雅虎女掌门首度回应“坐班”新政
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上星期四，在洛杉矶凯悦酒店世纪城（Hyatt Regency Century City）举办的“理想工作场所”大会上，雅虎（Yahoo）CEO玛丽莎•梅耶尔在致闭幕辞时，再次重申，她决定取消雅虎的“在家办公”政策。 之前，玛丽莎•梅耶尔一直拒绝对这一新政发表评论。雅虎的一位新闻发言人之前表示，公司不会公开讨论内部事务。外界是在今年2月才知道雅虎颁布了将在家办公的员工“召回”到单位上班的命令，当时有一份从雅虎人力资源总监那里泄露出来的备忘录被一个科技博客曝光，此事由此见诸报端。 当天，梅耶尔在向参加“理想工作场所”会议的人力资源行业人士发表演讲时，先是谈到了雅虎“已然充满生气”的企业文化。过了几分钟，她打断了自己的话头，说：“接下来，我要谈谈‘房子里的那只大象’了（指大家都注意到，但故意闭口不谈的问题——译注）。”随即会议厅里的投影仪上就出现了一现紫色的大象，旁边出现了“WFH”（即在家办公）几个大字。 今年2月，雅虎发生备忘录外泄事件后，雅虎公司发布了一份声明。梅耶尔在这次演讲中也复述了声明中的一个关键句：“目前，在家办公对雅虎来说不是一件正确的事。作为一个行业表述，大家对它的理解有误。” 两个月以来，很多批评人士纷纷表示，责令在家办公的雇员到单位上班，从职场灵活度上看是一种退步。梅耶尔的这番演讲算是对这些批评人士的一个迟来的回应。在大型科技公司里，灵活的上班安排是一种常态，许多其他行业都追随科技业的脚步采取了类似的方案。就在雅虎发布声明之后的一个星期里，百思买（Best Buy）也表示将终止该公司的灵活上班政策。 梅耶尔为她的新政辩解道：“人在独处的时候，他工作效率更高。”然后强调道：“但是当人们在一起工作的时候，协作性和创新性变得更强。有些最好的创意就来自两个人想法的结合。”雅虎公司目前一共有1.2万多名员工，梅耶尔的新政大概会影响其中的200名员工。 为了证明这种协作性，梅耶尔谈到了雅虎最新发布的iOS版雅虎天气应用。这款应用在Flickr相簿中采用了嵌入式的地理位置技术，可以让用户获得更加精确的本地天气图像。梅尔称，这个创意就来自两名在同一个办公室里工作的工程师。 梅耶尔在演讲中使用一头紫色大象的图片，借此自嘲了自己的管理失误。正如《财富》杂志（Fortune）的帕蒂•塞勒斯指出的那样，梅耶尔的失误并不在于这个政策本身，而是在于它向公众宣布的方式。大家都在猜测梅耶尔为什么不早点向公众开口，等了这么久才想起解决这个问题，这样只会吸引更多人的注意。在“理想工作场所”会议上，如果梅耶尔不解释她的这项新政，她的发言根本无法打动在场的那么多人力资源专家。 |
In the closing keynote at the Great Place to Work conference at the Hyatt Regency Century City in Los Angeles Thursday, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer defended her decision to kill the company's popular work-from-home policy. Until now, she had refused to comment on the switch, previously saying via a spokesperson that the company does not discuss internal matters. The come-to-work order was first reported when a leaked memo from Yahoo's human resources director was published by a tech blog in February. Addressing a crowd of human resources professionals, Mayer launched into a speech about the Internet giant's "already vibrant" culture, but after a few minutes interrupted herself and announced, "I need to talk about the elephant in the room." Immediately an image of a purple elephant, with large while letters "WFH" (work from home) painted on its side, appeared on projection screens in the hotel auditorium. She repeated a key phrase the company used in a statement it released after the memo was leaked: "It's not what's right for Yahoo right now," and added "It was wrongly perceived as an industry narrative." Her remarks were a response, two months later, to the many critics who lambasted the policy reversal by calling it a step backward for workplace flexibility. Flex options are the norm at big tech companies, which have inspired many other industries to adopt similar programs. One week after the Yahoo (YHOO) announcement, Best Buy (BBY) said it would end its flexible work policy as well. Mayer defended her decision by first acknowledging that "people are more productive when they're alone," and then stressed "but they're more collaborative and innovative when they're together. Some of the best ideas come from pulling two different ideas together." The shift in policy affects roughly 200 of Yahoo's 12,000 employees. As an example of that collaboration, Mayer touted the newly-launched Yahoo Weather app for iOS, which uses built-in geolocation technology in Flickr photo albums to help users get a more accurate image of local weather -- an idea, she explained, originated by two software engineers who work in the same office. By using the image of a purple elephant in her presentation, Mayer poked fun at her own management gaffe, which, as Fortune's Pattie Sellers argued, wasn't the policy itself but how it was unveiled to the public. Why she refused to speak publicly about it until now is anyone's guess, but waiting so long to address the matter only attracted more attention. She couldn't have earnestly spoken before a group of HR specialists without explaining the policy shift. |
