« BACK  |  PRINT

RS

EDITOR OF REDSTATE

Yahoo! and Seriously Stupid Media Coverage

By: Erick Erickson (Diary)  |  February 28th, 2013 at 04:30 AM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

I begin this morning with a decidedly non-political topic.

Yahoo! has a new CEO named Marissa Meyer. She just had a baby. She was criticized during her pregnancy for how she would or would not take maternity leave. Basically everything the lady does appears to be criticized.

But the newest media outrage is perhaps the stupidest, most selfish bottom feeding outrage the media can muster.

Marissa Meyer has decided that employees can no longer telecommute. They must get into a Yahoo! office.

How dare she. The outrageous reporting is both entirely predictable and easily would be the stupidest media coverage in American today except for all the leftwing reporters under 50 attacking Bob Woodward for daring to criticize their idol. That story is like Elijah versus the cult of Baal and I don’t even care for Woodward. But I digress . . .

In many of the stories about Yahoo! — at the Atlanta Airport today CNN was running one — outraged women everywhere were attacking this new mother for disrupting their lives.

After all, telecommuting works at Google. Heck, it works at RedState. I live and work in Georgia and my office is in Washington.

But what the stories are either ignoring or downplaying is that Yahoo! is a struggling, failing, flailing company. Perhaps we should give Marissa Meyer the benefit of the doubt that the status quo is not working and maybe the media might want to ponder whether Yahoo! has determined that telecommuting, as done at Yahoo!, is not working.

Telecommuting can work if there’s a strong team and culture at a company. Given the turn over at Yahoo! no one could say that about the company for now.

But instead the media will pump out the outrage over a business decision.

Perhaps all the people outraged over the outrageousness of a business making a decision to improve itself might consider that perhaps Yahoo! decided it would rather have employees come into offices, renew relationship, and foster new team building instead of firing everyone and going out of business.

Would you rather work in an office or see the company sink? Maybe what works at other places isn’t working at Yahoo! and maybe, just maybe, we should give the lady who saved Flickr a chance to prove she’s right. Piers Morgan is going to discuss this tonight from what I hear. I hope he is willing to raise this angle.

Tags: , ,

COMMENTS

POSTING RULES  |  LOGIN TO COMMENT  |  REGISTER TODAY
  • sbm1

    Telecommuting might work for this site, but I can totally see why it isn’t working for Yahoo anymore.

    The ability to have collaborative interaction are limited. The breakthroughs and major improvements are usually int eh side conversations and the “hey I just noticed” more than in scheduled agenda points.

    What she seems to be looking for is how to get their content across multiple platforms and increase the reach. That is on one side a programming game, but first it is a conception game. It will be in asking people which apps they like, what they like about it, and the conversations and brainstorms that come form this….and that is not tele-communicable…contract type work…small operations where a telephone call might bring up the same thing…..but the “seeing something cool over someone’s shoulder” actually requires that said shoulder is near….

  • davesinsanantonio

    Erick, you just don’t understand. Businesses don’t exist to make a profit, they exist to give people wages and benefits, even if those people don’t actually earn them! Requiring that people actually show up to work is a form of slavery. Of course the government should step in and stop this exploitation of these wonderful people who insist they should be paid for staying home, and punish the people who are trying to exploit the workers. And, the media is right to point out this evil in our midst. And, you are just a racist anti-woman homophobe who probably owns a gun and a Bible for criticizing the media for trying to save America from our capitalistic overlords. Power to the people! Speak truth to power! Occupy Wall Street! Free the downtrodden! Workers of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your commute!

  • siquijorisland

    yahoo needs to get real writers.

  • GreyCloak

    I missed the controversy, but this Chicago Tribune opinion piece refers to it and is totally “off the wall.” The author is not cited, but perhaps works from home. If its words appeared in a corporate memo, the company would rightfully be prosecuted on any number of causes.

    As a manager of several decades, neither I nor my companies slighted pregnant women the way this article does. We always provided reasonable maternity leaves and treated women (regardless of temporary conditions) the same as men.

    Regarding telecommuting, I’ll admit that there were some programmers I’d rather keep in a closet to do their good work rather than interact with customers, but presence in an office environment is necessary for good communication and helps with the work ethic. Monitoring “out-house” productivity can be difficult … at least, I want to see an employee in the office for quite a while before I authorize “work-at-home.”

    Unmentioned in the media is the effect of telecommuting on “the bosses.” Last year, a fellow executive (and 40-year friend) and I vacationed in Hawaii for a coupla weeks with our families. The poor guy had to get up at 5 or 6 am several mornings to participate in late-morning East-Coast meetings with his company and clients. I think, out of about two weeks, he really got but three days of “vacation.”

    I’ve participated in the evolution of telecommuting since I logged on at 2400 BAUD from my house, or got a phone call at 3 am to solve a problem. It’s a privilege, not a right, and carries with it a lot of responsibility.

  • GreyCloak

    HTML failed. reference: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/ct-edit-homework-20130228,0,2942383.story

  • http://sanangelolive.com sanangelo

    A telecommuting staff is inferior to an in-person staff when creativity is desired. According to the latest biography of Steve Jobs (http://www.amazon.com/Steve-Jobs-Walter-Isaacson/dp/1451648537), Jobs designed the Pixar headquarters to encourage impromptu collaboration amongst employees. There’s more on Jobs’ workplace collaboration ideas here: http://myturnstone.com/blog/how-steve-jobs-encouraged-creativity-and-collaboration/

    If Erick moved RedState to Atlanta, he’d make more money. (-;

  • http://patriotpowerplay.blogspot.com/ mirac777

    Excellent observations Dave. Just like the big government Obama-bots that now demand businesses hire criminals and assorted uneducated misfits on the basis of skin color/ nationality. I mean, it shouldn’t matter if a person quit school at 10 years old to go sell dope on the corner and then did 10 years in prison for various felonies, if you don’t hire them you are a racist, bible-toting, AR-15 slinging bully. (Which the gov’t will FINE if you refuse to hire these “pillars of society.”)

  • http://www.ajharaldson.com lakeworthcane

    Yay-hwaa’s! move, via Meyer, doesn’t surprise me. Remote workplace setups grant employees golden opportunities for abuse and–as only about, oh, I’d say 50 billion examples clearly demonstrate–given opportunities to abuse their employers, many employees enthusiastically rise to the occasion.

    Even when they’re on-site, employees find ways–often elaborate and stunningly far-reaching and widespread–to abuse employers. It boggles my mind. If people put as much into simply doing the work for which they’re paid as they put into working angles and concocting workplace schemes to “get over,” everything would be fine.

    But when they’re remote and without immediate, almost parental supervision, many employees simply run wild; and the most amazing thing about is that they fight like crazy for the right to do so. When employers–such as Yee-Oh-Hyawana! in this case–clamp down on them and actualy demand that they do some work for their pay, they get viciously hostile.

    The bottom line is that remote workplace setups are often not a good idea. It’s likely that the situation got out of control at Yee-Oh-hway!

    I’m just guessing, but I think Meyer’s decision is a violation of the unwritten “book of cool” that dominates popular, or “pop,” culture, and that’s the source of the outrage. Remote-workplace setups are “cool.” They’re hip, cutting edge, avante garde, enlightened: part of what those who define themselves as “cool” use to define themselves as superior to the rest of us poor slobs who “don’t get it” (whatever the amorphous, undefined, artbitrary “it” happens to be at any given time). Remote-workplace setups are supposed to be the coming thing.

    But like so much in our generation’s–and, I suspect, every generation’s–unwritten “book of cool,” remote-workplace setups are a dicey situation at best. They work in some places, but they can get out of hand and become big problems, and it doesn’t take a genius to understand why.

    So, I’ll not be surprised to see other companies follow Yo-hee-a-ha’s! lead because Meyer is simply a normal businessperson getting to the inevitable point: remote-workplace setups can be guaranteed to work only in when employees are paid for the work they actually do; submit your work, and get your pay.

    But this could lead to another, perhaps more ominous eventuality: remote-workplace setups that include video and audio monitors. This isn’t new. I’m an over-the-road trucker, so I know that a lot of trucking companies closely monitor their vehicles via satellite and global-positioning systems. They know where their trucks are and what they’re doing at all times, they’re in continual contact with their drivers, and this has been an industry status-quo for almost 20 years, and as invasive as it sounds, it makes perfect sense, given the mischief in which truckers feel free to engage with very expensive vehicles they don’t own.

    I think the “outrage” over this situation might come from another idea in the unwritten “book of cool” as well; it’s the steadfastly leftist idea that the fat-cat employers are always and unquestionably evil, and the poor, downtrodden and abused workers are always heroically virtuous.

    One can certainly argue that employers often abuse their employees. But like all coins, that one has two sides, to wit (and as I’ve already asserted): given the chance to be just as morally and/or ethically corrupt as their wealthy, fat-cat employers, the poor, downtrodden workers–the political left’s sainted, sacred cows–reveal themselves as equally corrupt.
    Not having any money, authority, power or ambition certainly doesn’t abstain one from human weaknesses.

  • bgmacaw

    There are good and bad points to remote working and having distributed teams in tech and creative workplaces. It works very well when done right in a well run and stable company. But, this story is more about Yahoo continuing to flail about under mismanagement.

    Yahoo has already failed some time ago due to poor leadership. They’re just waiting for the estate sale to start after the funeral. This move is just a way to reduce headcount without having a mass layoff. It’s a further indicator of the decline of the company.

    The board hired an egotistical, narcissistic, collectivist elitist CEO in charge who has to have her ego massaged by micromanaging and clock watching her serfs. She’s very much like her pal Obama in her disdain for and the desire to control the “little people” while carving out special privileges for herself. Her type is one of the most unpleasant types of managers for creative tech people to work for. It’s highly unlikely that she can turn the company around.

    At least, it’s still pretty easy for her “little people” who don’t want to put up with her queen bee attitude and have decent self-motivation and skills to find another job. That’s what I’d do. In fact, that’s what I’ve done more than once when I realized a company was on the road to failure due to poor management.

    Employees at Yahoo shouldn’t be complaining about their “rights” but they should leave for greener pastures ASAP before the doors close for good. Sadly, too many of them, like their CEO, were educated along liberal lines and think that government and/or big business is there to take care of them.

    Companies complain that they can’t find enough tech employees. Many will hire skilled and motivated employees to work remotely. Companies who need these employees should be recruiting Yahoo employees aggressively. If “Yahoos” choose to continue to work for Meyer they deserve what they get.

  • spacevegetable

    I don’t think the protest against this policy has anything to do with whether or not it’s “cool” or left vs. right political leanings. The latest fad amongst management types is the “collaborative work space.” This is where the employees get no real personal space and all sit in big open rooms so they can “collaborate.” This might work in some fields like sales or marketing, where it’s all about talking and relationships, but anyone in an analytical role, like a software developer or finance person, will find it horrible. Sure, collaboration is useful, but at the end of the day, a developer has to sit and write code and that’s difficult with all the audio and visual distractions of this sort of environment. Some places consider noise-cancelling head phones to be a solution, but not everyone walks around all day with ipods plugged into their heads, not does it do anything for visual distractions of people moving around or looking over your shoulder while you work.

    I’m a developer and my newest contract gig has such a work space. Every day, there are at least two conference calls going on at the same time, nearly every minute of the day. Throw in all the other conversations and you can’t hear yourself think. I’ve been there a week and am already looking for a new contract. I get way more work accomplished in my nice quiet home office, but they seem to discourage telecommuting. It feels like I’m sitting in a big kindergarten class or playroom, not a real, productive working environment.

    My point is that such blanket condemnation or approval of such policies makes no sense. As for Yahoo, well, they’re probably shooting themselves in the foot on this one. There’s currently a shortage of experienced software people out there and an employee-unfriendly policy like this is not going to attract more talent. Of course, they may be trying to use this to cut head count via attrition, so it could be a smart move in that regard.

  • bgmacaw

    What matters in a remote working system is the results. If someone isn’t producing while working remotely, it become evident pretty quickly to a good manager. Not all managers and employees are up to this challenge though. It is a matter of developing the skill and having self-discipline to make it work.

    There are monitoring solutions, such as video monitoring and keyboard logging, available but they generally aren’t needed when you’re working with a motivated and professional workforce. They’re more useful when working with outsourced contractors who’re often less reliable and are billing you by the hour.

  • http://www.helpawhiteguy.com livefreenh

    I work in a factory. We can’t telecommute because we use our hands to get our work done, and (hence the term) “hands-on” involvement is what the boss is paying us to do. And it also involves coordinating everyone’s schedule to come together so we are all present for meetings, assembly of our product, and other teamwork activities. And before you dismiss me as an older blue-collar Luddite, I’ll add that my personal part in this is the IT manager. We have all the technology we need, include telecommuting, but in order to be successful, we need the one thing on-site that can’t be e-replaced: humans.

    We also don’t have a lot of people using Facebook, or other time-wasting ways to “twitter” away their time. They are too busy being happily and gainfully employed to waste precious time telling everyone else about it.

  • celador2

    I am a long time Yahoo user and still hold affection for Yahoo for email and news going back many years when the AP ran news Bill O’Reilly could trust and Yahoo ran AP stories. Since mid 2011 Yahoo began its partnership with ABC news and began to openly push Democrats. If I comment I start most my comments in the news section or do many times with,
    “This story reads like an ad for the DNC or Obama campaign.”
    I isaw little hope in Yahoo’s improving but right after Marissa Meyer a media identified Obama bundler, was hired Yahoo email improved and the spam and hacking stopped.
    Maybe nothing or nobody can save Yahoo. Yahoo may have outlived its time. It was a new innovative star in the late 1990s. But they at Yahoo want to try to save their creation Yahoo so hired a new CEO Melissa Meyer in July 2012. Dubbed disparagingly a ‘whiz’ kid’ she is more a zealot.
    Marissa Meyer was recenyly quoted as saying her first priorities were GOD, faith and family in that order. She may have addded work to that short list. That list was the reason media critics find her in- person work requirement odd. But, Meyer’s pushing family at Yahoo is a standard business decision to build a Yahoo family team spirit that takes pride in itself and regains its self respect and sense of we are the best. She has a new room for the baby near her office, which is ideal.
    She is the boss and what she says goes. That’s it.

  • sliverlining

    I was working at one of the big automotive companies. Computer Aided Design (CAD) and Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) are, quite obviously, done on computers. The interaction that cemented good decision making was best done face-to-face. Sorry to the dumbass nerds out there. Knowing the teams abilities, forging alliances, quick paths to good solutions, etc. are able to be done remotely, but at a cost. Basic effectiveness.
    Yes, there are advantages (don’t tell me the obvious stuff zzzz). The checks and balances of good telecommuting have to be established and enforced, though. That seems to be the point of the article.

    Slackers love tele-whatever. Self-starters ALWAYS end up leading a band off them. It is a unique group where this is not the case.

    Besides, for every anecdotal example to the contrary, there would be droves of examples proving my point. After all, who WANTS to work compared to who HAS to work? Big difference when you’re on your own . . .

  • bgmacaw

    I know what you mean about the vacation thing. My avatar picture is of me answering work emails on my smartphone at the beach while on vacation. My wife took it to complain about how I was always working. Being flexible has to cut both ways for it to work.

    I don’t think monitoring remote work is all that difficult. Basically it’s a question of are results being produced in a timely manner. A good, motivated, employee will get things done.

    I do agree that there should be some break-in period for a new employee in most cases. But, once an employee has been proven as productive and professional, I don’t see any reason why they can’t work remotely as much as they want as long as they continue to produce excellent, timely, results.

  • Bill S

    Well, I can’t say as I’ve seen a lot of “outrage” about it. Since I work in the IT industry, I have seen plenty of trade rag coverage of this story. Most of the points being made are that it will make it more difficult for Yahoo to hire without a telecommuting option. And that is a true statement. The option to telecommute has become a significant employee perk, and that will most likely hurt them to some extent.

    She was most certainly within bounds to do it if she as a leader believes it will help Yahoo’s business. She is no idiot and I’m sure she weighed the advantages of workers collaborating in person vs. the recruiting and employee satisfaction hits they might take. It’s not like the policy change is irreversible, so it’s not necessarily a company-destroying move if it doesn’t work out.

  • josephlanders

    I agree completely. The government (Obama) thinks we should hire people who are not willing or smart enough to go to college and earn a degree and pay them the same as the people who paid for a good education.

  • joshinca

    This is where the employees get no real personal space and all sit in big open rooms so they can “collaborate.” This might work in some fields like sales or marketing, where it’s all about talking and relationships…

    It doesn’t really work there either. The last thing I want is my salespeople hanging out in the office talking to each other instead of developing new leads and servicing our customers.

  • joshinca

    From what I have read, it sounds like telecommuting is being put to an end because too many employees abused the privilege and can’t be held accountable outside of the office.

    That they can’t be held accountable outside of the office indicates that they aren’t actually doing anything productive to begin with.

  • gapch12

    Did you misread this article? I felt this was written in support of the people who work at home!!!

  • grumpyKoz

    “Would you rather work in an office or see the company sink?”
    One could also state it as:
    Would you rather take a little pain now and cut costs, or would you rather crash the worlds greatest economy?
    From what I see, the latter is the choice of Congress.

  • moujmasti34

    Nora. you think Sara`s remark is flabbergasting, last thursday I got Lexus LS400 since I been earnin $9404 this last 4 weeks and would you believe, ten grand last munth. with-out a doubt this is the most-financially rewarding I’ve had. I actually started nine months/ago and straight away started to earn at least $85… per/hr. I follow the instructions here, — Buzz80.ℂOℳ

  • mesocyclone

    I think the fuss is because the techie community in particular views telecommuting as a perk – not a right (well, maybe in leftie San Francisco area where Yahoo is), but a desirable perk. Hence a major leftie-techie company doing this *is* news.

    I’m a techie and telecommuted for over two decades. It has its upsides and downsides. Done right, with the right people on the right projects, it can be a boon. But without regular face time (I got mine when I went in for meetings and lunches), inter-employee relationships just don’t work as well. And… good creative stuff often requires multiple people, perhaps in the same room with a white board (unless you have good virtual white boards, and even then, the inter-personal interactions are not as good – interrupting someone at the right time is harder). In my case, the meetings were often creative meetings, and worked well.

    Without in person interactions, I’ve found that suspicion and distrust can grow – especially if email is the primary conversation. I’ve found that in myself and my co-workers.

    On the other hand, one of the most creative things done in my career was by two of us solving a tech problem during a long telephone call – both were at home.

  • capeconservative

    A good one! I’ve searched high and low (RS & Disqus) trying to find out how I can add my own avatar with no success. Could you so advise…many thanks.

  • Finrod

    I’m guessing you must be in sales or marketing, since you slam technical people as ‘dumbass nerds’ and ‘slackers’.

    Us technical people are the people that keep tech companies running so that you’re in a job. Without us, you get to go back to burger-flipping.

  • Bill S

    Are you always an idiot, or just on Redstate?

    I lead a team of “dumbass nerds” who telecommute, and they are quite productive while remote. We use collaboration technology and a whole lot of conference calls.

    Many studies have found that not only are telecommuters productive, but they tend to put in more hours than on-site workers. We constantly deal with work/life balance issues where people don’t take enough time off.

    Now run along and discuss something you actually understand….if there is such a thing.

  • bgmacaw

    If you go to Disqus and edit your profile on the dashboard page, you should see a tab for setting your avatar.

  • bgmacaw

    Having to pull up stakes or finding a new job depends a lot on the skill set. For example, I had five recruiter emails come in today alone looking for people to do mobile development (Android and IOS), Java and/or C#/.NET who could work remotely. The jobs are out there for those with the skill who’re willing to go out and get them and do the work once they’re hired.

  • UpLateAgain

    Clearly this woman doesn’t understand that the primary purpose of a ‘business’ is to provide equity, fairness, and a living wage for its ‘employees’. She’s probably clinging to the outdated business model of an organization extant to make a profit, rather than to advance the cause of social engineering. Perhaps a federal nationalization of Yahoo! could straighten her out.

  • sliverlining

    Touch a nerve? You speak from experience and so do I. I could have said propellor heads, I guess. Relax, boss. Why is everything so damned personal here? You’d think I mentioned you by name by the sound of this reply.
    “Many studies” also predicted global cooling and then global warming, which is why they call it “climate change” now. Go engineer something with a virtual team after having worked face-to-face. And I don’t mean a golf club head.

    btw Lots of my dumbass nerd friends take sarcasm and slams pretty well. I guess they all don’t though . . .

  • sliverlining

    You certainly are guessing. Read first then whine.

  • capeconservative

    thanks…did so…now to see if it works! looks like it didn’t…will try again later. Sorry for getting ‘off topic’ – won’t do it again, Mr. Moderator.

  • Bill S

    The asshats are coming out of the woodwork these days.

  • mrfixit10

    Are you considering a run against Hillary? Your platform is about right.

  • Finrod

    Which is the only way I’ve been able to keep a job in this crappy economy– having a valuable skillset (Unix sysadmin) and living in a city (Atlanta) with enough job opportunities. If I didn’t have both of those going for me I’d be toast.

  • Finrod

    Take your self-righteous crap and shove it.

  • Finrod

    No kidding.

    Is there any way to restrict voting on comments to only people with RedState Disqus IDs? I’m tired of the silent asshats that vote up the asshats that post here.

  • Bill S

    Supposedly that particular hole got filled. I suspect what you’re seeing are actual registered users who don’t comment