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Amazon CEO reportedly told remote employees: It’s probably not going to work out

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Re: Amazon CEO reportedly told remote employees: It’s probably not going to work out

#221

Post by brewdad »

brandall10 wrote: post #206
wallawe wrote: post #182

A lot of complaining from one of the most privileged and highest paid classes of workers ever to exist in human kind. Talk of "exploitation", etc. To put it in perspective, you sit at a computer and type, and get paid $200k+ a year for it. Forget other people in the other part of the world, just compare your situation to the average American for a second - they don't have a choice of whether or not to be at the offic…

Keep in mind there are people who signed on as remote employees that own a primary residence in an area far away, have children in school, a spouse who can't relocate, and so on. These folks effectively need to now look for another job.

Yes. That happens sometimes.

Re: Amazon CEO reportedly told remote employees: It’s probably not going to work out

#222

Post by unethical_ban »

WhyNotHugo wrote: post #128

I find the push for "back to the office" one of the most astonishing things to come out of corporate America. We've basically been moving to a model where people can work from home for a few decades. We're reached a point where it's not only feasible, but it's senseless to do otherwise for many positions. And then, suddenly and out of the blue, a lot of CEOs and upper management started demanding that employees go ba…

There is a silenced minority of people who feel that in office participation is better for learning, collaboration, brainstorming, even in technical fields. I'm not going to argue with your convince you to change your mind about RTO, but don't use the term nobody.

I'll add that I understand there are many benefits to remote work, including some that I truly enjoy. And that I'm not sure CEOs care about my personal career growth or how much I benefit from in-person collaboration. I believe they're pushing it for real estate reasons.

Re: Amazon CEO reportedly told remote employees: It’s probably not going to work out

#223

Post by claudiulodro »

rco8786 wrote: post #183
offbyone wrote: post #158

If you want my cynical take, here's the real reason that Amazon and other big companies are all-in on RTO: the commercial real estate collapse that may (will?) happen if downtown office districts don't repopulate: https://wapo.st/3QXHpFT I think the reason that Amazon leadership isn't bringing data to support RTO is that not only are they aware of the "Urban Doom Loop” that this article is referring to, but I'd bet y…

> C-suite (S-team) has a significant investment in commercial real estate. Amazon itself is holding ~$92B worth of buildings on its balance sheet, you can imagine a large chunk of that is commercial.

FWIW I imagine 95%+ of it is warehouses and fulfillment centers, not necessarily office space.

Re: Amazon CEO reportedly told remote employees: It’s probably not going to work out

#224

Post by huthuthike »

wallawe wrote: post #182

A lot of complaining from one of the most privileged and highest paid classes of workers ever to exist in human kind. Talk of "exploitation", etc. To put it in perspective, you sit at a computer and type, and get paid $200k+ a year for it. Forget other people in the other part of the world, just compare your situation to the average American for a second - they don't have a choice of whether or not to be at the offic…

So if Amazon employees have it worse, will it make working conditions better for the teachers and firefighters and contractors of America? By that metric, aren't those jobs pretty privileged compared to the people living in third world countries? Maybe we should make their working conditions more painful also.

Re: Amazon CEO reportedly told remote employees: It’s probably not going to work out

#225

Post by lapcat »

innagadadavida wrote: post #212
lapcat wrote: post #121

Jassy said the quiet part out loud and admitted what I've always suspected, that most CEOs don't have original thoughts, instead governing by groupthink: > Other company CEOs helped Jassy make up his mind too. Jassy spoke to "60 to 80 CEOs of other companies over the last 18 months," and "virtually all of them" preferred in-office work, he said. I bet that none of those individual CEOs could empirically prove that re…

Not a fan of executives or management but there literally are two groups - RTO and non-RTO. Employees largely prefer one option and management the other. So effectively you have two group-thinks going on. Are you saying management should change their stance or are there other non-group think options here?

The personal benefits of WFH are obvious to the individual employee: no commute, the ability to live wherever you want instead of obscenely expensive areas like Silicon Valley, spending more time with your family, flexible work hours.

How exactly is it "groupthink" to prefer this?

The question is, why exactly do executives prefer RTO? They seem to be rather short on evidence of the benefits.

Re: Amazon CEO reportedly told remote employees: It’s probably not going to work out

#226

Post by lolinder »

say_it_as_it_is wrote: post #220

Amazon employees could mutiny the CEO in less than a month if they acted in unison, no unionization necessary.

That's essentially the definition of a union: employees working in unison. Getting that many employees to act in unison is the tricky part that requires all of the infrastructure that Amazon is intent on ensuring doesn't get built.

Re: Amazon CEO reportedly told remote employees: It’s probably not going to work out

#227

Post by dangerlibrary »

claudiulodro wrote: post #223
rco8786 wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> C-suite (S-team) has a significant investment in commercial real estate. Amazon itself is holding ~$92B worth of buildings on its balance sheet, you can imagine a large chunk of that is commercial.

FWIW I imagine 95%+ of it is warehouses and fulfillment centers, not necessarily office space.

Maybe 95% by square footage - probably not by $$$.

Re: Amazon CEO reportedly told remote employees: It’s probably not going to work out

#228

Post by y-c-o-m-b »

PSA: if you have a disability as defined by the ADA (anxiety, depression, and adhd falls under this btw) and have been a remote employee this entire time, they may be legally obligated to provide continued virtual work privileges to accommodate your disability. There seems to have been some recent successful lawsuits surrounding that topic.

Take a look here https://www.bfvlaw.com/fielding-remote-work-accommodations-r...

Re: Amazon CEO reportedly told remote employees: It’s probably not going to work out

#229

Post by michaelt »

notatoad wrote: post #152
DaveFr wrote: post #126

Per the NYPost article on this, > During the meeting, which is known in internal Amazon lingo as a “fishbowl” meeting, Jassy declined to share data that motivated his decision to require employees to return to the office. The CEO told his charges it was a “judgment” call. Could some brave soul please leak whatever data these guys are seeing? Reports, statistics, even just emails where they whine about empty offices?…

>The CEO told his charges it was a “judgment” call. is it really an untethered conspiracy theory when the CEO is straight-up saying his decision is based on vibes?

If the CEO has a wealth of data and it says with remote working Metric A has gone up which is good, and Metric B has gone down which is bad, they have to make a judgement call about which metric to rely on even though they're making an evidence-based decision.
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