The list is long! Here are a few,
- Subjective performance evaluation - heavily dependent on the manager. If you have a good relationship with your manager, you are in for a ride in Yahoo. If you don't have a high position mentor and protector, your goodness will fade away. And of course, that too is subjective because you never know when that person is out of favor with his/her higher level
- Too many platforms. No clear strategy as to what the company wants to do. Platforms are bought, built and then scrapped because someone has convinced the management to build/buy another one. In my tenure, I saw as many as 7-8 platforms for the ad business. If you are not part of the next "in thing" in the company, you are screwed!
- Leaders more interested in building empires than leading the team/department/company to become better. Too many layers of managers. At one point, I counted 7 layers from CEO. Too much bureaucracy that it demotivates employees
- The new crop of managers/leaders is no better. As new leaders/managers join, they bring their own favorites with them. Yahoo is going overboard to pay them higher than the industry and giving them enough power for the first 6 months. That is enough to lose some of the earlier talent from the company. The newcomers are challenging the norm, which is good, but are doing ruthlessly
