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Just as planned - Amazon Execs who aren't planning to rehire them anyway.
They do this shit to cull you.
It's sort of a strange approach, because this will leave you with the workers who can't find employment elsewhere.
Exactly...they won't be picky about raises or working conditions.
Most companies are satisfied with adequate workers rather than diligent and empowered workers. The latter cost too much. This is a convenient way for Amazon to cull the crew without incurring bad PR. This is why it’s often a shitshow in offices and warehouses; because the workers with self esteem and motivation either get fed up and leave or are forced out. This is just a facet of Big Capitalism.
I know some tech workers who really want to return to office full time along with everyone else. They miss the old way. It’s not everyone, and it’s definitely not me, but it’s a legitimate position. I guess now they know where they can go.
My company announced RTO the same day Amazon did. The Union is up in arms, but honestly the powers that be are handling it pretty well. My boss is happily going to the office for a couple of days a week. She's a million miles from enforcing it on us though. Exceptions are already in place for people like me (3 hour TGV ride from the nearest office) and even a few people who just said "I really don't want to".
I'm sure a few people will leave and not be replaced, but perhaps they were just dead weight anyway. I couple that I know about definitely are.
I love going to the office. I started renting a place nearby to do just that.
But I don't want my coworkers to be forced to show up. That's silly.
I honestly don't see an issue with the people going back to the office because they want to work from there. I just want others to stop trying to force me to do the same.
This sort of thing seems to have always been a plague with a set of the extroverted sort. They seem to feel the whole world should for whatever reason cater to what makes them happy and us introverted types that do not like the social activities that they do should be made to partake anyway. For our own good. Yet the world is ending when those same extroverted people have to spend a large chunk of time alone or simply being quiet.
The older I get the less patience I have for those sorts of games. Which could become an issue for me professionally I suppose.
Exactly, which is why I really like my current setup, which is 2x in office, 3x WFH. I think being in-person has advantages, but I also feel much more productive when I WFH because I don't have all of the little interactions at the office (i.e. coworker wanting to get coffee together, quick question from a team member about something irrelevant, etc). I get into better flow at home, but being available is also important for others on the team.
Honestly, I would hesitate to take a full-remote position, but I am definitely not interested in full-on-prem either. I need at least 1-2 days at home to get actual work done, ideally 3.
I know some people like this too.
To be fair, a nontrivial number of them are middle/upper management, but it's not the entirety of the people I know who want this.
The answer isn't work-from-home, nor is it return-to-office. The answer is: give people a choice.
If you want to work from home, cool, we don't need to maintain your cubicle, and/or, we can hire more people without needing more office space. If you want to return to office, cool, your space is waiting for you.
A few will retain the ability to switch back and forth, but the majority of people I've talked to about it, either want office or home exclusively. Very few want hybrid.
Here’s the problem though. When everybody is allowed to choose what they want, people who prefer remote get remote. And people who prefer the office get a ghost town. So by definition, personal choice precludes one group from having access to the thing they would choose.
People who want to work in the office want to work with other people. It’s not just about having a desk in a high rise. People learn from other people and are energized by being around them. There are efficiencies to being able to talk without zoom lag and all. Someone else characterized this as extroverted people and their annoying needs. But I think it’s more than that. Working with others in person certainly has real benefits.
Remote work means no one gets those, ever.
I’m a remote guy myself and hope never to go back. But I can see another side to it.
I don't think these people are typically pro-choice.
Fair enough. All the business owners I've met have said something to the effect of "my way or the highway" about it. So I personally just aligned myself with a job where the bosses "my way" is the way I prefer.
In my case, work from home.
My current job doesn't even have a physical office. We're all work from home. I like it.
I'm a bit more pro hybrid but only because I feel new people need a steady mentor and training at the start of thier careers at the company. How do you training works for new people on full remote?
I'm one that prefers being in the office. My productivity goes to shit when I'm at home because there's too much other stuff I can do. I also like talking to my coworkers face to face just in general because people are usually more empathetic in person. That being said I don't think it should be forced on anyone if it's not necessary to work in the office. The rest of my team works from home without issue as far as I can tell. We are fortunate in that our employer does not have an issue with WFH.
That's the only pinch as far as I can tell. Some of the people who prefer face-to-face communication, are the bosses. So they force everyone into return to office for their own comfort/convenience/preference....
Those that prefer WFH be damned I guess.
The problem is, you can't really say no to the boss, you either comply, or find a new job. Not everyone is in a position where they can quickly/easily find a new job that suits them better.
In my experience, the highly skilled long-tenured staff tend to lean towards WFH, but it's not an absolute. Plenty of skilled people who prefer in-office work.... My point is that a disproportionate number of long-tenured workers are finding new jobs when RTO policies are put in place. There's a lot of highly skilled workers in the market looking for WFH positions. Easy pickings for anyone wanting to hire for remote jobs.
Obviously a lot of the people who prefer in-office aren't really looking for anything right now, so the job market is kind of crazy. WFH jobs are snapped up and in-office jobs are posted for weeks or months... Simply by allowing people to WFH, a company can pick up some highly skilled talent pretty easily.
As an aside, WFH has saved me upwards of $5k/yr on gas, parking, wasted time on the road, maintenance on my vehicle..... It's quite remarkable.
I was a boss for a couple years. I didn't force anyone to come in but I did find that I got along better with the couple of people who worked out of the office just because it's easier to see someone as a person when you can sit near each other and BS all day as opposed to the ones who worked from home and I really only talked to when we were in meetings about work shit. I tried not to play favorites but that aspect did probably bleed into things a bit. We had a team chat going but only a few people used it (or they had one that I wasn't part of so they could talk without the boss looking over their shoulder, which is fine but it's hard to get comfortable with people you rarely interact with). I'm now on the other side of it with a boss who always works from home while I'm in the office and I'm struggling with that a little too because I have a hard time gauging if they're upset with me or if doing well when we only talk on the phone a few times a week.
My work does a weekly "meeting" that's specifically just a hangout for everyone in the company, just to hang out and talk about whatever.
It's like a social hour every week, so we can get to know the boss and eachother.
I've worked at the place less than a year and there's been two in person social events so far with everyone, and at least three with my team additional to that.
The culture of the company is clearly important for them, and I'm happy about it. They do what's needed, and losing an hour of productivity every week isn't as important as giving everyone the opportunity to connect with eachother.
Hey I can relate. I miss the office too. I was far more productive there and the cooperation and mental space was better there too. But this is a new world we live in, and if you want me to drive to an office, you had better be ready to pay me a fair salary for it.
Oh, you won't? Guess I'll go elsewhere.
Amazon tech workers are well paid. What I find is the real cost of in-office is the commute time. I’m almost an hour away door-to-door and while I always enjoy seeing people in person, and our office is quite nice, I just can’t convince myself that it’s worth two hours a day of wasted time, plus the costs. I pay $12 in train tickets any day I go in.
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5 day RTO is a stealth layoff. This is a feature, not a bug.
Quiet firing, if you will.
It's like reverse stack ranking. They'll be left with the people that couldn't find another job.
and the people who know exactly how to waste time in an office.
That's literally what we all do in office. Just sit ans chat. It's country club. Productivity went up during covid.
Yup, I waste way more time in the office than at home, and I waste plenty of time at home. Also, the time I don't waste is more productive at home than in the office.
I still value going to the office, but doing it everyday would just kill my soul. I need some time to myself to get stuff done.
I love being able to fold laundry or go on elliptical during calls. Plus the extra sleep and no commute means im waaay friendlier in calls. Everyone wins.
Brain drain is the perfect way to end monopolies.
A.k.a. Twitter and the elon filtering moment
Like many companies, they overhired in the last 4 years. Some of these people are due years of severance (my offer listed 2months for every year after 1 year), not to mention the vested stocks and other bonuses granted during this insane hot hire period.
So how do you remove people not loyal to the company? The most hated mandate ever. Amazon is a company that doesn’t need people in the office. This is nothing more than screwing people over.
So they're not paying severance to employees they fire?
They are getting severance when terminated, unless for cause. My comment was, this is how they avoid it by forcing people to quit.
Yes, but they're making people quit instead. They don't need to pay severance to employees who quit because of RTO.
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Yep this has been the modus operandi for businesses who want to reduce workforce without having to pay for layoffs.
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If it's anything like my work and their RTO a few things.
- hR is well aware of attrition rates and I bet they're through the roof
- Any new hires are probably not the best or brightest they could expect to hire
So expect quality at Amazon to decline. It may not be outwardly visible but mark my words for those that are still there it will devolve into a chaotic shit show of overworked employees that are left backfilling work for those who left and the incompetence that came in.
expect quality at Amazon to decline.
They'll have to dig a new basement for it to get any lower.
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this post was submitted on 30 Sep 2024
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