Amazon employees in dismay over return to the office policy

[GON]

Timing is everything. Amzn telling employees to return to the office seems to work for two reasons:

Layoffs at the big high tech firms demonstrates demand for their skills may not be as valuable as they were just two years ago.

Elon Musk insisting that Twitter workers produce or get separated.

How fast the tide appears to be turning. This thread is not a discussion on the merits of remote working, it is how high tech employees appear to be losing leverage.

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/21/ama...may-about-sudden-return-to-office-policy.html

 

[Dave Hess]

Employer has the final say.

Show up to office or find another job.

 

[atikovi]

Return to what office? The driver's truck is their office.

 

[JeffKeryk]

It is far beyond my comprehension how entitled some (not all) workers are. No one owes me anything and I am pretty sure no one paid me because they thought I was cute. I know the other side of life and never wanna go back.

 

[UG_Passat]

Return to what office? The driver's truck is their office.

The article is referring to Amazon corporate workers, not the peasants at the distribution warehouses and drivers

 

[GON]

Recently on a plane, I watched an old episode of Modern Family.

In the show, the "computer guy" finds out he is going to get fired at the end of the day. He takes wipes out the firm computer systems/ data bases before he exits the building.

Although every organization is supposed to have a "backup" of database files, etc, some high-tech workers can take out an organization's computers systems, etc. Because of this, leaders may walk a tight-rope when dealing with high-tech workers.

Replacing people may not be so hard. Reconstructing data bases, e-commerce platforms, etc- may not be so easy in some cases.

 

[Passport1]

I've read lots of the comments here over a couple of years about the work environment today. If I had to get up on a Monday morning and play those juvenile games I'd probably just quit.

 

[4wd]

Recently on a plane, I watched an old episode of Modern Family.

In the show, the "computer guy" finds out he is going to get fired at the end of the day. He takes wipes out the firm computer systems/ data bases before he exits the building.

Although every organization is supposed to have a "backup" of database files, etc, some high-tech workers can take out an organization's computers systems, etc. Because of this, leaders may walk a tight-rope when dealing with high-tech workers.

Replacing people may not be so hard. Reconstructing data bases, e-commerce platforms, etc- may not be so easy in some cases.

And jail time will not be fun for the ex employee …

 

[atikovi]

And jail time will not be fun for the ex employee …

Which could take years to work it's way through the legal system and for what? Won't get back your lost files, down time and missed revenue.

 

[4wd]

Which could take years to work it's way through the legal system and for what? Won't get back your lost files, down time and missed revenue.

Seriously - you just turn a blind eye ?

 

[99Saturn]

Timing is everything. Amzn telling employees to return to the office seems to work for two reasons:

Layoffs at the big high tech firms demonstrates demand for their skills may not be as valuable as they were just two years ago.

Elon Musk insisting that Twitter workers produce or get separated.

How fast the tide appears to be turning. This thread is not a discussion on the merits of remote working, it is how high tech employees appear to be losing leverage.

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/21/ama...may-about-sudden-return-to-office-policy.html

I agree, timing is everything. I hope if employees are unhappy, the next time the pendulum swings back they vote with their feet.

 

[atikovi]

Seriously - you just turn a blind eye ?

No, just saying it's not a big deterrent.

 

[c502cid]

Most interesting to me is the employees that were sure it was a forever thing and moved out of town. That's a long commute.

 

[4wd]

No, just saying it's not a big deterrent.

We are all issued laptops - hundreds of them - even our contractors have to get one …
You don’t touch another laptop - and they are spread across many servers … our managers make it clear they will hunt you down for any size cyber criminal attempt … Up to them to measure “deterrent “

 

[4wd]

Most interesting to me is the employees that were sure it was a forever thing and moved out of town. That's a long commute.

First the smoothie bar - the Yoga class … what’s next … ?

 

[TnT_M]

Recently on a plane, I watched an old episode of Modern Family.

In the show, the "computer guy" finds out he is going to get fired at the end of the day. He takes wipes out the firm computer systems/ data bases before he exits the building.

Although every organization is supposed to have a "backup" of database files, etc, some high-tech workers can take out an organization's computers systems, etc. Because of this, leaders may walk a tight-rope when dealing with high-tech workers.

Replacing people may not be so hard. Reconstructing data bases, e-commerce platforms, etc- may not be so easy in some cases.

Oh boy @GON thats a slippery slope and seems like corporate sabotage. I’ve tried to always subscribe to don’t take on a fight I can’t win. Don’t think an employee is going to win that fight. Corporations have very deep pockets.

Just my $0.02

 

[Greasymechtech]

Working? Don't assume that these employees were the model of productive performance

Tech layoffs are nothing new. How many were tech employees?

Time for some to go back to work and earn a paycheck. If they don't like the company rules, there are jobs with other companies.

 

[Leo99]

Most interesting to me is the employees that were sure it was a forever thing and moved out of town. That's a long commute.

My company allows employees to move out of town with their manager's permission. I gave permission to one of my team to move away. We work remotely very efficiently. Hire good people and put them to work. If you need to watch and worry about employee's work ethic, you need to fire them and hire better people. I go in the office very occasionally. Our CEO says we're never going back to the office full time but only if there's a purpose to be in the office. Plus I'm over an hour from the office.

 

[ATex7239]

Management grossly over estimated the company’s growth potential. They over built and over staffed and the market eventually corrected it for them. This back to the office decision sounds like a panicky management doing something to say they are “trying to fix the problem.” It just stinks of lazy management plain and simple.

 

[fisher83]

We have been fully remote for 3 years and I've been remote at least a couple days a week for the 2 years before that. It works well in my industry (financial crimes investigator) since we have no customer contact and our office building isn't customer facing either. I don't think we necessarily have much leverage if the company did decide to make us return to office but work from home opportunities are pretty plentiful in my field so if I felt strongly enough about it, I'd easily score another remote job.