As a Yahoo, I assure you this is in no way "as the Internet company searches for new ways to cut costs during the recession". We do this every year, as do other companies -- like Apple, I believe.
But this time it is mandatory.
There was mandatory time off last year, too, they just didn't say when it had to happen.
(another yahoo here) It is not, nor has it ever been mandatory. There are plenty of folks on my team who don't celebrate xmas working during the break, but some facilities are shutting down (coffee shop, cafeteria, front desks, etc).
This year the Sunnyvale campus is having some maintenance work done to the power systems, so it's actually completely shutting down, but with lots of people working remotely during that time.
Not really sure why this is newsworthy. It's a very common thing in the tech industry, and Yahoo! has been strongly encouraging employees to take time off during the holidays for years. The only difference this year is that the time off is actually mandatory for most employees rather than just being strongly encouraged.
"For full access subscribe now!"
So..... shall we just stop linking there or do we all buy subs?
I got the article by searching for the title on http://news.google.com/ . I thought Murdoch was spinning in his grave^H^H^H^H^Hoffice chair about that?
Actually I wasn't even presented with that the first time I hit the site. I hit it again when I saw your comment and saw the 'subscribe now' advert. The first time I just got half of the article, but nothing telling me how to get the rest.