Amazon cloud boss says employees unhappy with 5-day office mandate can leave

[1srelluc]

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/10/17/aws-ceo-says-employees-unhappy-with-5-day-office-mandate-can-leave.html

Amazon’s cloud boss Matt Garman told employees in an all-hands meeting that if they don’t agree with its new five-day in-office mandate, they could leave for another company.

The company announced the new policy last month. Employees have until Jan. 2 to adhere to the new policy.

Roughly 37,000 employees have joined an internal Slack channel created last year to advocate for remote work and share grievances about the return-to-work mandate, according to a person familiar.

Amazon’s cloud boss on Thursday gave employees a frank message about the company’s recently announced five-day in-office mandate.

Staffers who don’t agree with Amazon’s new policy can leave, Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman said during an all-hands meeting at the company’s second headquarters in Arlington, Virginia.

“If there are people who just don’t work well in that environment and don’t want to, that’s OK, there are other companies around,” Garman said, according to a transcript viewed by CNBC. “At Amazon, we want to be in an environment where we are working together, and we feel that collaborative environment is incredibly important for our innovation and for our culture.”

Probably more of an indirect layoff than anything, clearing some of the bloat from hiring pushes of the past few years.....It's not 2022 anymore.

I do agree with him though, if you want to work from home, find a job that allows you to do so....Just not here.

I mean commuting to work in nightmare NOtVA traffic, paying more for gas, and arranging childcare is as American as apple pie, if you don't like it then go invent your own damn pie!

Was it Elon Musk that said, "if you want to work from home then pretend to work for another company"?


Still and all it's bad news for Virginia politics if more Amazon leftists have to move to NOtVA to work.

 

[toobfreak]

Wow, Amazon the task master actually expecting people to come to work 5 days a week. When will the hell end???

 

[petro]

Still haven't found a way to build houses from home.

I have zero sympathy for those employees who insist they must work from home.
From what I have seen from a lot of people's lack of work ethic, it would make me also insist their ass be at the job.

 

[Harpy Eagle]

Still haven't found a way to build houses from home.

I have zero sympathy for those employees who insist they must work from home.
From what I have seen from a lot of people's lack of work ethic, it would make me also insist their ass be at the job.

If one lacks work ethic they will not be any more productive in an office than at home.

 

[petro]

If one lacks work ethic they will not be any more productive in an office than at home.

Which makes it far easier to identify and remove them.
Having employees at work also makes it easier to identify those that go above and beyond.

Like I said, zero sympathy for whiners.

 

[Anathema]

I do hope Amazon has a good bunch of headhunters and HR personnel because I get the feeling they’re gonna need them come January.

My employer tried to do something like this to us last year. We provided the data showing our efficiency went UP 17% when we went fully remote in 2020, and went down 10% when we were brought back into the office one day a week in 2022 and down another 3% when increased to 2 days a week in 2023. Of the 14 employees in my department 9 of us indicated our intent to quit if forced back into the office more days. The company has backed off so far

 

[Anathema]

Still haven't found a way to build houses from home.

I have zero sympathy for those employees who insist they must work from home.
From what I have seen from a lot of people's lack of work ethic, it would make me also insist their ass be at the job.

You CHOSE that career path. Nobody forced you into it. Some of us know we’re not built for outside work from an early age.

Yes, a lot of folks lack the focus to work unsupervised, at home or on a job site. Some of us can. That’s why I’m against a one size fits some policy when it comes to these things.

 

[Harpy Eagle]

Which makes it far easier to identify and remove them.
Having employees at work also makes it easier to identify those that go above and beyond.

Like I said, zero sympathy for whiners.

It really does not unless the boss is sitting right next to them.

I have people from 13 different states working on teams that I am over. I have not met a single one of them in person. They are assigned task, I know if they complete them or not and if they did them well or not. I know which ones finish ahead of time and ask for more work and which ones do not.

If we all had to come to the same office every day we would lose out on a ton of talent from those that do not wish to move to the St Louis area.

 

[Harpy Eagle]

I do hope Amazon has a good bunch of headhunters and HR personnel because I get the feeling they’re gonna need them come January.

My employer tried to do something like this to us last year. We provided the data showing our efficiency went UP 17% when we went fully remote in 2020, and went down 10% when we were brought back into the office one day a week in 2022 and down another 3% when increased to 2 days a week in 2023. Of the 14 employees in my department 9 of us indicated our intent to quit if forced back into the office more days. The company has backed off so far

Yep.

My brother is an architect, he has been working from home since COVID. He moved once they made them remote a hour north of the city they were in and has 10 acres now. When his employer tried to make him come back to the office he said he would leave the firm, so they asked if they could ship his chair to him and gave him a raise to keep him from leaving.

They get more work out of him now as the time he would have spent commuting he often spends working.

 

[Anathema]

Which makes it far easier to identify and remove them.
Having employees at work also makes it easier to identify those that go above and beyond.

Like I said, zero sympathy for whiners.

Okay… so why did my department’s efficiency go UP 17% when we went remote in 2020 and DROP 10-13% when we were forced back into the office part-time between 2022-23?

 

[1srelluc]

Okay… so why did my department’s efficiency go UP 17% when we went remote in 2020 and DROP 10-13% when we were forced back into the office part-time between 2022-23?

Because they are assholes?

 

[Anathema]

Because they are assholes?

No. I can actually give you the answer. We’re a very independent group of workers. So long as we’re not being interrupted we are very efficient workers. Unfortunately our office is full of distractions and interruptions… meetings (online and in person), other employees, other activities in the office, etc…