Yahoo, karin timpone, top, acquisitions, cubicle culture, microsoft, yahoo media group

It's Friday afternoon and the specter of Microsoft haunts Yahoo

A source close to Yahoo, closer yet to its Media Group, tells us that the emotional strain of February's layoffs, and more expected to come if the Microsoft deal goes through, has Yahoos in the grip of fear. "The big push inside of Yahoo right now is for everyone to justify what they're doing for a living," our source tells us.

It didn't use to matter who specifically was responsible for delivering. Now everyone's grabbing on to things that are significant to say why they're there. Rehashing job descriptions. There's lots of internal jockeying and posturing. No one wants to be the person without a seat when the music ends.

Some of that sounds like the way normal businesses run — imagine that, people collecting paychecks and then having to deliver work! But our source tell us it sometimes leads to people avoiding nuts-and-bolts operations duties in favor of more visible projects, and sometimes pushes good people out of the company. That's what happened to Yahoo Media Group's former head of marketing, Karin Timpone, he said.

Right now, the people who are in the most senior positions are the most nervous because of what happened to Karin Timpone. Generally acknowledged as strong asset, she went into too much strategy and didn't have a definite role. So when it came time to define things, she got let go. The perception was that she was redundant.

3:20 PM on Fri Apr 25 2008
By Nicholas Carlson
4,063 views
10 comments

Comments

giddieup at 03:28 PM on 04/25/08
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lol.... justify what thay are doing for a living..

if you need to justify your job, it is probably not needed and you are probably not doing anything but surfing the web all day long.

if your job is essential, people would know it by now and you wouldn't have to try to justify.
masterofmonkeys at 03:36 PM on 04/25/08
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Ah, back in the day. Yahoo Vision used to be the happy place to be. So sad it's turned out to be so different now.
ScalaWag at 06:23 PM on 04/25/08
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Connectedness Index: 41
Brought to you by Acura TSX

Explainer is in order: High Visibility Position = Scapegoat Position
matto at 06:33 PM on 04/25/08
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This stupid story will drag on longer than the OJ Simpson murder trial coverage. And somehow, its even more boring.
pdave at 06:38 PM on 04/25/08
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I think they should just go ahead and rename the company "Boo Hoo" now.
nethaqr at 06:42 PM on 04/25/08
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What's even more amusing- I occasionally come across job postings for Yahoo on certain job boards. I'm guessing they may not be the best place to dive into at the moment.
Bill Brasky at 02:16 PM on 04/26/08
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Well-well look. I already told you: I deal with the god damn customers so the engineers don't have to. I have people skills; I am good at dealing with people. Can't you understand that? What the hell is wrong with you people?

Sorry...Couldn't resist.
quikboy at 10:13 PM on 04/27/08
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I hope they do they hurry up. I can't wait to see all the cool stuff come out once the teams go together.
bigdowro at 01:22 AM on 04/28/08
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@matto: This stupid story will drag on longer than the OJ Simpson murder trial coverage. And somehow, its even more boring.

:-) exactely.
TheGunslinger at 07:17 AM on 04/28/08
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I love it. Justify what you do for a living. Why don't they also look at what you have delivered on time and within budget recently. There are too many "yes" people there who kiss ass to keep their jobs in the hope that their bosses (VPs who are unable to make decisions on their own) don't put them on the lay-off list.

Yahoo needs to clean house starting from the top down.

You got it Matto. This is stupid and boring news now. Yaaawwwwnnnn. If you work for Yahoo, my advice would be to get out now while there are still lots of jobs out there. They don't appreciate you anyway.