Why does the same not apply to Yahoo employees with young children? Mayer may be CEO, but the logic she used to install a nursery would apply to all employees.
Other employees don't deliver enough value to tip the equation in favor of the accommodation. If tier-4 person has a nursery, you get a marginally better contribution four tiers down. If Mayer has a nursery, she potentially turns Yahoo into a fiercely competitive organization.
Is it fair? No. It's business.
Hell, why not give everyone a corner office? Give everyone a private jet? Y'know?
That's kind of the whole point of why people are picking up on this.
Just for the record:
- The US is the only industrialized nation not to mandate paid leave for mothers of newborns
- The US is one of only three nations — rich and poor - that doesn't guarantee job-protected time off with some amount of income after the birth of a child
- New parents in the U.S. are guaranteed their jobs for 12 weeks after the arrival of a new baby, thanks to the Family Medical Leave Act of 1993, but they do not have to be paid during that time and exemptions apply for small companies.
- California provides 60% pay for 12 weeks
- UK provides 90% pay for 280 days, Russia 100% pay for 140 days, Spain & France & Netherlands 100% pay for 112 days, Germany 100% pay for 98 days, China 100% pay for 90 days
[1] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/04/maternity-leave-pai...
[2] http://www.theatlantic.com/sexes/archive/2012/12/why-paid-le...
This is a way to do that without having her kid basically raised by a nanny.