Andy Jassey Calls for Amazon to Return to Office
fortune.com
fortune.com
Really? Do you have actual stats to back that claim up? Because the same claim is made by a variety of consulting firms about a variety of open office and similar plans that executives love, and literally every single study ever performed by someone who wasn't a consultant being paid to justify making everyone's work environment worse, has shown that they do the exact opposite.
The fact information flows at best 50% speed because of delays, lack of mannerisms and that one person at once can speak and a 2 second gap ends up happening between each statement this slowness is completely tangible to anyone who has tried to get work done with this trash tech.
IRL communication that takes seconds to minutes takes 30-40 minutes over a video call.
I know this is hyperbole, but I would seriously question the communication skills of anyone who pretends that in person meetings are indispensable.
> IRL communication that takes seconds to minutes takes 30-40 minutes over a video call.
That sounds like you have communication issues, not technical ones. If it's something that's going to take just a couple of seconds, why are you having a meeting about it? Why are you not just using irc/slack? It _sounds_ like you're saying that you want to return to the office because if everyone is in the office you can just interrupt other people whenever you have a question - which is one of the single most annoying things about being in the office.
Cool victim blaming to justify you wanting to sleep in or ignore your coworkers.
If I implied you had laziness issues you’d fly off the handle but you’re happy to imply a whole host of mental, competence or physical issues to my communication just because I pointed out video chat has a delay. Think that speaks volumes you’re so gratuitously defensive. I pointed out objective facts you lashed back.
One study I am aware of (but would have to hunt to find it) found that one of the most critical factors for forming new friendships was frequent, unstructured/unpanned time together. That's a big reason why so many folks form some of their closest friendships in college. Friendships and business relationships aren't exactly the same thing, but wouldn't be surprised if there is a similar dynamic in the workplace.
Managerial jobs are essentially meeting people, constantly. When a manager talks about "collaboration" or "invention", they are referring to what they think engineers or creatives produce, thus they are talking about productivity.
And because they relate their own "productivity" to meeting people, they assume everyone else does the same.
Either that, or they feel the need of getting their office entourage back.
* I'm a manager that wants to know I have control over other people - often phrased as "I need to make sure people are working" and similar
* I use work as my primary opportunity for socializing, because socializing is important everyone else must use the office for this as well. I am not saying "all they do is socialize at work", I'm just saying that their primary social interaction is at work. That said I assume this category includes the people who keep interrupting their coworkers in non-office environments
* I cannot work outside of a formal atmosphere, and so I don't believe anyone else can either.
I feel like the last one could have some overlap with the first (e.g. "I can't work away from the office, therefore no one else can either") and I can't quite work out whether the "you cannot communicate effectively except in person" is more #2 or #3.
My distinct impression is for high level management this is more about control - there was an article a few months back where a bunch of managers were handwringing about how WFH meant they were losing the ability to leverage in-office social connections to under pay people (phrased in terms of avoiding people taking jobs for other companies). This one is insidious as it's leveraging the socializing aspects desired by group 2.
* https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34838828
And if it is true, all of the points that Jassy makes suggests that they are doing remote collaboration wrong. For example: holding meetings instead of working together, which is just as possible to do effectively remotely as in person.
Moreover, when I am in the office, and have meetings, I'm still video calling to other people. The _only_ thing being in the office does is mean I lose 4 hours a day driving to and from that office. For no reason at all.
The only communication an office allows - for me - that is impossible remotely, is the kind where one person decides they're more important than their coworkers, or their coworker's work and starts interrupting everyone around them.
Well, that is not what he writes.
Regarding remote work:
“Of course, as there were before the pandemic, there will still be certain roles (e.g. some of our salespeople, customer support, etc.) and exceptions to these expectations, but that will be a small minority.”