Most of the noise out of Yahoo since it hired ex-Googler Marissa Mayer to be CEO itself has been positive.
But not all of it.
Last week, for example, we got an angry, anti-Mayer email from an anonymous reader who described themselves as a Yahoo employee.
The email attacks Mayer's work on several counts:
- For being late to meetings. "There has not been a single meeting or event here that since she has taken the helm, she arrives on time, not one. The amount of wasted time and anger building up from her lack of caring or understanding that it isn't just her time that matters is astounding. She is routinely over an hour late for things."
- For ignoring Yahoo's non-engineers. "Product feels very empowered but the rest of the company feels like zeros. Sales turnover is accelerating and the impact will be felt in the next three quarters. Could be dramatic."
- For hiring the wrong people for senior roles. "[COO] Henrique [De Castro], [CMO] Kathy Savitt and [HR boss Jacqueline] Reeses are…Smart, yes, collaborative, human, NO! The internal politicking is at an all time high and even those three are fighting with Marissa already."
Readers should note that we tried to verify this person's identity, but after lots of effort, failed.
We showed the email to other Yahoo sources, and they say that some of the details suggest the emailer is someone who is either a Yahoo employee, or one who used to be.
So…Does the email reflect commonly held views among Yahoo employees?
We passed it around to some of our sources close to Yahoo employees to find out.
One former Yahoo, still in touch with many of his colleagues tells us that there are "two camps" at the company – "the pro-Marissa camp and the not-so-happy-with-Marissa-camp."
The "not-so-happy-with-Marissa-camp" people complain that Mayer…
…"hasn't articulated a product strategy widely and has been terrible with communications outside the product/engineering teams at Yahoo."
…"has been bringing in her friends from Google who wield more influence than a lot of long-term Yahoo employees."
…"is blunt and harsh and doesn't suffer people who disagree with her. "
But, says this source, "the dissenters are definitely in the minority."
He says, "Most of the folks I talk to, from the low-level engineers to execs who report to her like the optimism in the company and the halo effect she has brought."
In fact, this source says Yahoo is "now getting resumes from places like Facebook, which would have been unthinkable six months ago."
"To be honest," writes this source, "so little time has passed that I think it's unfair to judge her on anything and it's hard to spot any trends. All the data points in the last few months are positive - from mini-product launches to the stock price."
We'd love to hear from more Yahoo employees. Email nicholas@businessinsider.com.
Here's that first email…
This is a very simple yet interesting story. what the outside world sees and what's actually happening inside of yahoo are two very different tales. Some facts for you;
- Buying us off with free food, phones and parties only goes so far.
- While she is an great product person, she isn't capable of running this company
- There has not been a single meeting or event here that since she has taken the helm, she arrives on time, not one. the amount of wasted time and anger building up from her lack of caring or understanding that it isn't just her time that matters is astounding. she is routinely over an hour late for things.
- She has hired complete [redacted]. Henrique, Kathy Savit and Jacki Reeses are all beyond [redacted]. Smart, yes, collaborative, human, NO! The internal politicking is at an all time high and even those three are fighting with Marissa already.
- I walked by Phish Food conference room the other day and heard yelling during a board meeting
- We are all waiting for her strategy and while we wait, very little is getting done.
- Product feels very empowered but the rest of the company feels like zeros.
- Fellow googlers who worked with her and are friends of mine tell me she is all show and little actual success. Except for her public image. let's see what happens.
- Sales turnover is accelerating and the impact will be felt in the next three quarters. could be dramatic.
- She is incredibly dismissive of anyone's ideas but her own. many feel that SHE feels she can run the entire company herself.
- The problems here are massive and when this halo wears off, look out.
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