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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

#191

Post by void_mint »

kyleblarson wrote: post #116
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…

"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." Or you might get what you have now: boarded up businesses, open air drug markets, rampant unprosecuted crime, needles and human waste everywhere.

Curious, when was the last time you were in downtown Seattle?

Re: Amazon will allow many employees to work remotely indefinitely

#193

Post by void_mint »

Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #167
teh_infallible wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A recruiter contacted me one for a position at Amazon, and I straight up said I will never work there because of the way they treat their employees. (Probably burned a bridge with that recruiter, but oh well)

I probably burned a bridge with Activision-Blizzard a few years ago. They contacted me about a potential job, and I said "When I was earning my degree, I dreamed of working for Blizzard. But then earlier this year, you announced record profits, and then only a couple days later announced the lay-off of over 800 workers. No thank you." And considering their current controversies, my opinion on working for them has not…

But...you're aware that record profits aren't a blank check to employ whoever you want in whatever positions they want, right?

Re: Amazon will allow many employees to work remotely indefinitely

#194

Post by AdrianB1 »

rootusrootus wrote: post #58
teh_infallible wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A recruiter contacted me one for a position at Amazon, and I straight up said I will never work there because of the way they treat their employees. (Probably burned a bridge with that recruiter, but oh well)

Both Facebook and Amazon have contacted me recently, and in both cases it was a senior manager doing the recruiting. Maybe just a new strategy in general, or perhaps it's because both companies struggle with reputation.

I know a local Amazon director and he was spending a lot of time with recruiting, he had to hire a very large amount of people and that was his top measure for that year. Even paying above the market, with their reputation and the competition on the market it was difficult to meet the target.

Re: Amazon will allow many employees to work remotely indefinitely

#195

Post by VRay »

whatshisface wrote: post #174
bluedino wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They can hire new grads every year Getting expensive to move to Seattle though

Running a giant company with nothing but new grads is really asking for every project management problem ever discovered.

Nah, all the new grads will be able to balance a red-black tree on a whiteboard in seconds, so they should be able to easily handle all other engineering tasks

Re: Amazon will allow many employees to work remotely indefinitely

#196

Post by ghaff »

munificent wrote: post #107
mathverse wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Once you get beyond a certain threshold that's not really true. Or it's a story they tell themselves because they care more about money than other considerations.

Re: Amazon will allow many employees to work remotely indefinitely

#197

Post by abawany »

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 social contract is different here. You focus on the salary but most employees are considered fungible here by most employers with 'industry standard' as a synonym for 'sucks about as much as what we consider our competitors'. Due to the unique circumstances, employees in some industries finally have some ability to try to better their lot so it would be irrational of them to not avail themselves of likely a once-in-many-lifetimes opportunity before the iron fist of our corporate masters comes crashing down upon our spines again. Yes, I am old and cynical - how did you know :) ?

Re: Amazon will allow many employees to work remotely indefinitely

#198

Post by VRay »

backoncemore wrote: post #190
mathverse wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

American programmers are mercenaries, capitalist minded workers, that have access to a digital hive mind that not many other professions can fully access. We hold a lot more power than I think we realize. Europeans work to live. Americas live to work.

Probably worth mentioning that you aren’t safe if you hide out in some low-paying European job. Sooner or later the US/Chinese platform companies are going to come and eat your boss’ lunch

So you may as well come over and get a share of the spoils

Re: Amazon will allow many employees to work remotely indefinitely

#199

Post by ghaff »

asdff wrote: post #166
kodah wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

St Louis and Columbus are much bigger than the towns I'm thinking of. The two towns are basically suburbs with a downtown area. I was able to bike to both of them from my house. In my favorite of the two there were two restaurants that offered dinner service and were owned by locals. Everything else was chain restaurants and they all offered dinner and late night/bar services.

Yeah if there isn't a ton of office space downtowns seem a lot more lively, since businesses stay open outside of 9-5 and people might actually live closer by. Even lower manhattan is considered a dead area after hours due to all the offices and not a lot of other businesses and housing to draw demand outside of 9-5 m-f.

A lot of core downtowns (whether financial district or something more diverse) were pretty dead pre-pandemic after hours even if nearby areas of the city were pretty lively.

Re: Amazon will allow many employees to work remotely indefinitely

#200

Post by zz865 »

jnwatson wrote: post #179
zz865 wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No other companies pay >250k in NYC.

That’s not true. What about fintech?

Any good examples? Yes there are some top end jobs that pay well, but the tail is thinner than the bay area. https://www.levels.fyi/Salaries/Software-Engineer/New-York-C...
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