I’ve heard a lot of reactions like this, and I think you just kind of had to be on the inside to understand how very much this had the exact opposite effect of what you’re worried about. The CEOs I worked under before Marissa just didn’t seem to give a darn, and were unreachable even during business hours by anyone except their direct reports (and sometimes unreachable even by their direct reports). The contrast was huge.

Yahoo in my era never had a workaholic culture or a problem with people not taking vacations — and Marissa also introduced sabbaticals for longer-serving people, as well as expanding maternity/paternity leave. She was also always very intentional about declining to be portrayed as a model for how all women, all Yahoos, or all employees should work. I personally saw her as bringing passion and pride to her work in a way Yahoo had been missing for years, not as overworking herself.