I Agree With Marissa Mayer.
I've made it known for a number of years what a huge fan of Marissa Mayer I am. She is someone I look up to professionally, and find her to be a great example of work ethic and talent for women and men alike. Plus, she has great style sartorially.
And now, I can add one more thing the still fairly new Yahoo! CEO has impressed me with:
Her most recent leadership decision about working remotely.
This may come as a surprise to some of you. I mean, I worked remotely from Boston for about five months till I left my job at the end of January. And I came to be working from home because my boss at my company didn't want to accept my resignation when I gave it to him last summer. So he created a role for me to do remotely, and generously kept me on the executive leadership team within the company. So you may be wanting to ask, "Yo! How can YOU of all people be supportive of Mayer's decision to not allow Yahoo! employee's to work remotely or from home a few days a week?"
Well, it comes down to exactly what I realized myself when working from home - and the main reason I decided to leave my company:
Sure, the "execution" piece can be done remotely. But I think Mayer's stance on this has changed in order to clean up Yahoo!'s culture and make sure everyone who is working for her is on board and dedicated to the mission. This is an aggressive move by her, absolutely. But I think it is one that Yahoo! desperately needs. I back, what I see as, her "get on board or ship out"approach.
It's the same conclusion I am came to about working remotely at my last company. It was critical that I be present with colleagues and junior team members, as well as cross-agency partners. And, unfortunately, my holding company was not on board with building out a Boston office at some point. It was very clear that "all roads lead to NYC," and that meant I was going to have to spend at least two days a week on a train heading South. Additionally, it meant hopping on planes to Chicago and LA a bit more to visit other office locations to get things done. And as much as I love traveling (and I really do), it became clear that my agenda for what I was building and the agenda of colleagues in other parts were not in sync.
So I pulled the plug. I wished them well. Because the reality is that they are in a mode right now where they need "all hands on deck" and everyone to be on the same page. Things shift quickly in our industry, which is the same industry in which Mayer leads. People need to be present.
I think it is very kind of Mayer to give employees the "heads up" that this change will be happening in a few months. This gives them a full quarter to get on board with it or find new work. Pretty generous, if you ask me.
And now, I can add one more thing the still fairly new Yahoo! CEO has impressed me with:
Her most recent leadership decision about working remotely.
This may come as a surprise to some of you. I mean, I worked remotely from Boston for about five months till I left my job at the end of January. And I came to be working from home because my boss at my company didn't want to accept my resignation when I gave it to him last summer. So he created a role for me to do remotely, and generously kept me on the executive leadership team within the company. So you may be wanting to ask, "Yo! How can YOU of all people be supportive of Mayer's decision to not allow Yahoo! employee's to work remotely or from home a few days a week?"
Well, it comes down to exactly what I realized myself when working from home - and the main reason I decided to leave my company:
Being remote means not getting the face time needed to push my agenda forward within the company and to partners."Out of sight, out of mind" is what happens. And when you are aggressively trying to grow professionally (which most junior and mid-level employees are trying to do) or aggressively help grow a company (which is what Mayer is and I was trying to do), you NEED to be present and visible. It doesn't matter how many emails you send, how much work you get done and how on-time you are with your projects. Those all are critical - make no mistake... But equally important are building culture, establishing a mission which all are invested, and working to make sure the execution towards those goals is getting done.
Sure, the "execution" piece can be done remotely. But I think Mayer's stance on this has changed in order to clean up Yahoo!'s culture and make sure everyone who is working for her is on board and dedicated to the mission. This is an aggressive move by her, absolutely. But I think it is one that Yahoo! desperately needs. I back, what I see as, her "get on board or ship out"approach.
This move will weed out those who just view this as a "job" versus those who truly want Yahoo! to be great again.I have no doubt that eventually there will be the opportunity to work remotely or from home a few days a week again for Yahoo! employees. But this is a transition time, and what she is doing is exactly what needs to be done. While I can sympathize with people who want to work remotely, or took the job because they worked remotely, or have children and feel they need to be able to work from home a few days a week... The reality is that these are things that need to be de-prioritized in order to move the company forward at this time.
It's the same conclusion I am came to about working remotely at my last company. It was critical that I be present with colleagues and junior team members, as well as cross-agency partners. And, unfortunately, my holding company was not on board with building out a Boston office at some point. It was very clear that "all roads lead to NYC," and that meant I was going to have to spend at least two days a week on a train heading South. Additionally, it meant hopping on planes to Chicago and LA a bit more to visit other office locations to get things done. And as much as I love traveling (and I really do), it became clear that my agenda for what I was building and the agenda of colleagues in other parts were not in sync.
So I pulled the plug. I wished them well. Because the reality is that they are in a mode right now where they need "all hands on deck" and everyone to be on the same page. Things shift quickly in our industry, which is the same industry in which Mayer leads. People need to be present.
I think it is very kind of Mayer to give employees the "heads up" that this change will be happening in a few months. This gives them a full quarter to get on board with it or find new work. Pretty generous, if you ask me.
Comments
We as a culture are far too hung up on personality rather than measurable contribution. Facetime might make someone feel better, but it doesn't produce results.
Certainly, there are those that abuse the privilege, but there must be a better way to weed them out. I can't imagine that the best solution is destroying a work environment that lets many thrive in a way that is simply not possible in the ever dehumanizing world of the modern office.