Yahoo: “Let Us Eat and Drink, for Tomorrow Your Jobs Die”
by John Paczkowski
Posted on December 9, 2008 at 12:05 AM PT
Come tomorrow, Yahoo will sack some 1,500 employees, depriving them of their livelihoods and turning them into data points on a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics unemployment graph. That it will do this amid the worst recession in 50 years is understandable.
That it will do it four days after a lavish holiday party is astonishing (click on the image above).
Appalling, actually.
Nearly as appalling as the party’s Vegas theme and decor. Was there no better use for the considerable funds put toward this party and its pirate ships and showgirls and diminutive Eiffel Tower?
Of course there was: The more than 1,500 Yahoos who will be left without jobs in an increasingly ugly recession right before the winter holidays.
Now perhaps the event had been planned and paid for, and Yahoo (YHOO) had no recourse but move forward with it. But honestly, how far in advance would it have had to have been planned and purchased for the company’s leadership to have been oblivious to this ugly December it’s now facing?
Yahoo announced layoffs in October. It hired management consulting outfit Bain & Co. to help it “get fit” back in September. And it’s had “layoffs” written all over it since…well, since the last time it announced layoffs 10 months ago.
Perhaps, the demand for portable Eiffel Towers, Elvis wedding chapels, Vegas showgirls and Tina Turner impersonators this year was so great that a nonrefundable deposit was required to secure them far in advance of this event, and the fiscally responsible Yahoo just couldn’t bear to lose it.
But even if it was, shouldn’t the company, out of conscience, have canceled it anyway? To do otherwise is grossly insensitive. Isn’t it?
[Image credits: Photos used with kind permission of Digital Kamehameha/Flickr]
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Comments
After these 1500 are gone, believe it or not, the company needs to go forward and continue. The remaining employees still come to work and put in their best efforts. In a year when we already know that bonuses will be non-existent, raises (even for cost of living) will be just as scarce, why punish those (including those being laid off) from any acknowledgement of their hard work throughout the year?
The cost of the party is insignificant compared to the salaries and benefits provided to 1500 employees.
Though the layoffs are unfortunate, the fact of the matter is that we have something called “free will employment”. That means an employee is free to leave whenever he/she wants, and likewise the company can terminate them whenever it likes. Y! has paid its employees for their services, and beyond that, there really is no obligation whatsoever to any employee – not even providing any type of severance package upon termination.
We no longer live in an IBM, employment for life society. I think we all realize that. Sorry – that’s just the way things work these days.
No matter what the company did, you would claim it appalling. Had the company eliminated the party, or instead had a simple dinner, we’d see an article decrying the company for being so cheap.
Posted by Jack Murphy at December 9th, 2008 at 2:50 amSorry Jack, but it’s clue-impaired executives who think along those lines that make this economy so much worse than it has to be.
No long-term thinking. No planning ahead. No recognition that treating ones employees with respect leads to healthier bottom lines in the long run.
That this society doesn’t have life-long employment leads to instability. It also leads to a few becoming super-rich while everyone else lives from month to month with a quality of life that is far below what it could be. Company health is damaged by unfaithful employees who don’t care about a company’s future if it doesn’t align with theirs.
That “this is the way it is” attitude is exactly what leads to the economic messes we’re dealing with now, and the destroyed lives that result.
Sure, party on dude. Who cares if others are hurt – as long as I’m not! Your turn is coming.
Posted by Eric Welch at December 9th, 2008 at 7:54 amDid Yahoo Company invite all employees even new and Temp employees to come to Vegas to choice the party on the pirate ships and showgirls and diminutive Eiffel Tower?
DavidC
Posted by Phuong Nguyen at December 9th, 2008 at 5:44 pmEric – you are welcome to your opinions. However, your idealistic utopian thoughts regarding society are only applicable in fantasyland or in the countries of some of our socialist adversaries, not in a capitalist, market-based economy like we have.
You want employment for life, but then want to allow the employee to have total freedom to walk away whenever he/she pleases – is that right? The reason we’ve gotten to where we are is explicitly because employees want the opportunity to go do as they please when they want. I remember back during the internet boom – employees were walking out on their corporate employers with little notice to pursue their internet dreams, running to companies like Y! Was that ok? This is exactly why we have free will employment, because that’s what the employee wanted – freedom of mobility. Now, you can’t say you want total freedom and not give the employer the same right to let the employee go at will – can you?
What makes you believe that the corporation exists for the employee? The objective of the corporation is to increase the value to its shareholders. Employees are just a means to generate profit for the corporation. If the way it goes about that is by providing employment for life – wonderful, a humanitarian benefit happened as a byproduct. However, you need to have some reprogramming to set you straight – an employee is paid for his services. The employer owes the employee nothing more than his paycheck and any other benefits agreed to. Likewise, the employee only has to provide the services being paid for. If either side is unhappy with the other, it can let the other go – no justification necessary.
Posted by Jack Murphy at December 10th, 2008 at 12:06 pm