One of the reasons for Yahoo's high staff turnover has nothing to do, directly, with the eclipse of the internet pioneer by that upstart, Google. Terry Semel's troubled web behemoth has been much more selective about raises than in the past. Now, that could be a clever human resources tactic, controlled attrition, to shed weaker performers without the trauma of headline-generating layoffs. But that might be giving Yahoo management too much credit: according to our Sunnyvale mole, the undeclared pay freeze has hit many employees the company should want to retain.

All that being said, the way Yahoo handled reviews and raises has stoked a lot of anger. First, delay them for three months. Promise a lump sum payment to tide people over. Change that to stock grants a couple weeks before Christmas for only certain employees. Then have people work their asses off for four months getting Panama out the door then deny a lot of them raises. Good employees. People managers want to keep around. Based on reviews that would have gotten them raises last year.

Contact information for this author is not available.