Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Amazon is blocking promotions of employees who don't comply with RTO policy

businessinsider.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 104 posts

Re: Amazon is blocking promotions of employees who don't comply with RTO policy

#91

Post by Gigachad »

aathromzn wrote: post #71

Amazon employee here, currently sitting in an office that is overcrowded, smells bad, and is too cramped to get any work done without distractions. The phone rooms are always taken, usually have broken lights or trash on the floor/desk. There’s absolutely no perks. The office cafe is expensive and awful food quality. My team wanted to have a holiday dinner and was told the company won’t pay for it, we have to pay out…

That’s pretty wild. I’m generally pro office, but that sounds like the worst office I’ve heard of.

Re: Amazon is blocking promotions of employees who don't comply with RTO policy

#92

Post by glimshe »

This is so Office Space, so Milton-in-the-basement. Instead of terminating people who aren't complying with their policies, they use a passive-aggressive tactic for them to quit. One more bullet point in my "Why I should never work at Amazon" list.

Re: Amazon is blocking promotions of employees who don't comply with RTO policy

#93

Post by voisin »

danaris wrote: post #72
tash9 wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My hot take: this is actually really good (and would be fantastic if all the big tech followed suit). Why? Imagine a world where big tech was cool with remote workers. They would be able to out-pay and acquire all the best talent, everywhere. With this self-imposed restriction, this leaves a big pool of high end talent able to be recruited by smaller start-ups who ordinarily wouldn't be able to compete on comp, benef…

> Why? Imagine a world where big tech was cool with remote workers. They would be able to out-pay and acquire all the best talent, everywhere. Assuming this is true (which I think is very much in doubt), then it indicates there is a much bigger systemic problem that needs to be dealt with: namely, big tech functioning as essentially the landlords of the Internet and skimming profit off of everything that happens ther…

> indicates there is a much bigger systemic problem that needs to be dealt with: namely, big tech functioning as essentially the landlords of the Internet and skimming profit off of everything that happens there.

Seems like you haven’t been paying attention as this is precisely what has happened. Or are you being ironic?

Re: Amazon is blocking promotions of employees who don't comply with RTO policy

#94

Post by kulahan »

aathromzn wrote: post #71

Amazon employee here, currently sitting in an office that is overcrowded, smells bad, and is too cramped to get any work done without distractions. The phone rooms are always taken, usually have broken lights or trash on the floor/desk. There’s absolutely no perks. The office cafe is expensive and awful food quality. My team wanted to have a holiday dinner and was told the company won’t pay for it, we have to pay out…

Amazon has always struck me as a pretty aggressive employer. I wonder if it'll ever come back to bit them in the ass.

One free coffee a day is asinine. MS gives you all the free soda and coffee you could want, and their food courts are great. I assume this is true of Google as well. How the hell does Amazon keep finding employees?

Re: Amazon is blocking promotions of employees who don't comply with RTO policy

#95

Post by QwertyPi »

fishtoaster wrote: post #28
QwertyPi wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If remote work truly is equal to or superior to in office work then you should be able to out compete in the long term using this competitive advantage. Or they'll just buy you out. Competitive advantage doesn't work too well when your competitors have large moats of cash that you don't have access to. Honestly, people just need to organize unions. That's the only effective counter to policy like this.

You say "buy out" like it's a bad thing. Presumably that's a huge win for you if you started (or have equity in) the company - and if not, you can just... not accept the buyout offer?

> Presumably that's a huge win for you if you started (or have equity in) the company - and if not, you can just... not accept the buyout offer?

The issue is that this will not raise the working standards of the workers already working for the abusive employer, not that this can't be leveraged by a privileged few.

Re: Amazon is blocking promotions of employees who don't comply with RTO policy

#96

Post by MattPalmer1086 »

Our recent all hands company meeting:

Senior manager 1: we are increasing the number of days in office per week for everyone.

Senior manager 2: our new remote collaboration solution is brilliant, you can even work on an airplane.

Everyone else: sitting at desk in front of a video call listening to people in different locations, as usual.

Re: Amazon is blocking promotions of employees who don't comply with RTO policy

#97

Post by nikole9696 »

aathromzn wrote: post #71

Amazon employee here, currently sitting in an office that is overcrowded, smells bad, and is too cramped to get any work done without distractions. The phone rooms are always taken, usually have broken lights or trash on the floor/desk. There’s absolutely no perks. The office cafe is expensive and awful food quality. My team wanted to have a holiday dinner and was told the company won’t pay for it, we have to pay out…

So why are you still there? Just the money, or it takes time to find a new job, or something else? There's plenty of smaller companies hiring still, but not at those salaries. What is it that DOES retain the staff there?

Re: Amazon is blocking promotions of employees who don't comply with RTO policy

#98

Post by ako »

deadeye wrote: post #63
ako wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are many situations where employers are not interested in skills, they’re just looking to fill a position with the cheapest (licensed) person. There’s very little ROI in upgrading your skills in this situation.

I think we're saying the same thing. If that's what employers do then employees can't compete on skill.

Agreed, just wanted to stress the point that it is often not even an option for a potential employee to try and compete on skills.

Re: Amazon is blocking promotions of employees who don't comply with RTO policy

#99

Post by paradox460 »

nsxwolf wrote: post #51

My career has been one long carrot and stick of promised promotions that never materialize, so this threat would have no effect on me.

Ooh sorry you just missed promotion targets this time. Keep working hard and you'll be up for it next time

Re: Amazon is blocking promotions of employees who don't comply with RTO policy

#100

Post by jwestbury »

aathromzn wrote: post #71

Amazon employee here, currently sitting in an office that is overcrowded, smells bad, and is too cramped to get any work done without distractions. The phone rooms are always taken, usually have broken lights or trash on the floor/desk. There’s absolutely no perks. The office cafe is expensive and awful food quality. My team wanted to have a holiday dinner and was told the company won’t pay for it, we have to pay out…

> Amazon is all stick, no carrot

This has always been true of Amazon. It was true when I joined ten years ago, and it was true ten years before that.

Okay, sure, there have been small carrots at various points. The company Christmas party used to be pretty wild. But even those small carrots have been getting stripped over time.

When I see young engineers considering a job at Amazon, I tell them to only take it if they have no other options. Amazon will find a way to traumatise you, and you might not even realise it for years. I've been gone for four years now, and I've suddenly found myself constantly worried about being fired, even following good performance reviews. It's a story every ex-Amazonian I know has lived out in some way.

tl;dr, fuck Amazon.

Post reply on HN