Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg slams media coverage of Yahoo CEO Mayer

WASHINGTON: Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg has said the media coverage of Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer's decision to ban telecommuting was about Mayer 'being a woman'. During a lecture at Stanford University on Tuesday to promote her new memoir, 'Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead', Sandberg offered a harsh assessment of the negative media coverage surrounding Mayer's decision to end telecommuting at Yahoo. According to the New York Daily News, Sandberg said that it is really hard to know what is happening at Yahoo. Mayer, who built a nursery next to her own office at Yahoo! so as to be close to her newborn son, was widely criticized following her decision in February to force all of the company's remote employees to report to an office rather than work at home. Citing her time at Google, Mayer argues that the internet company badly needs to foster cohesion, and that telecommuting is a hindrance to that effort. Along with Hewlett Packard CEO Meg Whitman, Sandberg and Mayer are two of the most high profile women working in Silicon Valley. According to the report, Sandberg's comments on Mayer fit into the larger theme of her lecture and book, that despite the extra scrutiny and institutional disadvantages facing them in the workplace, women must be prepared to step up to the challenges if they wish to succeed.