Yahoo Announces Weeklong Shutdown

This might or might not be an obvious point, but by unplugging their computers, shutting the lights off, and turning the heat down, people who leave their homes this holiday season stand to save a significant amount of money. And now Yahoo should, too, as it’s announced a decision to close corporate offices worldwide for one week.

Except for customer support centers, just about everything under Yahoo’s control should go dark from December 25th through January 1st. Since employees won’t get paid for the time off unless they use vacation days (or local laws require it), Yahoo will save a lot there, too.

This is the first time Yahoo’s ever mandated a shutdown of this nature, so it’s fair to say that the move is a big deal. There’s no need for Yahoo’s fans and shareholders to get panicky, however, since other companies, including Adobe and Apple, are in the habit of doing the same thing.

Also, as reported by Jessica E. Vascellaro, Yahoo actually told employees about the shutdown much earlier this year, so it’s not like this is some sort of last-ditch effort to save money.

Just don’t count on seeing much news relating to Yahoo between now and the second day of next year.

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There are 4 Comments. Add Yours.

Tim
December 22, 2009 at 3:36 pm

Sure!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wink, Wink……. Yahoo is just fine.

Smooth sailing as always.
Guest
December 27, 2009 at 2:30 pm

This story has about as much importance as YAHOO has relevance to the internet.

ZERO!!

Yahoo is like AOL A dinosaur relic left over from the early days of the internet.

Sooner it dies and is forget about the better we will be.

Yahoo could shut down for a YEAR and no-one would really miss it.
Sandra
December 27, 2009 at 5:04 pm

I understand the economy is bad but how can Yahoo get away with forced vacation (without pay for most, I imagine)? They are horrible employers for this. I attended Northampton Community College in Pennsylvania. They shut down for the last week in December. They pay their full time staff for this time.

Many colleges, if not all, require most of their employees to work most holidays (except: New Years Day, Easter, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas) for the same pay. Yahoo must be degrading in morale due to what they do to their employees. Lower level employees are the ones who suffer and cannot complain (usually).

They can afford a plan for cutting expenses, they cut their free services and are looking to get rid of more. With the money they save why can they not pay their employees? Holidays are the time of year that is worst financially for most Americans.

I disagree with the guest who says they are dinosaurs or relics. I use their service and prefer their Search Marketing to Google’s Adwords. I have been on the internet since 1994.

I just feel very bad this is what a big corporation is doing and not even caring about its image. Cutting costs across the board and when they do they further rip off their employees.

These people need to go back to school (their executives) and take an ethics class. They might also research what corporate social responsibility is.
Frank
December 28, 2009 at 6:51 am

Even if they’re not in any financial trouble, their shutdown does send a troubling message that saving money is more important that maintaining consumer/investor confidence. Perception is everything. I can’t help but feel that the next generation of internet users will be asking, “YAWHO…?”