Read the passage below and check your comprehension by answering the following questions. Then “submit” your work.
When Marissa Mayer took over as CEO at the struggling internet company Yahoo, it was not surprising that she would implement organizational techniques used at her wildly successful former employer Google. In a controversial step, she put an end to the company’s work-at-home policy. Telecommuting, she explained, was “not what’s right for Yahoo right now” (Mayer, quoted in Tkaczyk, 2013).
Reactions to the move were mixed. Mayer, a new mother as well as a new CEO, had a nursery built next to her office at Yahoo so she could take her baby to work. Some thought it hypocritical to deny other parents the option to work at home near their own children. Some worried that employees who used to work well at home would be less productive when faced once again with the distractions of a busy office environment.
But others point out that Mayer was hired to bring the kind of energy and innovation that define Google to its failing competitor, and much of that innovation is spurred by the communication environment at the Googleplex—a sprawling campus designed to keep employees happy while they collaborate and interact face-to-face (Rampell & Miller, 2013).
Mayer herself acknowledged that there were trade-offs in both situations. “People are more productive when they’re alone,” she explained a few months after the announcement. “But they’re more collaborative and innovative when they’re together” (Mayer, quoted in Tkaczyk, 2013).
In a turn of events, Mayer announced on her own blog in summer of 2016 that Verizon was acquiring Yahoo’s operating system. Many critics took note that this was one more failure of Yahoo under Mayer’s leadership, yet Mayer insists that this was an important step to unlock the potential for new work in mobile, video, social media, and native advertising (marissamayer.tumblr.com, 2016).