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AWS CEO tells workers to quit if they don't want to come back to the office

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Re: AWS CEO tells workers to quit if they don't want to come back to the office

#51

Post by smt88 »

JoshTriplett wrote: post #38
tomaskafka wrote: post #27

Banning remote work (or even just signaling the intent) is an excellent solution to ‘we effed up by hiring too many people in ZIRP/AI expectations era and now we need to get rid of them without paying severance’.

It's a really bad solution to that: https://www.gartner.com/en/articles/the-data-is-in-return-to... You end up losing your higher performers, because they have many alternatives, and keeping the people who have fewer options.

My impression as a longtime user of AWS is that they don't care to retain competent people. They seem to have a "throw more bodies at it" attitude toward work.

Re: AWS CEO tells workers to quit if they don't want to come back to the office

#52

Post by hedgehog »

22c wrote: post #32
_6hmp wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://steveblank.com/2009/12/21/the-elves-leave-middle-ear...

That is the one, thank you!

I've heard a similar story from someone who was at HP when the donut carts ended, it signaled a significant culture change.

Re: AWS CEO tells workers to quit if they don't want to come back to the office

#53

Post by 2muchcoffeeman »

michaelhoney wrote: post #21

Thing is, if you are the CEO of AWS, you are fantastically well-compensated to be in meetings with people who suck up to you. Of course you think the office is a great place to do your work. But that’s not what 95% of AWS workers do.

I doubt that has anything to do with anything. It’s far more likely they want to encourage people to move on without having to pay severance. I read on some news site there’s some employee chat channel with thousands of members advocating for flexible work.

Re: AWS CEO tells workers to quit if they don't want to come back to the office

#54

Post by aprilthird2021 »

kredd wrote: post #14
benoau wrote: post #3

I wonder which tech company will be the first to take this too far and implode because of some easily-avoidable cataclysm. I think in some ways you could say Twitter / X already did although they are still limping along for now...

It’s a fairly calculated move, as they know market for engineers isn’t in the best shape, so a significant chunk will keep working with no complaints. They also ramped up hiring heavily, if the number of messages I get from Amazon’s recruiters is an indicator.

Their recruiters basically never stopped sending out messages even during the mass layoffs of the past few years, from my experience

Re: AWS CEO tells workers to quit if they don't want to come back to the office

#55

Post by squiffsquiff »

I realise this topic has been covered repeatedly but considering it from another angle:

As an engineer employed by third party companies using AWS, this doesn't look good. I don't care if the support people are in an office. I do care if they're available and know what they're doing. There are other cloud providers available. For new entrants, what's Amazon's unique selling point?

Re: AWS CEO tells workers to quit if they don't want to come back to the office

#57

Post by globular-toast »

lynx23 wrote: post #39

[flagged]

Entitled to what? Control over their own lives? I hope you didn't have any choice in your job, or take holiday or weekends, or even get paid or sleep. Otherwise you might feel entitled to these things.

Re: AWS CEO tells workers to quit if they don't want to come back to the office

#58

Post by dtquad »

ninalanyon wrote: post #43

Does this apply to Amazon operations in the EU and UK as well. I could imagine that it might be possible to fight such an edict under UK employment law. I'm pretty sure that they would not be able to do it quite so easily here in Norway.

We have stronger worker entitlements here in Europe but WFH is often just a positive remnant from the COVID era and not something specified in our contracts. For example I work fewer hours and from home on Fridays but nowhere in my contract does it say I'm allowed to do that.

Re: AWS CEO tells workers to quit if they don't want to come back to the office

#60

Post by rat9988 »

squiffsquiff wrote: post #55

I realise this topic has been covered repeatedly but considering it from another angle: As an engineer employed by third party companies using AWS, this doesn't look good. I don't care if the support people are in an office. I do care if they're available and know what they're doing. There are other cloud providers available. For new entrants, what's Amazon's unique selling point?

I'm not sure what your argument is. I feel like you just wanted to bash amazon. If you don't care if the support people are in office, why are you concerned by the RTO news?
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