4 ms·
Her performance ranking program was so badly implemented by Yahoo’s ugly layers of middle management that it deserved every bit of the mocking and criticism it
by bdavisx 10y ago
Her performance ranking program was so badly implemented by Yahoo’s ugly layers of middle management that it deserved every bit of the mocking and criticism it got, both on devel-random and in the tech press.
I think one thing that could possibly "save" Yahoo would be to fire every single middle manager and above immediately (and probably most of the 1st line management as well), and then rebuild the management from the ground up.
Yes, Yahoo would be a mess for a year or more, but it already is a mess and has been for years - and it seems like a common thread is the entrenched management that isn't willing to change and has a lot of incompetency. Time to throw out the baby with the bath water.
- jessaustin 10y agoHaha it would be great to see a troubled company try that. One suspects that we'd hear it more than see it however, as the great wailing and gnashing of teeth by PHBs would be audible on other continents. It would have to be a completely vendor-driven company, however... er, excuse me, "a company that concentrated on its core competencies". After all, the paychecks still have to go out, for the peons left after the great firing, and you can't just give the bank accounts to some random person.
- jelenaw 10y agoI've actually said exactly this several times including in a convo with an exec-level ex-Yahoo last night. I don't think it's ever really been possible even for Marissa - the company is public and if you fire thousands of people you are likely to scare the board and shareholders. But I can't think of a middle manager I knew at Yahoo who deserved to stay.
- smacktoward 10y agoThere's a simple reason why you'll never see this strategy attempted: who decides which people get fired? Middle management and above.