Career News 24/7: The Cynical Girl: Marissa Mayer Backlash is Stupid and Sexist

Thursday, February 28, 2013

The Cynical Girl: Marissa Mayer Backlash is Stupid and Sexist

Marissa Mayer Backlash is Stupid and Sexist

Posted: 27 Feb 2013 03:45 AM PST

My bona fides as your populist HR lady are clear. I am on your side. But I have to step in on the Yahoo story and urge you to calm down.

Work is hard. Work is a pain. And work pays you money in exchange for being hassled. Work happens where it needs happens. In offices. In factories. In homes. In diners. In basements. In cars.

You know where work isn’t happening? In the homes of Yahoo employees.

If more work happened, they would be a different company.

(Sorry guys. It’s true.)

As I mentioned yesterday, Yahoo needs to get a better handle on its workforce. They don’t know who works for them, where and why. But let’s go down the rabbit hole for a moment: Who says that Yahoo employees who work from home are more productive and more focused? Who says that work can happen anywhere? Richard Branson? Do you always take advice on work-life balance from a guy with billions of dollars and a staff?

And while you are spray painting your Occupy Yahoo signs and throwing gluten-free molotov lattes, do me a favor and feel outraged about the thousands of other male CEOs who treat their employees like dirt and fight hard against health insurance and pay equity in the workplace. And how about a little outrage for the CEOs who don’t support a hike in the minimum wage?

But I get it. Marissa Mayer is supposed to hyperfocus on work-life-balance because she is a woman and a mom, right? That’s fabulous and very feminist of you; however, you can’t work from anywhere if your company doesn’t have a strategy to make money.

That’s it.