http://www.wired.com/2016/02/yahoo-plans-to-lay-off-15-percent-of-its-workforce/
After so many failed initiatives, it has come to this finally.
In related news, Yahoo is one of the big tech companies that are still using dreaded stack ranking and firing. One of the victims is suing.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/02/technology/yahoo-employee-ranking-system-lawsuit.html?_r=0
IMO, they can't get rid of Marissa soon enough.
edit: Also goodbye, YAHOO TOWERS! My sweet prince. I was addicted to you in my earlier years.
Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer today announced a slew of changes at the company in order to prove to investors that it still has a real future as a tech giant. “Today, we’re announcing a strategic plan that we strongly believe will enable us to accelerate Yahoo’s transformation,” Mayer said in a statement. “This is a strong plan calling for bold shifts in products and in resources.”
Ahead of the company’s quarterly earnings call, Yahoo said it’s planning to lay off 15 percent of the company (around 1,700 employees) and close offices in Dubai, Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Madrid, and Milan.
The company is also moving away from creating original TV shows, is consolidating its digital magazines, will sell valuable real-estate, and is shuttering legacy products like Yahoo Games. It will also reorganize the company in an effort to increase its number of users and the time they spend on Yahoo properties, especially on mobile, by focusing on search, e-mail, and Tumblr, along with four topical verticals, including news, sports, finance, and lifestyle.
After so many failed initiatives, it has come to this finally.
In related news, Yahoo is one of the big tech companies that are still using dreaded stack ranking and firing. One of the victims is suing.
At Yahoo, the program, known internally as Q.P.R., has been a sore spot among managers and employees since it began. The court filing said that managers were forced to give poor rankings to a certain percentage of their team, regardless of actual performance. Ratings given by front-line managers were arbitrarily changed by higher-level executives who often had no direct knowledge of the employee’s work. And employees were never told their exact rating and had no effective avenue of appeal.
Mr. Anderson said that in his case, he had received high ratings and a promotion before taking a leave of absence in the summer of 2014 to study at the University of Michigan on a Knight-Wallace Fellowship. Although the fellowship leave was approved by two top Yahoo executives, Kathy Savitt and Jackie Reses, who have since left the company, Mr. Anderson said that his boss’s boss, Megan Liberman, called him on Nov. 10 to inform him that he was in the bottom 5 percent of the company’s work force, all of whom were being fired.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/02/technology/yahoo-employee-ranking-system-lawsuit.html?_r=0
IMO, they can't get rid of Marissa soon enough.
edit: Also goodbye, YAHOO TOWERS! My sweet prince. I was addicted to you in my earlier years.