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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

#141
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…

> The CEO herd mentality is why entire industries make the same mistakes simultaneously.

Also, most CEOs would jump on the hype train for anything that investors may like.

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

#142

I heard many times Amazon is a pretty bad place to work at. I wonder what percentage of people will decide to leave because of this. As someone who has been 100% remote for 6 years I can say with confidence, there are people that work best remote, and there are these that work best in the office. It is also a function of your seniority level (I'd much prefer to be on site as a trainee/junior). But forcing a one size…

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

#143
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?…

Amazon built the entire company on two decision-making systems

1. A/B testing and multi-armed bandits.

2. "jeff_said", a special macro in the website that overrides the decisions of automated A/B testing and multi-armed bandits.

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

#144

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…

> I find the push for "back to the office" one of the most astonishing things to come out of corporate America.

Surely the pattern here is:

Back to Office Announcement --> Employees leaving voluntarily (No severance payouts) --> Lay-offs Announcement (Severance payouts)

I thought it was just an easy way to get out of severance payments or this model too simplistic?

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

#146

I heard many times Amazon is a pretty bad place to work at. I wonder what percentage of people will decide to leave because of this. As someone who has been 100% remote for 6 years I can say with confidence, there are people that work best remote, and there are these that work best in the office. It is also a function of your seniority level (I'd much prefer to be on site as a trainee/junior). But forcing a one size…

One anecdotal data point:

I was contacted last week by an Amazon recruiter.

Although I'm unemployed, I didn't pursue that opening because of Amazon's overall reputation.

If they still allowed mostly remote work, I would have just told her that I wasn't interested at this time. I.e., if I'm still unemployed in a month, I might suck it up and apply.

But the non-WFH policy was the final nail in the coffin. I asked her to never contact me about Amazon openings, even in the future.

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

#149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you just don't quit eventually there is still a dismissal + severance right? What if I just keep working from home?

Nobody owes you severance, unless you have a contract that says so. It might be offered in return for something they want you to do, like not badmouthing them on social media or suing for wrongful termination. Constructive dismissal is a more relevant topic here.

As those are mass layoffs, prior notice (not "you're fired if you don't come to the office", but "we will fire you in X days") is required.

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

#150
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?…

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