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Yahoo Talent Exodus Accelerates as Marissa Mayer’s Turnaround Flounders

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Re: Yahoo Talent Exodus Accelerates as Marissa Mayer’s Turnaround Flounders

#101

Post by thoman23 »

sremani wrote: post #47
coldpie wrote: post #3

What does Yahoo do? Microsoft has Windows, Office and Xbox. Amazon has massive web server and product distribution platforms. Apple has OS X and iPhone. Google has Android, search, ads, and an online office suite. What does Yahoo do? I guess they have some long-time email users and a well-liked stock tracking platform?

Yahoo Sports and Yahoo Finance are quality products.

Yahoo Sports was a quality product,until the redesign that I understand Mayer micromanaged. Now I find it unusable and I find myself going to nfl.com, mlb.com, or ESPN instead.

Re: Yahoo Talent Exodus Accelerates as Marissa Mayer’s Turnaround Flounders

#102

Post by lmkg »

USNetizen wrote: post #39
VonGuard wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The buzz about their work from home program was that people were abusing it and not doing actual work. I agree, they should be able to work from home, but when she did this, she was basically firing a buncha losers. They should allow people to work from home again, though.

What proof is there that these people were "losers" and slackers as you put it? Either way, you're right about needing to open it back up. The impact to morale overall must have been huge when these people had to scramble to protect their livelihood.

> What proof is there that these people were "losers" and slackers as you put it?

VPN usage statistics. We have to take Y!'s word for it, but most news stories about the policy change say that Mayer looked at usage statistics to find that many work-from-home employees were working less than full time. I can't find a cite right now, but I thought I read that several employees would go weeks without logging in once.

Re: Yahoo Talent Exodus Accelerates as Marissa Mayer’s Turnaround Flounders

#103

Post by discardorama »

"another worried about the ability of managers to stanch the flow of valued employees."

That is the problem right there: shitty managers at Yahoo. I spent a few years there, and despite being in the industry for many years, I've yet to find a more dysfunctional setup. Managers have absolutely zero accountability at Yahoo. In any other place, if engineers start leaving a manager, it would be cause for concern; if too many do so, the manager is axed. But in Yahoo, shitty managers hang around, hopping from project to project, biding their time till they can find a new project to shit on.

And the tech stack?!? Don't even get me started.

Yahoo needs to cut out its management layers, and reduce the manager headcount by 75%. Only then will it start turning around.

Re: Yahoo Talent Exodus Accelerates as Marissa Mayer’s Turnaround Flounders

#104

Post by IgorPartola »

spikels wrote: post #82
danso wrote: post #60

One of the most visible signs of Yahoo's weakness was its strategy to hire big media stars...I'm aware that Yahoo News brings in a godly amount of pageviews to articles on its site...but that hasn't translated to giving a more noticeable platform for its media stars. Since Yahoo hired Katie Couric, who was once a huge star on network news, the most I've seen her name in the wild is in Reddit ads promoting her intervi…

These hires were part of Yahoo's content creation strategy which also included producing TV shows. They just wrote off $42 million for the TV shows[1]. These expensive celebrities are probably next as I doubt they can justify their cost on a shrinking platform. [1] http://variety.com/2015/digital/news/yahoo-misses-q3-earning...

I watched a few episodes of Community from the new season. Yahoo butchered it. That show suffered multiple bad decisions and quality went up and down like a yo-yo, but Yahoo's attempt at reviving it is by far the worst. If this is representative of the majority of their attempts at content creation, I can see why they would want to step away from that.

Re: Yahoo Talent Exodus Accelerates as Marissa Mayer’s Turnaround Flounders

#105

Post by discardorama »

throwitaway1981 wrote: post #6

I'm curious: how bad is it to leave a new job soon after starting (because you realize the product isn't as great as what you thought it would be/too much competition in space)? When you are a high performer, you really don't want to waste everyone's time if you end up in this bad situation. What is the professional thing to do? Asking because the article mentioned some people staying only for a few weeks. In a small…

Nothing beats 24 hours: (ironically, an ex-Yahoo): http://www.businessinsider.com/why-a-clinkle-executive-quit-...

Re: Yahoo Talent Exodus Accelerates as Marissa Mayer’s Turnaround Flounders

#106

Post by discardorama »

USNetizen wrote: post #28

Maybe, just maybe, it has something to do with the whole "work in our offices or quit" memo sent to virtual employees a while back not paying the dividends she had hoped. Adding insult to injury, perhaps her build-out of a full private nursery in the executive suite staffed with her personal nannies while simultaneously requiring staff to stop working remotely, even part time, had a deleterious impact on morale and w…

> Maybe, just maybe, it has something to do with the whole "work in our offices or quit" memo sent to virtual employees a while back not paying the dividends she had hoped.

I really doubt it. The "no work from home" edict applied to about 150 employees total; and the vast majority of them were deservedly kicked out. There were a handful who were doing a tremendous job, and the were allowed to WFH.

Re: Yahoo Talent Exodus Accelerates as Marissa Mayer’s Turnaround Flounders

#107

Post by taternuts »

IgorPartola wrote: post #104
spikels wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These hires were part of Yahoo's content creation strategy which also included producing TV shows. They just wrote off $42 million for the TV shows[1]. These expensive celebrities are probably next as I doubt they can justify their cost on a shrinking platform. [1] http://variety.com/2015/digital/news/yahoo-misses-q3-earning...

I watched a few episodes of Community from the new season. Yahoo butchered it. That show suffered multiple bad decisions and quality went up and down like a yo-yo, but Yahoo's attempt at reviving it is by far the worst. If this is representative of the majority of their attempts at content creation, I can see why they would want to step away from that.

That's a pretty subjective viewpoint there. Even after losing several cast members, it was still very highly rated and I personally thought the job Harmon and crew did to push through that was amazing.

Re: Yahoo Talent Exodus Accelerates as Marissa Mayer’s Turnaround Flounders

#108

Post by discardorama »

programminggeek wrote: post #90

Once Yahoo was willing to stop development of their own search engine and ad platform, I knew they were doomed. Yahoo's ad service was a lot nicer than MSFT Ad Center and nearly as nice as AdWords. They gave up on one of the most strategic positions they had. There is a pile of other stupidity there before and after that others could speak about, but with Yahoo making a deal with Google, it will only continue to be d…

> Yahoo's ad service was a lot nicer than MSFT Ad Center and nearly as nice as AdWords. They gave up on one of the most strategic positions they had.

You can thank Carol Bartz for that. She should be enshrined in the same pantheon as Carly Fiorina.

Re: Yahoo Talent Exodus Accelerates as Marissa Mayer’s Turnaround Flounders

#110

Post by zacharycohn »

IgorPartola wrote: post #104
spikels wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These hires were part of Yahoo's content creation strategy which also included producing TV shows. They just wrote off $42 million for the TV shows[1]. These expensive celebrities are probably next as I doubt they can justify their cost on a shrinking platform. [1] http://variety.com/2015/digital/news/yahoo-misses-q3-earning...

I watched a few episodes of Community from the new season. Yahoo butchered it. That show suffered multiple bad decisions and quality went up and down like a yo-yo, but Yahoo's attempt at reviving it is by far the worst. If this is representative of the majority of their attempts at content creation, I can see why they would want to step away from that.

Community Season 6 was actually pretty good. Especially compared to "The Gas Leak Year." It was designed to close the series gracefully, after actors were already exiting.
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