Comments on: Why This Working Mom Agrees with Mayer’s ‘No Work from Home’ Policy

By: Melanie Edwards

Melanie Edwards — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 21:55:15 +0000

Thank you for the comment and sharing your opinion. This is such a varied topic with many points-of-view and I enjoy hearing them all.

By: Melanie Edwards

Melanie Edwards — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 21:52:51 +0000

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I personally agree that it should not be a blanket policy (either way), but do feel for the guest contributor of this article and appreciate her sharing another side of the equation.

By: Maximom

Maximom — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 14:27:18 +0000

There is a lot of personal circumstance in this posting. It sounds like you made some choices that many working moms wouldn’t make- the 6 to 6 thing with your husband was a choice that you made. You could have left work and hung out at Starbucks until he picked you up. Be mindful of the tone you set at work. There are many jobs that require you to be in the office this is true. I don’t know if yours is one of them. It also sounds like your boss is a bit of a hypocrite in not being open to your request. (Personal circumstance) However, as a high level executive leader I would be annoyed by you entering my office in tears. In business- keep even your personal needs aligned with the business.

Now as for executive privilege- nope. Executive women work from home because we work 24/7. There are no off hours for high level executives. So while you were both pregnant- she was likely on a conference call while doing her ultra sound. Working from home is a privilege that executive women earn as they climb the ranks. That said, as a leader I don’t care where my people work from as long as they get it done and are accessible. My admin needs to be here in the office to coordinate with all of the people she supports. Admin is not a work from home job. Sorry this post sounded like you were whining that life isnt fair. Surely you figured that out before now.

By: Unknown Mami

Unknown Mami — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 20:12:24 +0000

What you are describing certainly sounds like inequality, but that does not make me want to jump to if we can’t all work from home, then no one should be able to. It is BS that the privileged get more privilege, but two wrongs don’t make a right. I’m sure that even if your boss was in the office every day you would still be doing tasks for her that have nothing to do with your actual work, that is a flaw in your boss and her sense of entitlement. I also believe that some jobs can not be done remotely, but let’s stop pretending that all jobs require employees to be physically present in a particular location. That is just simply not the case for many jobs. In a company like Yahoo that should be forward thinking and about innovation, pushing an antiquated work model is ABSURD and not conducive to thinking outside the box or rewarding performance. Not to mention all the time it kills in commutes, which is not productive at all. Also, if people were hired and told that they could telecommute, how can you come to them after the fact and say…this job that you accepted under certain circumstances is totally going to change those circumstances and if you don’t like it well, no job for you? Not at all having to do with whether the employees affected were performing well remotely? We are not drones. We need to restructure our society (jobs included) to help us thrive, not to keep us in the same tired routines that are not moving us ahead or helping us excel.

I appreciate you perspective and I love you, but I just can’t agree on this one.