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

Post by liquidpele » Tue, Aug 29, 2023, 5:20 PM UTC

salawat wrote: post #124

jtode wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am incredibly in favour of unions in all industries, but this one I have serious doubts it will ever happen. I'm gonna be un-PC and reach for a metaphor involving slavery - not because I am comparing tech workers, of which I am one, to slaves, but because I think it's the best real-world example of how oppression is distributed by hubristic figureheads of feudalistic systems. If you ever saw Spike Lee's "Malcolm X"…

You aren't that far off. Much of what is in the realm of "management theory" is rehashed from the heady days of slavery if you trace it's inspiration back far enough, at least in the United States. Basically, if you aren't an independent trades/craftsperson, you're being handled by the same corpus of institutional knowledge that kept ye olde plantation running smoothly. Less outright violence. Still there though.

Post by xt00 » Tue, Aug 29, 2023, 5:22 PM UTC

siftrics wrote: post #168

xt00 wrote: post #160

Seems most of these top down driven mandates could be explained by some simple logic—if you don’t like your job very much as CEO, then you are thinking “man I wish I didn’t have to be here”.. and then it starts resentment toward people who also aren’t suffering along with you.. basically these mandates seem likely to be driven by stress at the top of the management, not based upon actual data. If you are asking for d…

While I agree with your reasoning, it's pretty ironic to blame top management for making changes "not based upon actual data" in the middle of a speculative claim that, itself, is not based upon actual data.

Post by tacker2000 » Tue, Aug 29, 2023, 5:25 PM UTC

RestlessMind wrote: post #261

mdgrech23 wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

100% this. Employers know they can turn up the heat so to speak by making the workplace less enjoyable and more people will leave b/c of that. That saves them from having to lay off people. I think it's important to note layoffs tend to push stock prices down and that's what these folks specifically care about b/c that's what's good for their pocket book.

> it's important to note layoffs tend to push stock prices down citation needed. Not my experience at all. Anecdotal example: META.

Post by kyleee » Tue, Aug 29, 2023, 5:27 PM UTC

RestlessMind wrote: post #265

LiquidSky wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great, then share that evidence. The problem is all these royal decrees to return to the office never come with even a shred of actual data to explain them. Once it became clear that they couldn’t show WFH harmed productivity, their arguments became increasingly abstract (e.g., “office culture”) and finally we’ve arrived at simply “because I said so”.

Why should RTO need data? That was the setup until 2020 and it worked. Especially for the leadership who have grown up in that requirement. Onus is on the pro-remote side to provide data that that works. Sample size of 1 - at my company, remote sucks even if we tried to go all-in on fully remote. I simply cannot have trusted relationships with my colleagues since everything has to be writing or is possible being reco…

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Aug 29, 2023, 5:33 PM UTC

falcolas wrote: post #263

It's darkly hilarious how Amazon's motto of "Disagree but Commit" was originally about leadership bowing to the data and opinions of their direct reports, and now it's a cudgel used by leadership to shut down discussion from their workforce. A shame, really.