You know Joan, this woman is trying to run a business, if she felt that people working at home was hurting production that's her choice. No need for an article, it's a business decision.

The reason a company like Yahoo struggles is because no one can tell you exactly what the company does. What does Yahoo, like, do? They've got a search engine. They have email. They sell ads. But like AOL, I can't think of anything they actually do. OK, they've hired some sports writers. I don't know..This news is really disapppinting. Mayer sounds like a throwback. 

What a blatantly sexist header and column. You continue to embarrass yourself Joan.

No way this is a glass ceiling issue since Marrissa is a female.  good move by Marrissa.  Vennochi must be referring to the glass ceiling men run into when they have extreme difficulties in getting custody of their own children under the incredibly bias divorce process.  thank you for bringing attention to this unfairness.

From the article:

"But as Mayer reinstates a business strategy that measures office facetime and cars in the parking lot, she has a nursery next to her office. It makes the work/family balance easier for Mayer, at the same time her latest decree makes it tougher for everyone else."

So is Yahoo paying for this perk or is Mayer funding a private nursery on her own dime? Why not take it a step further and establish on-site daycare? Does she expect employees to be grateful that her daycare needs are met on site, and shoved in the faces of those who are left to fend for themselves?

It seems to me that the happier people are in their work, the more productive they will be.  It's about the company, the goals, the people, and how valued any one person feels.  You can't go backward.  Forcing people into 1-2hr commutes each day adds nothing to productivity and adds to the cost/employee for food, office space, etc.  It also limits your ability to hire the best person for the job.  There is so much technology available now for collaboration, my suggestion would be to have everyone, at home or in the office, connected at all times to Google Hangout so people can meet and create.  Better yet, maybe Yahoo can come up with a competitive produce.

With regard to maternity leave, she's not setting an example either as a CEO or Mother-- sounds to me like it's Yahoo, God, then family-- pretty sad. In most countries, a woman can take up to 6 months unpaid.

The boss isn't always right but they're always the boss.

My company doesn't allow tele-commuting (for good reason...how much work do people actually get done at home? be serious) but they do allow working reduced hours or flex hours, so you can still make the school play or get home to coach the baseball team or things like that. There are other ways besides tele-commuting that can make a company family friendly.

Mayer's decree is likely to backfire. If I worked there, I would be going Johnny Paycheck on Yahoo and seeking a new employer immediately.

Just as the Boston Globe had to make unpopular decisions during its reorganization and downsizing crisis a few years ago, Yahoo is now taking preventive measures to avoid a crisis.  Ms. Mayer had to make a tough and unpopular decision.  Call it regrouping or rallying the troops together to promote more employee interaction.  Stagnant companies don't grow when the employees are isolated.   

Just a couple of thinks, Joanie babe. . . First, the drawing accompanying your Marisa screed seems to incorporate cats in a computer room. . . Some comment or other on girlies at work?  Secondly, Marisa herself seems to have badly wacked her head on the glass ceiling. . . This bimbo is a genius in the artificial intelligence field, but somehow her maturation process allowed her to miss the human intelligence/sensitivity development. . .

Just a couple of thinks, Joanie babe. . . The illustration that accompanies your Marisa screed really appears to show a gang of five cats in a computer facility. Maybe an artist's comments on girls at work?  Secondly, as far as Marisa and the glass ceiling is concerned, she seems to have wacked her head a good one when she hit the Yahoo ceiling.. . She's a genius at artificial intelligence, but a complete dumpkoff in the field of human sensitivity. . . She's also a self-absorbed deservist. . .

Sounds like she's an either/or type, a CEO who says, "It's my way or the highway." For her, there is no middle ground. Why no allow the employees who work from home to continue to do so with the proviso that they show up at least once a week (or maybe two) to catch up on "facetime" or for important meetings?

Seems the CEO is fine with giving herself the perks but not so anyone else.

I agree with Vennochi. Don't try playing the boys game. Create your own and show folks how a business can prosper while still caring about its employees. 

And the part about how it's "God, family and Yahoo..." strikes me as hypocritical. What's next, required prayer meetings? I'm so sick of phony Christians invoking God and Jesus at every turn. your religion is a private matter between you and your God. You don't need to shove it down peopel's throats to prove you're somehow better than they are. Not to mention that she doesn't seem to be heeding the words of Jesus in the way she manages.

The plan will work, or it won't. I'm not really concerned with the internal details of Yahoo's organization. Lot of armchair quarterbacking going on here. Don't like Mayer's plan? Start a company yourself, and run it as you see fit.

Several other companies have banned or restricted telecommuting in the past few years, mine included.  Why is it front-page news when a female CEO makes that decision?

Corporations are terrible and care nothing about their workers. A select few, who do not even own the company, reap the profits and cut jobs, benefits and pay to the workers who provided the company its launch. Corporations need a separate tax code to cut down on the abuse by CEO's and the top people in companies.

If you were hired with the provision that you would be telecommuting, then told x-months, or a year down the road that you no longer had that option open to you, that would be a very serious "bait and switch" and while no doubt the employer is covered legally in these matters (might even be in a contract that the arrangement can be lifted at the emploer's discretion), it's not ethical.  So it goes.  Most employers have expanded those options to their detriment -- now comes the backlash, you know?   Otherwise, this column reads like it was written in 1973, way behind the times to think that a woman CEO 'acts like a man' when she makes unpopular decisions.  Are you serious?   Some of the most strenuous requirements I've ever had put on me have been by women managers -- all of whom had families and school-age kids.  I have worked with people who patently ABUSE their ability to telecommute, and after warnings, continued to abuse (calling in at the last minute b/c the child is sick on days when they were supposed to be at the office on a repeated basis) and they were finally told they had to be at the office.   Telecommuting is not an option for every position or for every worker, and is generally not seen as treating all employees equally because it's not.  Back in the day, women (OR men) didn't have the option to telecommute -- they took jobs close to home (like my mother did) and made the sacrifices that they needed to make.  If you apply for a job that is 90 minutes from home, then be prepared to do the commute; otherwise, don't apply at all, unless you know ahead of time that the option to telecommute is iron clad, and can get that in writing.  But, saying, "if women are going to run a company the way MEN USED TO, what's the point?" is a ridiculous, sweeping generalization at best, and sexist at worst.   Good or bad business decisions are not defined by the gender of the person who makes them; if you think Mayer is a jerk, it should not be because she is 'acting like a man.'   ugh.  

I didn't have a problem with this article until I saw the last few sentences: If women are going to run a company just like men used to, what’s the point? If female bosses don’t change the corporate culture — or if they end up making it even tougher for working mothers and fathers — why clamor for diversity at the top? Running a company should be done the way the peron wants it done, male, female, young, old, white or not. "What's the point?" Does every non white male need to have a point and an agenda? Sometimes equality is about having the same opportunities to make a difference or succeed or fail.

Being a man who has spent most of his working life in retail and then in the non-profit world I have worked primarily with and for women and I'm here to tell you that women in power behave just as badly as men in power.  The issue isn't gender - it's power - and those who have power will do whatever it takes to protect the status quo and their own position.  The problem with Mayer's actions arise not because of her decisions, not because she is a woman, but because she seems to be totally tone deaf.  Either that or she is intentionally trying to alienate a significant group of her employees hoping that they will resign.

Interesting article. I have 1 question, how are the men who work from home affected? Nobody has mentioned that.

You didn't really mean it at the end, dear author, that there's no need for equal access to the top if women are going to act just as badly, did you...?

HH---its certainly not socialism. If the shareholders are the owners of these massive corps its in their best interests to keep jobs in this country as well and keep the pay at the top at a more moderate level. If you own your own company and want to take every penny from it that you can thats up to you. CEO's do not own these companies they are employees. A very small class is controlling the boards (other CEO's) and keeping the pay up for the top 100 people in these companies while cutting and exporting jobs of the rest of the people.

If BostonBC61 is correct (or even if there are credible rumors to the effect) that Ms. Mayer's true ploy is to get call center employees to quit so that she can off-shore those services without having the expense of severance and/or unemployment, then Ms. Vennochi badly missed the boat on this article. Otherwise, it is a legitimage and worthwhile conversation. There should have been more empahsis about the unfairness and hipocricy with respect to the office nursery the Mayer had built. I wonder how much work she is going to get done while she is at work for goodness sake. I she really going to be able to ignore her child for (at least) 8 hours a day when it is in the next room? Jeepers, I hope not.

Pure and simple a way to trim the ranks. Most people do work hard from home or feel they are missing those hallway meetings so they should email and call more.

There are some that take an hour to get back to you or join a con call and you have to say their name five times to get their attention. These need to go and her policy will make some of them move elsewhere.

Your boss has spoken now get to work.

The fact that she values an imaginary sky fairy more highly than her family or career tells me all I need to know about her.

Who thought only men were capable of sexist dribble....

Good article. How tone deaf can you be ... everyone has to come in to work, but I've got a nursery next to my office?

Maybe her intent is to shake off any "dead wood".  Yahoo needs a turn around, some fresh blood may help.

HH--I would argue that more value is added to shareholders by "spreading the wealth" within the organization and keeping jobs here. As opposed to the way we are doing it now. And my original point was fixing this system with the tax code so there is in fact something we can do about it.

HH its not socialism---its for a set group, corporations, capitalism is still number one in my book. CEOs do not own the companies. And so you concede that corporations have major problems but are unwilling to think its possible to fix some of the issues within our system? Dont be so negative!

Joan- Nobody in their right mind blames women, as a class, for what this individual woman does or how she does it.

Take a chill pill.

She got the job because Yahoo needed to change and to be shaken up.  She's changing things and shaking things up.  If I was a shareholder I'd be pleased.  If I was a a telecommuting employee I'd be PO'd, and if I quit, Marissa would be happy. 

What seems to be lost on a lot of Mayer critics is that she was brought in basically to remake the floundering Yahoo in the image of the very successful Google.  Her ideas about what works and what doesn't were formed by her decade plus career at Google.  Google generally does not allow telecommuting.  So, it should't come as a shock that she generally was not going to allow telecommuting.  I mean, do what I did and Google "Google telecommuting policy" and you find things like this:

http://workathomemoms.about.com/od/companieshiringwahms/p/google.htm

I think Marissa Mayer has failed to understand how collaboration works. It can happen anywhere - in an office setting or at home. With advancements in technology, both productivity and innovation is possible. I work for Continuum, a global design and innovation consultancy. We collaborate on a global scale every day. In and out of the office, we help our clients innovate in great ways. My colleague Mark Bates wrote a blog post entitled “Yahoo! and the Misperception of Collaboration.” This post touches on how we interact and collaborate as human beings and this really hasn’t changed for centuries. What has changed is technology. You can read more here:http://continuuminnovation.com/yahoo-and-the-misperception-of-collaboration/