Gregory Anderson, a former Yahoo! editor let go in 2014, claims in his lawsuit that Yahoo! managers manipulate employee ratings in order to justify laying off staff 'on the basis of personal biases and stereotyping' and to help meet financial targets. The ratings system, which ranks employees on a scale of 1-5 based on their quarterly performance, is one of the signature initiatives introduced by Yahoo! chief executive Marissa Mayer since she took the helm in 2012. In addition to his complaints against Yahoo!'s QPR system, Mr Anderson claims that Yahoo! management demonstrate an anti-male bias in their hirings, firings and treatment of employees.

Mass layoffs

Mayer's QPR system has been used to justify laying off hundreds of staff. According to Mr Anderson's lawsuit, Yahoo! has culled its workforce by about 30 per cent since 2012, to fewer than 11,000 employees. However, Yahoo! now stands accused of manipulating and then relying on poor QPR ratings in order to justify mass-firings. The QPR ranked Mr Anderson himself in the bottom 5 per cent of the Yahoo! workforce before he was let go.

Fresh cuts announced

Mr Anderson's filing is timely, as Ms Mayer announced a fresh round of job cuts this week. Yahoo! will trim its total workforce by a further 15 per cent by the end of this year as part of an 'aggressive strategic plan' to return to profitability. The announcement came as Yahoo! reported a loss of $4.3bn for the last financial year.

Promoting women

Yahoo! managers also stand accused of demonstrating systematic favouritism towards female recruits and employees. According to Mr Anderson, under the direction of Yahoo! chief marketing officer Kathy Savitt the number of top management positions filled by women has risen from 20 per cent to 80 per cent. Further, it has been suggested that female Yahoo! employees were often allowed to leave voluntarily when they were laid off by the company, while men were more often fired. Sources: New York Times; Fortune; Ars Technica; BBC