Cynics say her decision is based on costs, not ethics, a need for the ailing company to reduce staff and save money, and hundreds are expected to resign.
Mums are complaining because lucky Ms Mayer had a nursery built next to her office for her new baby, Macallister. But no one can accuse the woman of shirking. She was back three weeks after giving birth and has gone on record as (tactlessly) saying being a mum ‘isn’t that hard’.
Tough on home workers: Janet thinks Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer was right
How can women work from home with small kids running around their feet? Surely, everyone suffers. Mums end up working at night when their babies are asleep and must find it hard to concentrate during the day, exhausted from lack of sleep.
What’s really needed is adequate free childcare close to workplaces, something I hope Yahoo! plans to provide. Other high-profile women agree with Ms Mayer — broadcaster Jenni Murray admits she loathes working from home, and Alexandra Shulman, editor of British Vogue, refuses to allow it.
As a freelance, I’m lucky enough to be able to split my working week 50/50. I write from home (and when I’m travelling, on planes and in hotel rooms), but go into television and radio studios regularly for production meetings and recordings.
I value the time I spend each week talking to other people in formal meetings; at home it’s easy to prioritise the wrong stuff — paying bills, ordering rubbish on the internet, reading fluff online, cooking supper. I’ve always hated being told what to do, so part of me rebels against the idea of turning up at the same time and place every day, but — and I hate to admit this — the discipline is really important. And what’s wrong with that?
We have a generation of unemployed school leavers, many of whom have no concept of the necessity of turning up at work or for job interviews on time, correctly dressed, rested and ready to be productive. Unless they get the message that working means sticking to rules (that you don’t necessarily agree with), we will never get them off benefits and into work and young people coming into this country from abroad will continue to pick up the jobs they could be doing.
Home working is a bit like a masters degree; something to progress to when you’ve proved you have the required focus. Some big companies — BT, for example — encourage thousands of staff to work from home because it reduces office costs. Government departments love it because it saves millions, but I’m not convinced it’s right for everyone.
Why should women — who carp they are overlooked for promotion — campaign for home working as if they are a special case? Meeting your boss face-to-face can send all sorts of positive messages about your ability to move up the ladder. Time in the workplace — as Jenni Murray confirms — means time chatting, and in that ‘off-agenda’ few minutes, you’ll spark ideas or start a line of conversation that can be really productive.
Obviously, some jobs, in accounting and administration, can easily be done off-site, but the majority are best carried out in the office. Plenty will disagree with me, but as a world-class expert in procrastination and fridge-raiding, I know unless I go out to work, I will turn into an anti-social weirdo who can’t hold a conversation.
Another reason to force people back to work; it’s where you make friends, meet people, find people to go to yoga or book clubs with. Some days, the newsagent or the parking attendant might be the only person I’ve spoken to for 24 hours, and that’s not good, is it?