Amazon is seeing some employees quit instead of moving to a new state as part of relocation mandate::As Amazon tries to get employees back to the office, some staffers are being told to relocate to hubs in different states if they want to keep their jobs
Exactly by design. It’s a lot cheaper to make people quit than to lay them off and pay a severance package.
Couldn’t you decline to move and then force the company to fire and/or lay you off?
That probably depends on their contract and location. Not coming to the office after being told to might result in being fired with cause which may result in loss of severance pay. It might also constitute abandonment of the position which can be seen as “quitting” in some place.
This is the position I’m in. My leadership (multiple levels up) gave us approvals to move away from Seattle (but not too far) after Jassy unequivocally stated that WFH wasn’t going away and it was up to teams to decide how they wanted to do it.
So, I bought my first house for my family 90 min away without traffic. Then he swings in with his fragile little ego a year later and tells us “oh, you riff better in office” and forces everyone to come back. Zero data. Nothing of quantifiable value. Lies to our faces. This whole thing is about real estate. 100%, no doubt about it.
I have been VERY openly vocal since then that I will NOT be back in the office more than once a week and will leave if they force it on me.
It’s probably the wrong move politically, but I’m pissed off and if I can set an example for the kids who have since joined as newbies, things will be better for them.
But I now have zero issues telling managers 3-4 levels up in public meetings that I won’t be in the office specifically because I don’t want to be. Fuck the high horse he rode in on.
You (Amazon leadership) wanna demand we use data to prove every single decision we make and completely dominate the company culture with that? Fine. I’ll keep using that argument against it. If I’m fired, I will have zero trouble finding a new gig. In the meantime, I will sit at my home office and ignore every single email I get complaining I don’t badge into the office 3 times a week and have a 2.5 hour drive each way on those days.
Yes, I moved with the expectation that I’d be doing that once a week permanently. I’m fine with that. So are ALL my managers. Jassy can bite me. I’m really angry if you can’t tell.
The problem is you lose good employees this way, instead of the employees you should actually be letting go of.
And then those good employees go work for your competition. Oopsie!
And then those good employees go work for your competition. Oopsie!
And Amazon’s competition is…
Target. Best Buy. Grocery store chains. Places like Homegoods and Overstock.com.
Any company that does any kind of logistics. You also don’t have to work for a direct competitor. If Amazon is on your resume you’ll have options.
The best employees are getting messages from recruiters all the time with lucrative offers to go elsewhere. It’s foolish to give them a reason to even consider those offers.
Google, Microsoft, IBM, and Alibaba compete in the cloud hosting market. eBay, Alibaba, Walmart, (insert any other online retailer) compete in the retail sales markets. Netflix, Hulu, Sling, Google, HBO Max all compete in the streaming TV market.
In addition to all of the above, there are numerous other industries that would be glad to hire competent IT staff who leave Amazon.
The one that makes the decision sees all workers as replaceable cogs and the managers that know which people are the good ones are not consulted. We call that the “foie gras” style of management.
Had a job that could be done remotely. New VP wanted all of his people in one place that was across the country. Two people out of about twenty went. One was promised a promotion and the other was close to retirement.
People aren’t afraid of what will happen if they quit a job they don’t like anymore after COVID taught us that we can weather some down time and find employers that match our values.
Am Amazon employee (programmer) and can confirm. The shenanigans being pulled right now are absolutely bullshit and as somebody who’s been at the company for a long time and has generally enjoyed the fast paced, high pressure atmosphere I’m real close to saying “fuck you” to some of my favorite people.
Note, my experience is probably far from the norm, but my org has nothing but wonderful individuals and they’ve fought really hard to keep the flexibility we’ve had since long before covid.
Fuck you Andy Jassy. We all despise you.
As an Ex Amazonian, (did 5 years time in the Bezos era), you all are forgetting that Amazon’s entire culture is built to be predatory towards type A people. Jassy didn’t start that, Bezos did. Jassy is just relentless because of AWS operations. He’s not better or worse than Besos.
Well, uh… Duh? I mean, even if people absolutely loved their jobs and their employer, not everyone is going to move because the job moves. And Amazon isn’t exactly the most loved employer.
I’ve gotten over the idea of moving to a new location for a job. Right now I’m living in a city that I love and would not want to move out just to pursue a career opportunity.
That’s definitely a new thing that’s come out after COVID hit but there’s no going back for me anyhow
I bought my house right before COVID. No job is getting me to move at this point, and even if they wanted to there’s no offer lucrative enough to make selling a good idea. Interest rates would need to plummet first and we know that’s not happening anytime soon.
Yep, even before COVID in my old job we moved office that basically changed my commute from a 10 minute walk to a 1 hour drive thru a shitty downtown traffic and my mental health sank. Even though in my previous job it was similar. I was already so used to having only 20 minutes of my day taken for commute (and the ability to have lunch at home).
Having that changed to at least 2 hours a day (take into account more expenses due to using personal vehicle, more time taken due to looking for a parking spot, and no I didn’t use public transport because it’s shitty in my area and can add another hour to my commute).
Since going full remote at the start of COVID basically the first thing I ask to any recruiter contacting me is whether the role is remote or not. If yes the next question is whether the management have plans to go back to the office in the current or next fiscal year.
Even with it’s drawbacks, remote work has been a boon for me. I get to spend more time with my children, I get rewarded when I work efficiently because I can finish working faster. With Discord I can still keep building rapport with my coworkers by having game nights weekly.
It’s really understandable, and even just a 1-hour commute changes an average day from 8 hours to ten hours, which is a huge quality of life difference.
As a manager, it’s a little frustrating because I have great job applicants that are only interested in 100% remote but much of my work requires people to be hands on with hardware, and my company has a hybrid policy, so everyone has to be in plant some days.
My team is all software developers, and I have no doubt about them being as productive or more from home as at work (though in-person collaboration is more effective than remote). I don’t have any personal issue with it and am as liberal as policy allows about approving remote work, but some things we do just have to be hands-on.
Thankfully, my personal commute is about 15 minutes, so isn’t a big impact in my day
