Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Will New Yahoo CEO Be Pumping Breast Milk During Board Meetings?

New Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer is pregnant. She seems to think that this will only keep her away from Yahho a couple of days.

This has given birth to a discussion on breast pumps, here at EPJ.

As always, a very knowledgeable EPJ readers provides insight about the topic at hand. This time it comes from occasional commenter Stella:
Breast pumps won't help. I exclusively breast fed my daughter for 1 year, while working. In order to keep your milk supply up when you are away from the baby, you have to pump at least every couple of hours. To do this, you have to find a private spot, get the pumps, bottles accessories out and sit there, relax and pump for about 20 minutes. Once you are finished, you have to clean the accessories and store the milk in a cool place. If you don't keep up with it every few hours or more, your milk supply will crash and your baby will be very hungry. It takes longer than feeding a baby does because of the set up, etc.

It's a huge hassle and takes a lot of time and focus out of your day. Unless, she is going to be pumping during the board meetings.

15 comments:

  1. At this level, she'll have a staff that can help her... vision her going to the private room, doing the pumping while reading with a tablet, when it's done the minions do the clean up while she gets back to it.

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  2. Come on, give the girl a break, she's smart, educated, successful, and very rich. She would have done her homework on this. Yahoo will cut her some slack.

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  3. My wife has job requiring her on feet most of day w/ long days. Breast-fed for 18 months. Would pump at lunch (no minions needed), some days would pump on way home as well. Some longer days were painful, but was doable. This should be a non-factor. That said, the prior comment about Google's master plan is brilliant.

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  4. I like this blog, but jeez why do entries like this one always have to have this mysoginistic undertone. Not helping the cause at all. A little more class maybe? Doesn't have anything to do with being PC - just with the fact that if women feel like they're being - even subtly - disparaged, libertarianism will always stay a nerdy sausage party.

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    1. "A little more class maybe?"

      Well said. Is this really an appropriate topic for EPJ? It is her personal life and no ones business but her own. A LOT more class is in order.

      You do know what class is, yes?

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  5. I find it interesting that when one points out that men and women are not equal and that this is due to a limitation of women that individual is mysoginistic. Yet when one points out that men and women are not equal and points to a failing of men everything is fine. Women will never be on an equal footing with men in the workplace unless and until they cease having children. If you broke up the female population into "child having" and a "child not having" groups, I suspect that those not having children would have equal pay, promotions, and benefits (actually higher due to sexist anti male discrimination laws) as their male counterparts. Those that leave the work force to have children will never achieve the same level of accomplishment as those that do not nor should they.

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    1. Thank you for saving me much typing this fine morning. To add to the discussion I always love to point out the double standard with this example:

      Ask someone if anyone would bat an eye if a comedian said women were smarter than men? Then ask the opposite. Ask this person what they think the crowd's reaction would be to each.

      Usually at this point they get it and realize that maybe men are discriminated against and they didn't even realize it. I love doing this to women in particular, though I'm sure this lesson is forgotten before the day is over.

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  6. couple of days?

    This must be her first child.

    And what a lucky one it is...At the time that it's very important for it to be close to its mother, it'll probably be handled by "staff".

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  7. Im with the rest. Give her a break. Probably she can do her job while taking care of the kid.

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  8. Given Yahoo's track for inspiring confidence in their selection of CEOs, its not surprising that this announcement was mishandled. It raised more questions of board incompetence leading to rampant speculation. Even the flippant quotes added more fuel to the fire that could have been avoided. We can do without playing the gender card ladies.

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  9. I would say her baby needs her more. I'm not sure being a CEO and a good mother to the child are compatible. I respect and admire this woman's accomplishments, but God has a way of humbling us all and reminding us of our ultimate place.

    I suppose the child can be "raised" by a Nanny. Mommy's very important, don't you see. She can try pumping at work, but this doesn't work out for most women, and they end up using formula. Formula results in lower IQs due to inferior nutrients, among other downsides.

    As CEO, she may very well have the unique flexibility to do all of the above. But there is little doubt that her child's development will flourish the most if Mom spends most of her time with her. Perhaps she can telecommute.

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  10. I hope she plans very well for this, and sets up a program or at least a general plan that manages to work out and can use that basis to attempt to lure good people to Yahoo.

    Perhaps she will be able to have her husband essentially come to work with her and take care of the baby at all times it is not breast feeding. That could possibly work.

    For the record I suspect she fails miserably and will either quit as soon as she can with still collecting a big chunk of change, or her child will suffer.

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  11. Obviously you are all missing the fact that the child is going to have access to the highest internet bandwidth available with a steady flow of Cheetos and Red Bull during it's 24 hour Diablo sessions.

    What more could be done to show this gift from God that it's loved?

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  12. Okay.... so who is the daddy?

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous meet turkey baster; turkey baster meet Anonymous.

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