certain special interest groups? If so, which “special interests” and why? How do these “special interests” affect Yahoo’s overall corporate communication efforts? 4. Is there a need for Yahoo to defend or further explain its new workfrom-home policy? If so, what should the content of the message be, to whom should it be delivered, who should send the message, and what would the best delivery medium be? 5. Should Yahoo change the way it disseminates company-wide confidential information? If so, what is a better alternative to their current practice? What role should Espiritu’s PR team play in the dissemination of company-wide confidential information?

46. Miller, C. C. & Perlroth, N. (2013), “Yahoo Says New Policy Is Meant to Raise Morale”. New York Times. Published 3/5/2013. Retrieved 04/12/2013, 2013, from as cited in: 47. Spiers, E. (2013), “Beware of Broken Glass: The Media’s Double Standard for Women at the Top”. The Verge. Published 3/6/2013. Retrieved 4/12/2013, 2013, from

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