Media Minute: Come-to-Work Ruckus
Media Minute: Come-to-Work Ruckus
By Jerry Brown, APR
www.JerryBrownPR.com
CEO Marissa Mayer certainly kicked off a ruckus when she told Yahoo employees they have to come to work. No more working from home.
The announcement brought some support and a lot of negative publicity, including references to Mayer as tone deaf, out of touch, snobbish — and worse.
A PR blunder? Yes.
The right thing to do? I don’t know.
Should she reverse herself and let Yahoo employees work from home? No.
At least three factors contributed to the backlash to Mayer’s come-to-work order:
- The no-exceptions tone of the new policy. Softer wording would have helped. Requiring workers to come to work except in extraordinary cases to be considered on a case-by-case basis would have softened the criticism. Or “encouraging” workers to come to work and not granting many exceptions. The absolutist, no-exceptions tone was a PR blunder.
- Announcement of the come-to-work order came on the heels of stories about Mayer having a nursery built next to her office so she can bring her baby to work with her, an option unavailable to other parents working at Yahoo. Another PR mistake. There should have been more time between these two events. Better yet, how about building a nursery available to all parents on a pay-to-use basis?
- Mayer’s order triggered an emotional response among telecommuters across the country, including those who don’t work for Yahoo. The no-exceptions tone of the order made this worse.
Having said all that, Mayer may have made the right decision in asking workers to show up at the office instead of working from home.
Her edict has an air of desperation to it. But Yahoo’s clearly struggling. So, she may be right when she says everyone being in the office will lead to more collaboration that will help turn the company around.
Will her back-to-work order save Yahoo? I have no idea. But emphasizing the need for everyone to pitch in to help restore Yahoo to its former greatness was important to say. Did she say it? I don’t know. It certainly didn’t come across that way in the media coverage.
Given all the criticism, should Mayer reverse herself and tell Yahoo employees they can work from home after all? No. And this is the point of this week’s Media Minute.
The wave of negative publicity is pretty much over — unless something happens to revive it. One of the things that could revive it would be to reverse or modify the earlier order in the wake of all the criticism. A reversal wouldn’t lead to positive comments. It would simply open up a new round of criticism rehashing the bad publicity from last week.
If the come-to-work order proves to be a mistake, Mayer should change it. But not just yet. And if she’s right and her come-to-work order turns things around at Yahoo, let’s hope she gets credit for that someday.
That’s my two cents’ worth. What’s yours?
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Listen to Jerry’s Tips for Telling Your Story every Tuesday at 11:05 a.m., Mountain Time, on the Experience Pros Radio Show, KLZ 560AM in Denver or at www.560thesource.com on the Internet. Missed it on the air? Listen to the archives. And check out Jerry’s new content-focused blog at www.JerryBrownPR.com.
Tags: Denver PR, JerryBrownPR, Marissa Mayer, media minute, Media Minute: Come-to-Work Ruckus, monday morning media minute, Yahoo
March 4th, 2013 at 10:44 am
My reaction was the same as one of the late night talk show hosts in his monolog the evening this became news, “People are still using Yahoo?”
How many employees does Yahoo have? And they work in the USA– that’s interesting. How many users? Is there a new feature that’s being widely used, created a need for all hands on deck? Seemed to me the company could have turned the PR blunder into a follow up PR Bonanza, send visitors to Yahoo.com through the roof.
In fact, I wondered if maybe the “blunder” was an intentional set up for such a Bonanza. Guess not. And it wouldn’t work if they only have 4 part time employees left in the USA, which might be the case as far as I know.
March 4th, 2013 at 12:14 pm
Tough call all the way around. It sounds like she was playing the role of hard nose, no nonsense CEO when she hit send on the final communique. Which doesn’t jive with the day care built for one persona. Ultimately I think it is the end of the end. Too bad because Google and Bing need competition to keep them honest. But, a great way to show how the use of words signals so much more than what is said or not said. Great post Jerry!
March 4th, 2013 at 1:40 pm
Is another way to look at this that she come off decisive.
Jerry, How does one convey decisiveness and swift action as the CEO without showing panic.
Do we see this as panic because we know how Yahoo is doing? Remember she comes from Google and Google has a culture of face to face meetings when possible and a strong campus culture…Just wondering because I think this has been a very interesting topic in all the areas and ways it is being covered.