Amazon also babysits its employees with a daily badge report, tracking if you physically badged in to a corporate office. This is a slap in the face to professionals.
Amazon RTO policy is costing it top tech talent, according to internal document
151–160 of 190 posts
Re: Amazon RTO policy is costing it top tech talent, according to internal document
#152My complete frustration with the RTO situation is that it is so backwards thinking. Instead of trying to enhance remote work to alleviate the negatives and enhance the positives, we just stop with "Zoom+Slack" and throw up our hands and stop innovating and trying to make better remote work.
In addition to making remote work better, make the office better too. Build offices for the future, try new things, see what works. Maybe there are a lot of hot swap desks available to those who want it, a few dedicated offices and a large conference space a mandatory all hands can be held once or twice a month. You could use that space for weekly lunches and team building exercises for people who sign up for it. Or make it an easily convertible open work space. There seems to be a better way forward with the way office work is done for those who are generally in front of a screen all of the time. Instead we're returning to 20th century ideals of office/work life.
Re: Amazon RTO policy is costing it top tech talent, according to internal document
#153Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have no idea how i used to manage with five days in office. I am currently using myunch hour to see a doctor. A few weeks back I needed to see a plumber, and before that an electrician. Its five seconds out of the work day let them in and send them on their way but I guess we're looking at burning annual leave if I was stuck in office.
>I am currently using myunch hour to see a doctor I'm not saying you do, but people abusing the WFH flexibility are probably a big reason for RTO push. That, or the (possibly irrational) management fear that people may be abusing the WFH.
> people abusing the WFH flexibility
If that happens, or management is operating in response to fear, management is incompetent.
I am a manager of a fully remote team, and if people are not getting their job done they are replaced no matter if they are in office or remote.
Meeting goals? All is well. Missing goals, find out why, and adjust dates or resources.
In most cases those who abuse WFH for us have been staff augmentation contractors. I have a theory they may be working multiple contracts, but it does not matter because things were not getting done, and the solution is simple.
The team members who are performing the best with remote work are FTEs, who understand that the benefits of the situation come with responsibility. In fact, sometimes I have to encourage them to _not_ work as much because it is convenient. Unless there is a fire drill, close the laptop at the end of a normal business day.
Re: Amazon RTO policy is costing it top tech talent, according to internal document
#154How does their "hub" thing work? Is your whole team in one place, or do you just report to some random cubicle farm?
:::: How does their "hub" thing work? Is your whole team in one place, or do you just report to some random cubicle farm? Basically, you show up to random cubicle or sound-proof photo booth and "collaborate" via Chime (now Teams) with other workers around the world also sitting in random booths/cubicles. Unlike Google/Facebook you do not even get free lunch.
Amazon is off slack?
Re: Amazon RTO policy is costing it top tech talent, according to internal document
#155new amazon hires must work at an office in Seattle or Virgina, the jobs posted in other cities aren't necessarily available
Re: Amazon RTO policy is costing it top tech talent, according to internal document
#156Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have no idea how i used to manage with five days in office. I am currently using myunch hour to see a doctor. A few weeks back I needed to see a plumber, and before that an electrician. Its five seconds out of the work day let them in and send them on their way but I guess we're looking at burning annual leave if I was stuck in office.
>I am currently using myunch hour to see a doctor I'm not saying you do, but people abusing the WFH flexibility are probably a big reason for RTO push. That, or the (possibly irrational) management fear that people may be abusing the WFH.
Heh. I worked remotely for most of my career (~20 of 25 years). In that time I frequently worked 50+ hours a week because I actually enjoy the work that I do (application security, including security testing, and the joy of popping a shell never gets old). RTO has impacted the amount of hours I work because I head to the office, and then when my work day is done, I pack up my computer and head home. Unless I am paged or have a meeting to support someone outside of normal working hours, I don't crack my work computer, it's easier to just sit at my home workstation. When I WFH my home workstation had my work computer set up, and I would default to logging into that, unless I was playing a video game or other working on explicitly personal stuff.
There are folks who abuse WFH/remote work (see the overemployed groups on reddit and other places), but companies are losing access to alot of extra, effectively unpaid, time by imposing an arbitrary start and stop time for people based on physical location.
Re: Amazon RTO policy is costing it top tech talent, according to internal document
#157I truly believe that most mainstream companies don't really want "top talent" so much as they want to control their talent, hence why we don't have any option to work under 40 hours a week.
Maybe it's different in the US but everywhere I've worked has been fine with me working 4 days a week. Normally I ask after I've started there rather than during the job interview.
Re: Amazon RTO policy is costing it top tech talent, according to internal document
#158Earlier quoted context omitted.
>I have no idea how i used to manage with five days in office The quality of offices was also much better in the past like a single office for for 2 to Max 6 people. Now it's crowded open space hot desks offices with 40+ people.
Some of us never knew that world, even when we were going in every day for years.
Maybe it's for the best. If you work fully remote now then you you haven't missed much but if you go to a shitty office now the you missed a period where workers had some value.
Re: Amazon RTO policy is costing it top tech talent, according to internal document
#1595 days a week RTO is just beyond the pale. 3 days, sure. 4 days, maybe. But 5 days in office is harsh. Top talent sees this as rude, lack of trust, unnecessary babysitting and middle managing. 3-4 days sure, good for networking, collaboration, etc. But give people 1 day a week flex at least to be trusted adults who can responsibly wfh.
5 days a week at the office is not happening for me unless they pay mid six figures. And I live in Europe, we don't get Facebook AI team salaries here :D Currently I'm 0-2 days a week at the office, my max so far has been 4 this year.
Question- how common are fully-remote software engineer gigs in Europe? I'm considering a relocation from the US (currently fully-remote) and this will be a huge factor in my decision.
Re: Amazon RTO policy is costing it top tech talent, according to internal document
#160Earlier quoted context omitted.
:::: How does their "hub" thing work? Is your whole team in one place, or do you just report to some random cubicle farm? Basically, you show up to random cubicle or sound-proof photo booth and "collaborate" via Chime (now Teams) with other workers around the world also sitting in random booths/cubicles. Unlike Google/Facebook you do not even get free lunch.
Amazon is off slack?
currently on Slack and Zoom, moving away from Chime, and with some people using Teams.