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Amazon will allow many employees to work remotely indefinitely

seattletimes.com

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Re: Amazon will allow many employees to work remotely indefinitely

#101

Post by jdavis703 »

kimbernator wrote: post #48
cle wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Conversely in Amazon's case, they finished building multiple huge buildings in downtown Seattle right before COVID-19, which have been mostly empty since March 2020.

As much as it may frustrate them not to use the buildings, it is still strictly costing them less given the lower maintenance and utility costs.

Those maintenance and utility costs are then passed on to the employee and reduce the take home pay, which is frustrating to workers.

There’s also more uncompensated time spent on duties a janitor, office manager or IT person would perform, like unloading the dishwasher, preparing coffee or being on the phone with an ISP during an internet outage.

Re: Amazon will allow many employees to work remotely indefinitely

#102

Post by mrRandomGuy »

jorblumesea wrote: post #39
sharkweek wrote: post #6

I live in Seattle and thus a notable percentage of my social circle works at Amazon. The folks I know who work there were almost entirely all prepared to quit if the company forced their initial "everyone back in the office" requirement, especially in this current job market. It feels rare to see Amazon ever make a change to such a publicly stated policy like this, I can only imagine that the groundswell of feedback…

The other thing to add on is that Amazon is having a hard time recruiting, at least anecdotally from friends who work there. Between their reputation as a company and hot job market, filling some senior level eng roles has become near impossible.

Good, if you treat all your employees like garbage don't be surprised when not that many people with actual skill are willing to join

Re: Amazon will allow many employees to work remotely indefinitely

#103

Post by [deleted] »

picardo wrote: post #95
DoreenMichele wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It feels rare to see Amazon ever make a change to such a publicly stated policy like this... Jeff Bezos recently stepped down as CEO. Google tells me that happened July 5th of this year, a few months ago. He founded the company. It's essentially under new management for the first time ever. I don't think you can infer much from this incident. There are too many unusual factors at play and we don't have an established…

Jeff was still with the company when the last version of the policy was announced, i.e. "3 days from office, 2 days from home." It was probably the head of HR who came up with it. Jeff accepted it like, "Oh well." You could tell he couldn't care less. But Andy Jassy looked ashen. I think his becoming CEO was the reason Amazon changed course. If Jeff had stayed, he would have let HR decide the policy for the entire co…

[deleted]

Re: Amazon will allow many employees to work remotely indefinitely

#104

Post by dudul »

mathverse wrote: post #100
sharkweek wrote: post #6

I live in Seattle and thus a notable percentage of my social circle works at Amazon. The folks I know who work there were almost entirely all prepared to quit if the company forced their initial "everyone back in the office" requirement, especially in this current job market. It feels rare to see Amazon ever make a change to such a publicly stated policy like this, I can only imagine that the groundswell of feedback…

It is amazing that some americans can be so picky to give up their many hundred thousand/per year jobs because they dont want to go to the office. I am just envious at how developed your tech scene is.

Nothing to do with being picky. It's just about people having different priorities.

Re: Amazon will allow many employees to work remotely indefinitely

#105

Post by humanlion87 »

ClumsyPilot wrote: post #79
rzanella wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I interviewed for Amazon Brazil once, it felt like I was being questioned by the police as if in a movie: - 4 straight hours inside a room - every hour the interviewer changed - got asked the same questions over and over again I was quite upset that I didn't pass... couple weeks later I was not, what a shitty experience it was.

"- 4 straight hours inside a room - every hour the interviewer changed - got asked the same questions over and over again" It's the same in UK, at least they standardised it!

It's the same in North America as well. If you get scheduled during lunch time, you will get the opportunity to go outside at least :)

All that is moot now because of covid.

Re: Amazon will allow many employees to work remotely indefinitely

#106

Post by jvolkman »

bowmessage wrote: post #52
sharkweek wrote: post #6

I live in Seattle and thus a notable percentage of my social circle works at Amazon. The folks I know who work there were almost entirely all prepared to quit if the company forced their initial "everyone back in the office" requirement, especially in this current job market. It feels rare to see Amazon ever make a change to such a publicly stated policy like this, I can only imagine that the groundswell of feedback…

Another nail in the coffin for downtown Seattle's recovery?

I was downtown this weekend and it was much busier than I expected. I rode the light rail from the new Northgate station, and the train was (relatively) full after the university stations. I hope the two are related.

Re: Amazon will allow many employees to work remotely indefinitely

#107

Post by munificent »

mathverse wrote: post #100
sharkweek wrote: post #6

I live in Seattle and thus a notable percentage of my social circle works at Amazon. The folks I know who work there were almost entirely all prepared to quit if the company forced their initial "everyone back in the office" requirement, especially in this current job market. It feels rare to see Amazon ever make a change to such a publicly stated policy like this, I can only imagine that the groundswell of feedback…

It is amazing that some americans can be so picky to give up their many hundred thousand/per year jobs because they dont want to go to the office. I am just envious at how developed your tech scene is.

The flip side is that many feel an intense pressure to do whatever it takes to get the most lucrative job they can find because the US has much less of a social safety net than many European countries.

Re: Amazon will allow many employees to work remotely indefinitely

#108

Post by andreilys »

mathverse wrote: post #100
sharkweek wrote: post #6

I live in Seattle and thus a notable percentage of my social circle works at Amazon. The folks I know who work there were almost entirely all prepared to quit if the company forced their initial "everyone back in the office" requirement, especially in this current job market. It feels rare to see Amazon ever make a change to such a publicly stated policy like this, I can only imagine that the groundswell of feedback…

It is amazing that some americans can be so picky to give up their many hundred thousand/per year jobs because they dont want to go to the office. I am just envious at how developed your tech scene is.

It’s not about being picky, it’s about knowing your worth. If an employer chooses a ham-fisted approach of forcing everyone to work out of the office, then they will have to pay the consequences of their top talent leaving for companies that are more flexible (and often pay the same or more)

Re: Amazon will allow many employees to work remotely indefinitely

#109

Post by SpicyLemonZest »

ashtonkem wrote: post #94
SpicyLemonZest wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know how productive it is to search for the true definition of "WFH". Regardless of what we call it, it seems reasonable to have an intermediate model like Amazon's proposing, where you can mostly work from wherever you'd like but you have to be available for in-person meetings because the company thinks they're valuable.

> I don't know how productive it is to search for the true definition of "WFH". It's very productive, because abusing terms like "WFH" will be the technique that companies use to try and get through this without giving up anything. If you thought you were going to be "working from home" and discovered that your boss had the option to demand a commute from you at will on short notice, you would probably feel like you'…

I'm not sure what we're discussing here. "WFH" is a common, casual shorthand for any sort of arrangement where you work while being at home - I've only seen the term used to summarize, not to trick or mislead people. It's worth noting that Amazon's formal message (https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/workplace/amazon-offering-t...) identifies what they're offering not as "WFH" or "work from home" but "more flexibility as we return to office".

Re: Amazon will allow many employees to work remotely indefinitely

#110

Post by munificent »

kodah wrote: post #98
Spivak wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not as doom and gloom as you might think. Without such a huge wealth gap between the people who work for the downtown industry and tertiary business you might get lucky and have a cultural resurgence as artists, musicians, restauranteurs, local retail, etc etc can afford to live and set up shop downtown again. People seem to forget that outside of the supermega metro areas the typical downtown/financial district…

> People seem to forget that outside of the supermega metro areas the typical downtown/financial districts are basically dead. Before working in tech I lived in mostly small and medium sized cities. The downtowns were always packed, and usually the artists were local, but as much as I hear "artists and musicians" brought up with respect to a cities value, they don't lure people in. It's just a bonus. What does is goo…

I think you're oversimplified and over-regimenting. Cities are like organisms. A healthy city needs a large number of different kinds of organs and systems all working in concert. Some may not be entirely essential—you can live without an appendix and give up a kidney—but almost all of them need to be in place to have something someone would call a thriving city.
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