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Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer worked from her hospital bed shortly after having twins

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navii

My fantasy is that my girlfriend was actually a young high school girl.
But after having kids, Mayer remained closely in touch with Yahoo's management, even finding a way to speak with Yahoo chairman Maynard Webb on the phone from her hospital bed, the WSJ report says. The two discussed the company's next steps on the phone, and soon announced that it would explore a sale of its core internet business.

Nice, just the sort of decisions you want to be making from a hospital bed after giving birth to 2 babies.

But I've never had children or been a CEO of anything so I wouldn't know whats involved (thats not sarcasm).
 
Huh? The article literally says

I don't know if finding time to still reach out to Yahoo corporate is "neglecting" your children though. There are times when your children will be asleep or being seen by other family members. I absolutely agree with you that they shouldn't be neglected for work, but I don't know enough about her daily routine to equate finding time to still do some minor work with child neglect.

Utero stress effects have been observed. The poster is right.

Stress in any form is generally not good for fetal development. That said, there is no indication that hours worked = more stress.

Yup, you're right. Hopefully she handles stress well though and her work behavior wasn't as taxing on her as it would have been on a normal person.

It's clearly some fluff piece we're all supposed to read and be in awe of.

CEO works 24/7 even after having twins! be amazed, plebs.

I agree. It's supposed to be a puff piece and people are absolutely fine to not be impressed by it or find it something worth cheering on. But some of the comments in here almost feel personally upset at the notion that the CEO of a struggling company is still working harder than there's any expectation for her to do so during the time of her pregnancy especially.
 

Syriel

Member
It's only logical. IF you're doing three meetings a day, the very next day your TWINS are born, unless it's a 3 minute meeting which I very much doubt, you're neglecting at least their psychological and emotional health.

You can delegate the usual baby stuff to nurses / husband / mother whatever (diapers, baths, massages), but the mother/son emotional connection the very next day they are born can't be done by someone else. It's supposed to be a time of peace with your son, bonding and making sure his first days out of the womb are not traumatic.

You simply can't offer them that while having 3 meetings a day and worrying about a ducking huge thing like Yahoo, SPECIALLY if you have twins. Sorry.

Not three meetings a day. Three-day meetings.

Unless you're talking one-off epic negotiations here (due to a merger or something of the sort), no meeting should last three days, let alone having multiples of them.

One of the worst things you can do as a manager is have too many meetings.

Yes, have meetings to sync-up and knowledge transfer as needed, but if those are running longer than 30 to 60 minutes, you're doing it wrong.
 
I don't see this as something to be admired. She sets a terrible example for women everywhere that will most certainly be used against them when they need maternity leave.

"Oh look the CEO of Yahoo had TWINS and she started working again before the meds even worn off! What do you mean you need maternity leave!? Lazy!"
 
I agree. It's supposed to be a puff piece and people are absolutely fine to not be impressed by it or find it something worth cheering on. But some of the comments in here almost feel personally upset at the notion that the CEO of a struggling company is still working harder than there's any expectation for her to do so during the time of her pregnancy especially.

It's a problem because the whole system of parental leave in the US is absolutely pathetic and toxic. My wife is in tears every night at the thought of sending our son to daycare because he's still so young. Celebrating stuff like this only makes it worse.
 

DOWN

Banned
People are posting ridiculous assumptions of stress and neglect without any clue as to how well the woman handles organizing, stress, and multitasking.
 
I wish people wouldn't glorify this kind of excessive behaviour. I hate finding out that i am consuming a product or service that encouraged workaholics to give into their obsession, it's both professionally exploitative and a disregard for their quality of life.
 

Kurdel

Banned
People are posting ridiculous assumptions of stress and neglect without any clue as to how well the woman handles organizing, stress, and multitasking.

Assuming otherwise is naive or just reeks of Dunning-Kruger effect.
 

entremet

Member
People are posting ridiculous assumptions of stress and neglect without any clue as to how well the woman handles organizing, stress, and multitasking.

No one cares. It's her life and she's a grown woman. But to ignore it's not a thing is foolish.
 

numble

Member
Not three meetings a day. Three-day meetings.

Unless you're talking one-off epic negotiations here (due to a merger or something of the sort), no meeting should last three days, let alone having multiples of them.

One of the worst things you can do as a manager is have too many meetings.

Yes, have meetings to sync-up and knowledge transfer as needed, but if those are running longer than 30 to 60 minutes, you're doing it wrong.
Read the OP. Yahoo announced it would sell its core business shortly afterward. It included meetings with board members.

Yahoo was under immense pressure from activist investors to come up with a decision that's easily one of the most important in company history
 

Big-E

Member
Even witg csections, hospitals recommend skin to skin time with mom and breast feeding at least every 3 hours.
 
Whether or not she was stressed enough to affect the birth of her and her children is a moot point in my eyes, since you probably couldn't prove the impact of this situation unless it's drastic.

The real issue is glorifying the fact that she continued to work while about to give birth. That's not right. America has a weird air about it in the job scene, where leaving work after your hours are up is scoffed at, and people who go too far are seen as heroes, usually killing themselves over the job.

My (soon to be former) boss had a mental breakdown because he works early in the morning before work, gets to go to a workout class to discuss work with a few employees, deals with shit all day, and stays late and then usually has to take the shit home.

But everyone is like "WOW YOU ARE SO AMAZING GOOD JOB" even though he doesn't get paid for that extra shit, and the actual work quality would be better if the company was run in such a way that everything is optimized to avoid that happening.

This spills into a bunch of stuff. Maternity leave, general stress levels that have long term impacts on both physical and mental health levels, and much more. In short, it's something that shouldn't have to happen.
 
A CEO is always working. They might not be in the office but they could be on a beach somewhere vacationing and if an important call needs to be had the CEO is obligated to drop everything and take the call.

This is an extreme version of being on-call 24/7 but the point remains. When you have millions of investors and their money is dependent on your performance, there is no "I'll take the call when I get back from maternity leave". You also can't delegate the decision-making to someone else. You were hired for a reason, because they want YOU making the final calls, not someone else.
 
I don't think anyone can "literally work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week" unless they have transcended human need for sleep.

She always felt like someone who has known nothing but success, and spent likewise. Anyone can spend money like crazy when times are good, the good CEOs are the ones who know what to do when things go back and Yahoo was wrong to hire someone who knew nothing but success.
http://www.businessinsider.com/yaho...es-and-sponsorships-says-eric-jackson-2015-12
 

Plinko

Wildcard berths that can't beat teams without a winning record should have homefield advantage
Am I supposed to be impressed or disgusted with the article?

This type of work ethic should not be admired.

My thoughts exactly. It is not often I feel somebody should be "shamed," but this is close. A terrible, terrible example and I'm sure corporate America loves that this is out there. "See, the CEO did it! Why can't you, person who makes 1000 times less than she does?"
 
D

Deleted member 47027

Unconfirmed Member
This is a CEO thing. She does what she needs to.
 

Plinko

Wildcard berths that can't beat teams without a winning record should have homefield advantage
Look at this--she's bragging about it on Twitter:

# of women who took leave = 469; # of women who took maximum leave = 349; # of women who took less than one month leave = 1(me)

Way to go.
 

DKehoe

Member
This kind of thing (among other reasons) is why I will never come close to making that sort of money.
 

entremet

Member
She's also filthy rich so she probably has nannies watching kids anyway.

I'm sure her other employees cannot afford live in nannies. What a dumb thing to brag about.
 
The double-standard around Mayer, even by people who would consider themselves progressive, is disgusting. If she takes time off to be with her kids, people would criticize her that she's giving herself special treatment that she wouldn't extend to her employees (which is likely untrue, yahoo may have a strict work from home policy but the company receives high grades from employees on Work/Life balance). If she works bits and pieces while having this life experience, she's treated with scorn for god knows what reason... "Trying to set an unrealistic standard," or something. Maybe she just cares about her work? Or maybe her work is such an integral part of her life that she is passionate about doing it, even during a time when other people may not? Who the hell is anybody here to judge what motivates someone personally and professionally?

I really don't understand why people are driven to scorn Marissa Mayer. She's a hard working, brilliant person who is doing about the same job with Yahoo! as any hard working brilliant person would be doing.

I don't think that a male CEO in silicon valley would have his life examined in every possible way, and I think her's is being examined by people who would otherwise probably consider themselves progressive. The reason Click-bait "trying to act legit" Business Insider is writing fluff pieces like this is because they know that any article about Mayer, positive or negative, is going to drum up forum posts, clicks, and comment wars of people who feel strongly about her, typically in a negative way. There are few CEOs who are under the microscope much like she is, and I don't think it has anything to do with her performance or the performance of Yahoo!, but instead, with her being a prominent female CEO in the tech industry.
 

Zaptruder

Banned
Let's be real here. Mayer is available 24/7 for her job role as CEO. She's probably at work most hours of the day.

But let's not pretend like she works like a normal pleb - she gets the perks and freedom of autonomy to do as she likes so long as she has a plan of action.

I mean, yes, the job is more stressful than a normal office role - but this is hardly some 24/7 bullshit job that makes you feel like meaningless pap that drains your body and soul.

I mean, if her work was 24/7 as stressful as normal 8/5 work (as opposed to including a bunch of filler events like travel and lunch meetings, etc) she'd be completely wrecked and ineffectual at her role.

But sure, dress it up, and make it sound like she works like some freakazoid ironman. It's possible! But doesn't strike me as particularly realistic.
 
D

Deleted member 47027

Unconfirmed Member
The double-standard around Mayer, even by people who would consider themselves progressive, is disgusting. If she takes time off to be with her kids, people would criticize her that she's giving herself special treatment that she wouldn't extend to her employees (which is likely untrue). If she works bits and pieces while having this life experience, she's treated with scorn for god knows what reason... "Trying to set an unrealistic standard," or something. Maybe she just cares about her work? Or maybe her work is such an integral part of her life that she is passionate about doing it, even during a time when other people may not? Who the hell is anybody here to judge what motivates someone personally and professionally?

I really don't understand why people are driven to scorn Marissa Mayer. She's a hard working, brilliant person who is doing about the same job with Yahoo! as any hard working brilliant person would be doing.

I don't think that a male CEO in silicon valley would have his life examined in every possible way, and I think her's is being examined by people who would otherwise probably consider themselves progressive. The reason Click-bait "trying to act legit" Business Insider is writing fluff pieces like this is because they know that any article about Mayer, positive or negative, is going to drum up forum posts, clicks, and comment wars of people who feel strongly about her, typically in a negative way. There are few CEOs who are under the microscope much like she is, and I don't think it has anything to do with her performance or the performance of Yahoo!, but instead, with her being a prominent female CEO in the tech industry.

There's been plenty of studies to back this up - women can't fucking win. Stay with your kids for a bit? "Oh she's just being a woman" - bust your ass working? "What a heartless machine"

Women are set up to fail.
 
I don't see this as something to be admired. She sets a terrible example for women everywhere that will most certainly be used against them when they need maternity leave.

"Oh look the CEO of Yahoo had TWINS and she started working again before the meds even worn off! What do you mean you need maternity leave!? Lazy!"

Look at this--she's bragging about it on Twitter:



Way to go.

Well, damn.
 
Sorry, but I don't agree with patting people on the back for missing their life and the life of their loved ones. There's more to life than that - or their should be. At some point it's enough and the world will spin without you.

This has nothing to do with being a woman. I'd say the same to a new father.
 
Kind of crazy that Yahoo is in such a terrible state despite the time she sinks in it/her work. Being CEO of a company like that certainly isn't an envious task, though I am a work to live person, so I don't see myself ever wanting to be in any sort of comparable situation.
 

Bleepey

Member
The double-standard around Mayer, even by people who would consider themselves progressive, is disgusting. If she takes time off to be with her kids, people would criticize her that she's giving herself special treatment that she wouldn't extend to her employees (which is likely untrue). If she works bits and pieces while having this life experience, she's treated with scorn for god knows what reason... "Trying to set an unrealistic standard," or something. Maybe she just cares about her work? Or maybe her work is such an integral part of her life that she is passionate about doing it, even during a time when other people may not? Who the hell is anybody here to judge what motivates someone personally and professionally?

I do think it's unfair she's held to a higher standard, however considering she banned remote working and she's now remote working.... it's not unfair to call bullshit
 
Some people can work smart AND hard. It's no different than saying an NBA athlete can do certain things that normal people would never be able to do. They become CEOs for a reason.

Sure, but not that hard. There's always something to be done - it's about getting it done in the best way possible. She's the hardest working CEO in the Valley - is she the best CEO in the Valley? If not, there are tradeoffs being made that aren't worth it (IMO).
 
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