Comments on: Why Marissa Mayer’s Throne Could Signal the End of Company Holiday Parties

By: Evil HR Lady

Evil HR Lady — Tue, 12 Jan 2016 07:53:27 +0000

In reply to A.. Thanks for the insight!

By: A.

A. — Mon, 11 Jan 2016 22:40:02 +0000

I was at the party as an employee and the chair and setup were not as ostentatious as it would appear in the photographs and write-ups. The layout of the room was very open, and the reason for those decorations was obviously to set it apart as a separate section, as well as to give people an area to queue for photo-taking. There was a similar setup for group photos with the same furniture and the cordon elsewhere on the floor.

Marissa is highly approachable on the Yahoo campus. Honestly, this strum und drang is just for the lack of better, most cohesive stories, imo.

Now, before you brand me part of the brainwashed purple masses, let me also mention that I recently decided to depart the company, which I find deeply flawed — however, Marissa is not the problem with Yahoo.

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Thu, 07 Jan 2016 11:19:26 +0000

It’s a technology company. She could have made a video to be shown at the party, expressing her warmest appreciation for all employees and regrets about missing the party due to her pregnancy and birth of twins, and let it at that. I’m sure no one would have batted an eye. Things happen. But the throne thing? OK then.

By: charles

charles — Wed, 06 Jan 2016 18:41:34 +0000

In reply to charles.

Here’s the link that shows her sitting at her “throne” and, I think, very clearly pregnant:

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/yahoo-had-a-party

So, I don’t blame her for setting it up. Just a week before giving birth? You’d find me at home instead of hanging out at a company function into the evening.

By: charles

charles — Wed, 06 Jan 2016 18:34:49 +0000

In reply to Elizabeth West.

Yea, I wondered about that “throne” bit as well. But, I’ve never worked for a company where folks wanted to have their picture taken with the CEO at a party.

Meet with or have a chat with, sure; but, have their picture taken at a holiday party? nope. never. So, I just dismissed it as being a company culture thing. One that I’ve never seen.

Also, maybe I’m misreading after following all the links; but, there were two things that I at first didn’t understand.

One: Following the one link there is a picture of a woman sitting on a high trapeze which I at first thought was her on the “throne.” Nope, it isn’t. It is just one of the wait staff serving champagne. Sort of going with the party’s theme of the roaring 20s extravaganza.

Two: Maybe I’m also not reading this correctly; but, this party (the roaring 20s theme where she had her “throne”) was BEFORE she gave birth. After following a couple of links you can see her sitting in a roped-off area and very clearly pregnant. I mean, I would hope that nobody has a belly that huge AFTER giving birth!

By: Kate

Kate — Wed, 06 Jan 2016 18:24:12 +0000

I don’t know, though. Most of her employees would have access to FMLA, which means they’re not going to be back a week (a WEEK!!!) post-partum. Ms. Mayer takes very short leaves when having her kids-something she might not have done if she were having children at a non-executive level. She probably needed to sit and wanted to at least make a joke of it.

By: Elizabeth West

Elizabeth West — Wed, 06 Jan 2016 16:13:58 +0000

I’m sorry, Suzanne, but I’m going to have to disagree with you on the throne thing. I’m sure plenty of her employees have also given birth and that’s just not a good enough reason for her to set herself up like Queen of the World. I don’t care if she’s the CEO–it’s pretentious, divisive, and snobby. Our CEO is a man, but if he or any executive did something like that, I could never take him seriously ever again.

The rest of your article, as usual, is spot on. 🙂