雅虎女掌門首度回應“坐班”新政
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????上星期四，在洛杉磯凱悅酒店世紀城（Hyatt Regency Century City）舉辦的“理想工作場所”大會上，雅虎（Yahoo）CEO瑪麗莎?梅耶爾在致閉幕辭時，再次重申，她決定取消雅虎的“在家辦公”政策。 ????之前，瑪麗莎?梅耶爾一直拒絕對這一新政發(fā)表評論。雅虎的一位新聞發(fā)言人之前表示，公司不會公開討論內部事務。外界是在今年2月才知道雅虎頒布了將在家辦公的員工“召回”到單位上班的命令，當時有一份從雅虎人力資源總監(jiān)那里泄露出來的備忘錄被一個科技博客曝光，此事由此見諸報端。 ????當天，梅耶爾在向參加“理想工作場所”會議的人力資源行業(yè)人士發(fā)表演講時，先是談到了雅虎“已然充滿生氣”的企業(yè)文化。過了幾分鐘，她打斷了自己的話頭，說：“接下來，我要談談‘房子里的那只大象’了（指大家都注意到，但故意閉口不談的問題——譯注）。”隨即會議廳里的投影儀上就出現(xiàn)了一現(xiàn)紫色的大象，旁邊出現(xiàn)了“WFH”（即在家辦公）幾個大字。 ????今年2月，雅虎發(fā)生備忘錄外泄事件后，雅虎公司發(fā)布了一份聲明。梅耶爾在這次演講中也復述了聲明中的一個關鍵句：“目前，在家辦公對雅虎來說不是一件正確的事。作為一個行業(yè)表述，大家對它的理解有誤。” ????兩個月以來，很多批評人士紛紛表示，責令在家辦公的雇員到單位上班，從職場靈活度上看是一種退步。梅耶爾的這番演講算是對這些批評人士的一個遲來的回應。在大型科技公司里，靈活的上班安排是一種常態(tài)，許多其他行業(yè)都追隨科技業(yè)的腳步采取了類似的方案。就在雅虎發(fā)布聲明之后的一個星期里，百思買（Best Buy）也表示將終止該公司的靈活上班政策。 ????梅耶爾為她的新政辯解道：“人在獨處的時候，他工作效率更高。”然后強調道：“但是當人們在一起工作的時候，協(xié)作性和創(chuàng)新性變得更強。有些最好的創(chuàng)意就來自兩個人想法的結合。”雅虎公司目前一共有1.2萬多名員工，梅耶爾的新政大概會影響其中的200名員工。 ????為了證明這種協(xié)作性，梅耶爾談到了雅虎最新發(fā)布的iOS版雅虎天氣應用。這款應用在Flickr相簿中采用了嵌入式的地理位置技術，可以讓用戶獲得更加精確的本地天氣圖像。梅爾稱，這個創(chuàng)意就來自兩名在同一個辦公室里工作的工程師。 ????梅耶爾在演講中使用一頭紫色大象的圖片，借此自嘲了自己的管理失誤。正如《財富》雜志（Fortune）的帕蒂?塞勒斯指出的那樣，梅耶爾的失誤并不在于這個政策本身，而是在于它向公眾宣布的方式。大家都在猜測梅耶爾為什么不早點向公眾開口，等了這么久才想起解決這個問題，這樣只會吸引更多人的注意。在“理想工作場所”會議上，如果梅耶爾不解釋她的這項新政，她的發(fā)言根本無法打動在場的那么多人力資源專家。 |
????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. |
