YAHOO CEO Marissa Mayer has caused a stir by banning working from home.

The 37-year old sparked fierce debate when she told fellow "Yahoos" (the term they use to describe Yahoo employees) that they must work in the office and if they "couldn’t or wouldn’t" they should quit.



The announcement upset many employees and online commentators - many of whom were working mothers.



They accused Ms Mayer of not understanding how difficult it is to work and raise a family at the same time.



But Mayer herself is a working mother with a baby son who is only six months old.



The difference: Ms Mayer paid to have a nursery built in her office when she took the job at Yahoo, reports The Business Insider.



Mayer took on the top job at Yahoo when she was six months pregnant and vowed to be back to work more or less straight away.



That’s well and good for somebody who is on a $US117 million salary over five years.



However while some "Yahoos" are complaining because they don’t have that kind of money or clout to build a nursery in their office – most employees are actually backing her decision to ban working from home.



Ex-employees of the company have said Mayer is making the right call because many employees were abusing the system.



"For what it's worth, I support the no working form home rule. There's a ton of abuse of that at Yahoo. Something specific to the company," one source told Business Insider.



The source also said Yahoo's large remote workforce led to "people slacking off like crazy, not being available, and spending a lot of time on non-Yahoo! projects."











Originally published as Yahoo CEO builds nursery