Post by sweettooth on Jul 17, 2012 23:03:31 GMT -5
This is an interesting comment from another board:
At Marissa's level, it not everyday grunt work that's going to save Yahoo but whole lot of strategy! That begins with what yahoo is all about, reviving their appeal to users and reversing the decline in revenues! Let's not confuse putting in the time in the office with being able to do this! With Marissa designing the simple Google search box to their look and feel to creating totally new products at Google from scratch, it's her ideas, design sensibilities and imagination that's going to make a difference! Think she cannot do this while being on maternity leave and staring at the beautiful mountains in Yosemite, think again! Her job is not one of 12 hour days but the 12 hours she comes up with exactly the right plan, gets the right people in place and motivate them to goget it done!
This is an interesting comment from another board:
At Marissa's level, it not everyday grunt work that's going to save Yahoo but whole lot of strategy! That begins with what yahoo is all about, reviving their appeal to users and reversing the decline in revenues! Let's not confuse putting in the time in the office with being able to do this! With Marissa designing the simple Google search box to their look and feel to creating totally new products at Google from scratch, it's her ideas, design sensibilities and imagination that's going to make a difference! Think she cannot do this while being on maternity leave and staring at the beautiful mountains in Yosemite, think again! Her job is not one of 12 hour days but the 12 hours she comes up with exactly the right plan, gets the right people in place and motivate them to goget it done!
I agree with this, minus all the exclamation points. This lady is not doing what you or I do all day folks. Let's not pretend it has any relevance to us.
My CFO has an assistant and commutes 500 miles to work each week. And yet, no one is expecting me to work out of a hotel room.
Post by princesscal on Jul 18, 2012 3:21:55 GMT -5
She has a choice, isn't that what it's all about? She had chosen to go back early. She knew that going into the job that this would probably be the case. As others have said, she'll have plenty of help. I say, good for her!!
ITA. The caveat is when people at other companies start using her as an example as to why women don't need the leave. We're an unusually intelligent cross section of our country. We look at her and know she's the 1% and will have a lot of help. Some schmuck middle manager at Asswipes R Us Corporate won't care about that little detail.
I have a friend who was just pushed out of a Fortune 500 company. I won't say who incase there is a lawsuit, but she was pushed out when #2 was 3 weeks old. Her (new) manager told her to report back to work and was not going to let her use any of her banked PTO, which she had banked for that exact purpose. Her baby was in the NICU for the 1st week of his life and she only wanted to take 9 weeks. I worry that managers will look at the Yahoo CEO and say "See?"
On the other hand, I have another friend who was up for partner at her big, totally old boy network, national law firm when she got pregnant. Six days after her c-section she spent 4 hours at her desk, and was back at a regular schedule within a month. She made partner and had another baby and is a wonderful, loving mother.
how is that even legal? Oh, it's not as the fortune 500 is probably not fmla exempt. Same for.other somewhat large companies
FMLA has a "key man" exception - it doesn't apply to a certain number of highly paid individuals -- I think it's the top 5% or 10% of salaries at any given company aren't eligible for FMLA leave.
If I can get back to work with a 3-day-old, then why can't the CEO of Yahoo? At least she has the compensation to making working worth it.
Holy crap, 3 days? Two weeks? You people are amazing. My physical recovery was pretty easy, and I barely had the mental wherewithal to tie my own shoes.
Thank you for posting this. I think it sums up how I feel perfectly. Like pp have said, there is no one perfect way to manage a family and "bond" with your babies. She may not find that it's as easy peasy as she thinks to go back, but she is in a position to make it work for her and for her family, as well as her company.
Also, I love you all to pieces, but I am just the slightest bit amused by the "she has worked her whole life to get to this position" comments. She's 37. I realize this makes her a geriatric in Tech World, but at the risk of sounding as though I'm diminishing her accomplishment, "whole life" in this context is just a bit different than someone putting in 20-hour days for 30 years. ;D
Anyway, best wishes to her. I hope she is a raging success.
how is that even legal? Oh, it's not as the fortune 500 is probably not fmla exempt. Same for.other somewhat large companies
FMLA has a "key man" exception - it doesn't apply to a certain number of highly paid individuals -- I think it's the top 5% or 10% of salaries at any given company aren't eligible for FMLA leave.
No, the top 10% salaried employees are eligible for leave, but can be denied reinstatement, but the employee would have had to have been notified that the company is defining them as a key employee
FMLA has a "key man" exception - it doesn't apply to a certain number of highly paid individuals -- I think it's the top 5% or 10% of salaries at any given company aren't eligible for FMLA leave.
No, the top 10% salaried employees are eligible for leave, but can be denied reinstatement, but the employee would have had to have been notified that the company is defining them as a key employee
Thanks for clarifying - I'm usually the person up in arms about bad FMLA info too. Shame on me.
That said, the possibility of being denied reinstatement is not meaningfully different from not being FMLA eligible since the point of the FMLA is to reinstate you.
I don't care if she works or doesnt work, but I think that if you're working, you're by definition *not* on leave. It would be more accurate for her to say she is not planning to take any maternity leave.
This. Which is why I'm wondering why she's saying she'll "work through maternity leave". Because that's totally different than "I'm not taking maternity leave."
I think it depends on what you define as "work".
When I was on leave I was still 'available'. I did go in for one meeting when B was about, uh, 6 weeks old. I brought him with me, nursed him and then held him while talking with our incoming president, our outgoing interim president and the team. I also called in on a conference call (again while nursing him). That was work, but I was most certainly on leave. It was my choice to attend - I wasn't under obligation to do so like I would have been if I weren't on leave.
Frankly, I think she's saying she'll "work thru leave" because it's the PR line to put out there. She's taking over a tech company that's lost 40% of its stock value in the last 5 years. If she'd taken the job and then said "oh, btw, 3 months from now I'm going to be taking 12 weeks off" she'd be lambasted by the BoD, the press, stocks would have fallen even more (even with the announcement of her hiring they fell on Tuesday), and a shitstorm would have ensued.
Especially if the tinfoil hat theory proves right that she was brought on as the "fall guy" to finally just put Yahoo out of its misery.
It's also been previously stated that what MM will be doing for work is NOT what most of us are thinking of. Much of what she'll be doing is all something that could easily be done while taking a relaxed mat leave with a planned "early" return. I'm sure it helps that she'll probably have a huge support venue in her H (venture capitalist and former lawyer) and the ability to flex schedule.
Finally, yes, she may well be operating off a hopeful view of what her labor and delivery will be like. Who among us didn't? And maybe her pregnancy has been so easy and textbook she's easily able to think her L&D will be too. And maybe it will be. Not every L&D reads like something off the "Birth Stories" board on TB.
how is that even legal? Oh, it's not as the fortune 500 is probably not fmla exempt. Same for.other somewhat large companies
FMLA has a "key man" exception - it doesn't apply to a certain number of highly paid individuals -- I think it's the top 5% or 10% of salaries at any given company aren't eligible for FMLA leave.
Is the question about the friend who was pushed out from the F500, or the friend who went back to her law firm at 6 days postpartum? The 6 days friend was totally by her own choice, which was the point. She still bonded with her baby and is a wonderful mother, even though she went back 6 days after a c-section.
Dittoes right back to 2CD. I was very careful not to work while on leave because I was getting disability/family leave from the state, which very specifically states that you are ineligible if you do any work. I doubt MM has the same restriction, and actually I'd be surprised if she's taking any technical leave at all, beyond maybe PTO.
ETA: I can't believe I forgot this twice - CONGRATS IRISH!!