I am really, to each her own, but I can't wrap my head around being ready to professionally execute my job at 2 wks pp, whether the baby has a fabulous nanny, etc.. I felt unhinged and disjointed for weeks, let alone being totally uncomfortable while sitting down.
As someone who took a shorter maternity leave by choice, I hope she is able to do what she wants to do and doesn't cave to pressure to go longer (or shorter) than she feels is best for her.
As someone who took a shorter maternity leave by choice, I hope she is able to do what she wants to do and doesn't cave to pressure to go longer (or shorter) than she feels is best for her.
This. I did not want to stay home. I have the set-up and support to take the baby to work with me (self-employed) so I did at 5 days PP. Not touching the ML policy in the US, but not every mother needs or wants a long ML. I assume that she likes her job and has set herself up for the support she needs to do the job and live the life she chooses, which is pretty awesome for her!
Post by thebreakfastclub on Sept 1, 2015 9:41:27 GMT -5
I think it's not fair to compare the CEO of a company to someone like me. Who else can truly do her job? And her job isn't standing at the copier waiting for her spreadsheet to come out. Everything 100% caters to her schedule and the priorities she sets.
She made some good changes to her company's parental leave policies a couple of years ago.
I think it's not fair to compare the CEO of a company to someone like me. Who else can truly do her job? And her job isn't standing at the copier waiting for her spreadsheet to come out. Everything 100% caters to her schedule and the priorities she sets.
She made some good changes to her company's parental leave policies a couple of years ago.
Besides the fact that she is a CEO and no one else can do her job, she may WANT to do her job. Almost every female CEO is a Myers Briggs ENTJ. They are the only personality type to feel zero working mom guilt (according to Penelope Trunk, lol). If she is feeling up to working at a certain point, I find it gross that other women would shame her for doing so.
Thank you for posting the information that she extended parental leave benefits following her previous short maternity leave.
I have no issues whatsoever with her taking a short leave, as long as she doesn't try to impose it on others or make any sort of declarative statements that it should be normative for everyone at her company to take a short leave, etc.
Yes, tone starts at the top, but it should be clear that being the CEO is not a "normal job". As long as she encourages "regular" YHOO employees to take "normal" and appropriate amounts of leave based on their individual constraints and desires, I have zero issues.
I was definitely thinking about work within the first month. I was glad to have 12 weeks of paid ML, but I used most of it to travel, hang out with family and friends, and enjoy the summer with DD. I definitely COULD have worked, and in fact, would have probably preferred to go back earlier than I did. I have zero working mom guilt, although I am not an ENTJ (but ESTJ is pretty damn close)
I am completely supportive of better ML policy and normalizing parents in the workplace. I just think it should be a choice and we shouldn't demonize those who want to and are able to go back earlier.
I've got some feelings on this since she isn't helping her own company accept that a regular maternity/paternity leave is OK. It breeds an uncomfortable atmosphere.
This is not necessarily true. She could still support and promote regular leave while choosing herself not to maximize it. She is the CEO, not a "regular" employee.
I've got some feelings on this since she isn't helping her own company accept that a regular maternity/paternity leave is OK. It breeds an uncomfortable atmosphere.
This is not necessarily true. She could still support and promote regular leave while choosing herself not to maximize it. She is the CEO, not a "regular" employee.
I agree with this even though I hate disagreeing with @choco.
I pumped for six months at work. I support my reports pumping for twelve months, or longer, or shorter, depending on what they want to do. Did I set a bad example by "only" pumping for six months??
I really don't like her and hope she gets a rude awakening. I doubt she will, unfortunately.
She's a terrible example and sets a completely unfair precedent to other women who work at Yahoo while allowing herself to have perks that she won't offer to her employees.
I really don't like her and hope she gets a rude awakening. I doubt she will, unfortunately.
She's a terrible example and sets a completely unfair precedent to other women who work at Yahoo while allowing herself to have perks that she won't offer to her employees.
But not everyone at the company deserves the same perks! They have different roles and titles and qualifications and strengths and weaknesses.
Not everything has to be equal to be fair. Do you really think every employee at Yahoo "deserves" a built-in nursery?
I really don't like her and hope she gets a rude awakening. I doubt she will, unfortunately.
She's a terrible example and sets a completely unfair precedent to other women who work at Yahoo while allowing herself to have perks that she won't offer to her employees.
But not everyone at the company deserves the same perks! They have different roles and titles and qualifications and strengths and weaknesses.
Not everything has to be equal to be fair. Do you really think every employee at Yahoo "deserves" a built-in nursery?
My CEO has perks I don't have... isn't that normal?
My first request would be to have all flights on our private planes.
I would be annoyed if I were a Yahoo employee and could no longer work from home, but IIRC they investigated and the employees weren't even signing on to the VPN for a full day at home. !!
Post by jeaniebueller on Sept 1, 2015 10:05:33 GMT -5
She is a CEO. SHe is held to a different standard than the rest of her employees. Unless she is actively telling yahoo employees that they had better not take maternity leave and penalizing them as such, I can't get upset about this.
But not everyone at the company deserves the same perks! They have different roles and titles and qualifications and strengths and weaknesses.
Not everything has to be equal to be fair. Do you really think every employee at Yahoo "deserves" a built-in nursery?
My CEO has perks I don't have... isn't that normal?
My first request would be to have all flights on our private planes.
I would be annoyed if I were a Yahoo employee and could no longer work from home, but IIRC they investigated and the employees weren't even signing on to the VPN for a full day at home. !!
Exactly. She didn't take the perk away just to be a bitch for no reason. She took it away because productivity studies showed that her employees were not actually working when "working from home"
I think it's not fair to compare the CEO of a company to someone like me. Who else can truly do her job? And her job isn't standing at the copier waiting for her spreadsheet to come out. Everything 100% caters to her schedule and the priorities she sets.
She made some good changes to her company's parental leave policies a couple of years ago.
Besides the fact that she is a CEO and no one else can do her job, she may WANT to do her job. Almost every female CEO is a Myers Briggs ENTJ. They are the only personality type to feel zero working mom guilt (according to Penelope Trunk, lol). If she is feeling up to working at a certain point, I find it gross that other women would shame her for doing so.
Thank you for posting the information that she extended parental leave benefits following her previous short maternity leave.
I'm an ESTJ. So close or I could've been a CEO too!
I think it's not fair to compare the CEO of a company to someone like me. Who else can truly do her job? And her job isn't standing at the copier waiting for her spreadsheet to come out. Everything 100% caters to her schedule and the priorities she sets.
She made some good changes to her company's parental leave policies a couple of years ago.
Her COO. She has a #2 for the sole reason that the company does not experience key man/woman risk. I am not mad at her for going back to work so quickly. More power to her since she has all of the resources necessary to make that work. What I am a little ticked about is the fact that despite extending leave for her own employees, she is setting a very different tone for her company. The pressure for mothers and fathers to come back earlier from leave will be there.
Do you think that her changing the parental leave policy, and making it better, could also have changed the tone for the better?
I saw my CEO in a meeting with 2000 people twice a year, and sometimes in the cafeteria. He is worth $1 billion. He was so far removed from me that his lifestyle didn't really mean anything to my day to day life.
I think her changing a formal HR policy is more meaningful.
I really don't like her and hope she gets a rude awakening. I doubt she will, unfortunately.
She's a terrible example and sets a completely unfair precedent to other women who work at Yahoo while allowing herself to have perks that she won't offer to her employees.
But not everyone at the company deserves the same perks! They have different roles and titles and qualifications and strengths and weaknesses.
Not everything has to be equal to be fair. Do you really think every employee at Yahoo "deserves" a built-in nursery?
I don't think all employees should have the same perks as senior managers, but I think the private nursery is taking it a bit far. I think she should have opened a daycare in the building that was open to all employees that she also used herself.
But not everyone at the company deserves the same perks! They have different roles and titles and qualifications and strengths and weaknesses.
Not everything has to be equal to be fair. Do you really think every employee at Yahoo "deserves" a built-in nursery?
I don't think all employees should have the same perks as senior managers, but I think the private nursery is taking it a bit far. I think she should have opened a daycare in the building that was open to all employees that she also used herself.
This is odd.
Why do you think someone should be forced to use a certain type of childcare if they have other options?
Why aren't people saying that male CEOs should be forced to put their kids in daycare and not use a nanny or SAHM?
Should we be forcing CEOs to use food stamps or medical assistance too? This whole debate surrounding women and things that people extrapolate from one woman's choices is so odd to me.
I think it's not fair to compare the CEO of a company to someone like me. Who else can truly do her job? And her job isn't standing at the copier waiting for her spreadsheet to come out. Everything 100% caters to her schedule and the priorities she sets.
She made some good changes to her company's parental leave policies a couple of years ago.
Besides the fact that she is a CEO and no one else can do her job, she may WANT to do her job. Almost every female CEO is a Myers Briggs ENTJ. They are the only personality type to feel zero working mom guilt (according to Penelope Trunk, lol). If she is feeling up to working at a certain point, I find it gross that other women would shame her for doing so.
Thank you for posting the information that she extended parental leave benefits following her previous short maternity leave.
I don't think all employees should have the same perks as senior managers, but I think the private nursery is taking it a bit far. I think she should have opened a daycare in the building that was open to all employees that she also used herself.
This is odd.
Why do you think someone should be forced to use a certain type of childcare if they have other options?
Why aren't people saying that male CEOs should be forced to put their kids in daycare and not use a nanny or SAHM?
Should we be forcing CEOs to use food stamps or medical assistance too? This whole debate surrounding women and things that people extrapolate from one woman's choices is so odd to me.
Huh?
I wasn't saying she should be forced. She wanted to bring her baby to work. She paid to have a private nursery put in. I'm just saying I don't think this was right and this was taking things a bit far, an an alternative to THIS ARRANGEMENT could have been to instead put in a daycare that was available to more employees than just herself.
I've got some feelings on this since she isn't helping her own company accept that a regular maternity/paternity leave is OK. It breeds an uncomfortable atmosphere.
But other than extending leave in the official policy, which it looks like she did, what else is she supposed to do?
If she doesn't want to take a long leave, why should she?
Unless someone shows evidence that there is this policy, but she is emailing and texting employees to come back early and it is breeding an unhealthy work environment, then why is what she chooses to do uncomfortable?
Some women, rightfully so, don't want to take several months off and I think that's ok too.
I totally get the culture thing, and it is important.
It's like firms where you "get" 6-10 weeks of vacation, but "no one" takes it. Of course there are brave people who need to start doing so, and yes, those people should be in management.
But I still don't think that it means that the CEO needs to take more leave than she wants to or feels is prudent to keep her job and her company running.
FWIW, if I thought I could get away with it and afford it I would build an addition on to my school and hire a nanny to watch my kids there. Lol. #neverhappening.
But other than extending leave in the official policy, which it looks like she did, what else is she supposed to do?
If she doesn't want to take a long leave, why should she?
Unless someone shows evidence that there is this policy, but she is emailing and texting employees to come back early and it is breeding an unhealthy work environment, then why is what she chooses to do uncomfortable?
Some women, rightfully so, don't want to take several months off and I think that's ok too.
She can start by not telling the world her plans for leave. The fact that she chooses to work day 2 after giving birth is all fine and dandy, no one really needs to know that except for the board of directors and the people she deals with every day. The fact that she made a blog post about her plans for leave puts it in uncomfortable territory for me. If she really wanted to support that new HR policy, why is she making her own plans for leave a big deal by making it so public?
To reassure people who worry that a woman CEO of childbearing age will disappear on the job, slack off, be gone for 3+ months.
I completely agree with you that she shouldn't "have" to announce her plans so early, but if she hadn't, people would be going "Can she really hack this job with 3 kids?" "Why didn't we hire a man?" "It's too risky to give big jobs to women who will just be out having babies"
It totally sucks, and she is under intense scrutiny and criticism either way.
But other than extending leave in the official policy, which it looks like she did, what else is she supposed to do?
If she doesn't want to take a long leave, why should she?
Unless someone shows evidence that there is this policy, but she is emailing and texting employees to come back early and it is breeding an unhealthy work environment, then why is what she chooses to do uncomfortable?
Some women, rightfully so, don't want to take several months off and I think that's ok too.
She can start by not telling the world her plans for leave. The fact that she chooses to work day 2 after giving birth is all fine and dandy, no one really needs to know that except for the board of directors and the people she deals with every day. The fact that she made a blog post about her plans for leave puts it in uncomfortable territory for me. If she really wanted to support that new HR policy, why is she making her own plans for leave a big deal by making it so public?
I would presume because she felt like she would get some scrutiny either way? I read the blog post she wrote and it seemed pretty appropriate. It's not like she's touring national news outlets making it a big deal. She's due in Dec which isn't that far away, so it seems like an appropriate time to say something. Obviously if she didn't want to say anything that'd be fine too, but it seems like either way there would at least be some people talking about the choices she makes as a CEO.
And also for me personally it is kind of refreshing to see a woman who publicly is open about these kind of things. I obviously have no clue how I'll be as a mom, but I feel as though my thoughts are similar to SJ's in wanting to work and return early. With so much mom guilt going around it's nice to see a woman who seems confident in her choice to have a great career and family.
I do understand if her employees are truly getting hurt by her actions, but if she wants to return to work quickly then I think she should not be criticized for being open about it. More power to her in her position.
I really have a hard time even taking this seriously. It's Yahoo. It's like talking about the goings ons at Radioshack. lol
Exactly. Yahoo has only 800 million monthly active users, making it half the size of Facebook; has more employees than Facebook, and they own Tumblr, so they're clearly not relevant to anything.