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Amazon tells employees to return to office five days a week

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Re: Amazon tells employees to return to office five days a week

#491

https://code-cwa.org/organize

This might be an unpopular take here, but from my perspective, the downsides of introducing unions in tech for software engineers far outweigh the benefits. I understand why unions can work for certain industries, but I just don’t see how they’d be a net positive for tech. For startups especially, hiring unionized software engineers would be disastrous: - You’ll go from having tight-knit and motivated teams building…

When you hear about unions in software, stop thinking about auto-workers and think about NBA players instead:

https://nbpa.com/

Lebron James and Stephen Curry are in a union and they don't seem to be having any issues making a lot of money.

Or maybe something more similar to software development, the screenwriters guild:

https://www.wga.org/

Again, there are many rich screenwriters, Google for a list of the top paid and it's obvious being in a union hasn't stopped high compensation.

Re: Amazon tells employees to return to office five days a week

#492
post #488

The irony of setting up a '“Bureaucracy Mailbox” for any examples any of you see where we might have bureaucracy' while announcing an edict enforced by centralised control to replace autonomous decision making about where & how to work.

A long time ago I joined Deloitte to set up a local software dev. practice. A few days in I was invited to join a "bureaucracy reduction taskforce". Someone handed me a literally 12 inch thick stack of paper I was meant to read up on before the first meeting. I gave my regrets and withdrew from the taskforce (there were no repercussions - apparently a few others had noped out as well).

I choose to believe that was a strategy. Invite everybody so they feel included, weed out almost everybody so it's a small group and can maybe get something done

Re: Amazon tells employees to return to office five days a week

#493

As a former senior person at aws although I left on good terms I will never return there and this stuff cements the deal for me. I need a company that respects my decisions on how I do best in my career and not surveil of police my work style. As long as I am a trusted leader who delivers results that customers need why does anyone care where my bag of water is physically located? Who are you to tell neurodivergent e…

> How petty are the tyrants.

I would consider the relationship between a company and its employees as alliance. If both have the same goal and compatible style, then they work together. Otherwise, they part ways. Tyranny is possible only with violence, while employment is at will, at least in Amazon.

Re: Amazon tells employees to return to office five days a week

#494
post #476
post #468

I am not looking forward to the influx of ex-Amazon folks in the industry at large. The ones I have worked with have been difficult to work with, having no interest in opinions outside of their own.

I never hire any former Amazon or Facebook. I've worked with some when I was an IC, I even hired a few before I knew better. Never had a positive experience.

Ex googlers seemed much easier to work with. But Amazon - yeesh.

Re: Amazon tells employees to return to office five days a week

#495

https://code-cwa.org/organize

Thanks for this. I really want more software engineers to see the benefits of unions. Yes we’re paid well but there’s more to life than a paycheck

> I really want more software engineers to see the benefits of unions.

How would a profession where your value to the company scales very directly with your talents and your pay can be very connected to those talents and has a very high celling benefit from being judged as a unit with the least competent instead of an individual on just your own contribution.

Re: Amazon tells employees to return to office five days a week

#496
post #311

Super commuters are going to start sweating. I work with people that commute from DC to NYC and a few times a week is doable. 5 times is impossible

Not impossible. You just are home only on the weekends. Years ago, I used to commute from Pennsylvania to NYC by train. Spent the week nights in NYC.

Re: Amazon tells employees to return to office five days a week

#497
post #456
post #130

Reducing the number of managers is an interesting decision. I briefly worked at Amazon, and the only way for managers to get promoted is by hiring more people under them. There isn’t any other way to get promoted, which incentivizes managers to grow their teams and sometimes add features that may not make sense. Any opinions from ex-Amazonians?

what kind of asshole makes head count a promotion statistic? What does this prove?

Lazy management, ones that focus on "metrics" and "numbers" rather than actual engagement with their teams/business lines.

I'm only 20% joking here...

Re: Amazon tells employees to return to office five days a week

#498

As a former senior person at aws although I left on good terms I will never return there and this stuff cements the deal for me. I need a company that respects my decisions on how I do best in my career and not surveil of police my work style. As long as I am a trusted leader who delivers results that customers need why does anyone care where my bag of water is physically located? Who are you to tell neurodivergent e…

> How petty are the tyrants. I would consider the relationship between a company and its employees as alliance. If both have the same goal and compatible style, then they work together. Otherwise, they part ways. Tyranny is possible only with violence, while employment is at will, at least in Amazon.

Tyranny is pissing in a bottle lest ye be fired for malfeasance.

Now the rest of the workers can experience it!

Re: Amazon tells employees to return to office five days a week

#499

Genuine question for the folks over at Amazon: What is the value of working at Amazon (or even just AWS) these days? Every now and then I get a ring from a recruiter gauging my interest and sometimes I get the itch to just to go through the process so that I can have a FAANG in my resume. I've heard from others that Amazon could be an amazing place to work, citing fantastic colleagues and work opportunities. But then…

It's the worst reason to end up there, because you have to really want to work there for some qualitative reason to have any hope of adapting to and succeeding in that culture. I always felt so bad when I helped onboard a new hire who said they just wanted to experience working at a FAANG.

Re: Amazon tells employees to return to office five days a week

#500

As a former senior person at aws although I left on good terms I will never return there and this stuff cements the deal for me. I need a company that respects my decisions on how I do best in my career and not surveil of police my work style. As long as I am a trusted leader who delivers results that customers need why does anyone care where my bag of water is physically located? Who are you to tell neurodivergent e…

> How petty are the tyrants. I would consider the relationship between a company and its employees as alliance. If both have the same goal and compatible style, then they work together. Otherwise, they part ways. Tyranny is possible only with violence, while employment is at will, at least in Amazon.

You will have a hard time being heard over the hoards content to tear down their houses out of anger that they are not palaces.
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