An idea for Marissa Mayer  

There’s a certain somebody at Yahoo! that consistently leaks proprietary and confidential information to ATD’s Kara Swisher, and it’s of my opinion that such a person probably shouldn’t work at Yahoo! Surely their behaviour is disingenuous to the company’s objectives.

The Leaked Memo #

YAHOO! PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION — DO NOT FORWARD

Yahoos,

Over the past few months, we have introduced a number of great benefits and tools to make us more productive, efficient and fun. With the introduction of initiatives like FYI, Goals and PB&J, we want everyone to participate in our culture and contribute to the positive momentum. From Sunnyvale to Santa Monica, Bangalore to Beijing — I think we can all feel the energy and buzz in our offices.

To become the absolute best place to work, communication and collaboration will be important, so we need to be working side-by-side. That is why it is critical that we are all present in our offices. Some of the best decisions and insights come from hallway and cafeteria discussions, meeting new people, and impromptu team meetings. Speed and quality are often sacrificed when we work from home. We need to be one Yahoo!, and that starts with physically being together.

Beginning in June, we’re asking all employees with work-from-home arrangements to work in Yahoo! offices. If this impacts you, your management has already been in touch with next steps. And, for the rest of us who occasionally have to stay home for the cable guy, please use your best judgment in the spirit of collaboration. Being a Yahoo isn’t just about your day-to-day job, it is about the interactions and experiences that are only possible in our offices.

Thanks to all of you, we’ve already made remarkable progress as a company — and the best is yet to come.

Jackie

Characters: 1447

Words: 251

Sentences: 15

Due to the length of the memo, there are an ample number of ways we could subtly alter the text such that each employee would receive a unique version of the memo while maintaining the exact same meaning.

For instance:

Over the past few months, we have introduced a number of great benefits and tools to make us more productive, efficient and fun.

Could become:

Over the past few months we have introduced a number of great benefits and tools to make us more productive, efficient and fun.

The difference is so subtle that it doesn’t alter the meaning at all, and it’s almost certainly not humanly perceivable. Same semantics, different syntax.

A script could be written that would programmatically generate minutely altered versions of the memo within parameters that could identify the culprit. Of course, a single test would not constitute absolute evidence of guilt, but if such a tactic was practiced over the course of multiple leaks one could quite easily triangulate the potential culprit. I’d like to imagine there’s someone smart enough at Yahoo! that could write such a script – they are a search company after all.