marissa mayer | amotherworld

In a memo sent out Friday, Yahoo! told employees who work remotely that they can no longer work from their homes.

“Speed and quality are often sacrificed when we work from home,” reads the memo to employees from HR head Jackie Reses. “We need to be one Yahoo!, and that starts with physically being together.”

The new work rule will apply to several hundred employees including those who work from home only a day or two each week, starting in June. After that, employees who work from home must comply with the changes, or quit, according to the memo which was published on AllThingsD.com.

You’ll remember that Marissa Mayer, the CEO of Yahoo! was hired when she was five months pregnant and only a two-week maternity leave after giving birth… I wonder if she will be bringing her nanny with her to the office, or if anyone else working at Yahoo! will have that luxury. I’m sure many wouldn’t even be able to afford a nanny… which is why they worked from home in the first place!

Of course employees are angry because they were hired, and accepted their jobs, with the assumption that they could work with flexibility. Many staffers are indeed parents – parents who likely worked from home at a lower salary keeping in mind travel and expensive daycare costs when working outside the home.

So what does this say about Yahoo! and Marissa Mayer? It says that Mayer is unreasonable (I mean really, who doesn’t take time off to be with their newborn?!) And it says Yahoo! proves not to be the forward-thinking tech company they are striving to be. It also puts a real dent in what women are trying to achieve today – that having a balance between family and career IS possible with remote workplace flexibility.

The Blogosphere has exploded with responses to the news, many of them saying it feels feel like we’re being put back 30 years. Yes it’s a setback for parents, many who depend one on spouse’s flexible work arrangements while caring for their children.

Other countries have more flexibility for parents – part-time work or flexible work arrangements is the norm for women in the Netherlands, for example. We should be seeing more and more companies offering flexibility, especially technology companies. With more business being done online, it’s a shame that Yahoo! has made this decision. You’d think that a global company would be embracing collaboration in the virtual space!

What do you think?

Marissa Mayer is the newly named CEO of Yahoo!

That’s not the story – a woman achieving such success in the tech industry. The big story is that it’s a huge achievement because she is pregnant. Six months pregnant.

Which brings the old debate into light again whether women can “have it all”… It also puts the question into the forefront – why does it even matter that she’s pregnant?

Reactions have been varied because Yahoo hired a pregnant chief executive who plans to only take off a few weeks for maternity leave, during which she would still continue to work.

Mayer will be a first-time mom – has she really thought this through? The demands of a newborn as well as running a company as large as Yahoo! will undoubtedly be daunting… I have a feeling she is going to be very surprised once her baby is born.

However with a salary that Mayer will have, she will be able to afford all the help she needs…

My motto is – everyone can have it all… maybe just not at the same time. Mayer is a very rare case in which she will be getting paid millions of dollars to do her job – something that most people will never experience.

Will Mayer open the doors for many working mothers in high positions? Is this discussion helpful or detrimental to moms?

What do you think?