Amazon CEO warns remote workers: ‘It’s probably not going to work out for you’ | Hacker News Reader

Amazon CEO warns remote workers: ‘It’s probably not going to work out for you’

nypost.com

21 pointsthunderbong21 comments

Dupe: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37301728

Discussed earlier:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37301728

(44 points/4 hours ago/88 comments)

> And if you can’t disagree and commit, I also understand that, but it’s probably not going to work out for you at Amazon

Funny that always the language is threatening as opposed to rewarding, “you are fired if you are not coming back”, “you won’t be promoted”, “you are not productive”, what about: “get back and get 40% instant increase”! Especially in this economy right now, I think a lot of people will actually consider it, but the fact that companies don’t offer that, tells exactly the story.

In this case, if those working from home got a 40% raise after joining, the others who came to office on their own might start getting ideas! They may also consider working from home in future and then try to negotiate their "office coming" in lieu of additional compensation. Companies and their HR must have realized this.

Personally, I think additional compensation or an allowance is totally fair and deserving for candidates who join office. After all, they do have to make sacrifices like travel expense, time spent on travelling to office (opportunity cost), time spent away from the family, relocation to a place near office (if needed), etc.

Disagree and commit is a leadership principle at Amazon. That’s why he used those words.

Good luck to this CEO fellow, then. Remote work is here to stay, not sure about him or companies that require in loco presence.

Either side of this debate asserting the other side is categorically wrong/going away is just foolish.

Just one of them.

I don't think I've ever seen anyone claim that all office work is categorically "wrong", or "going away". Can you point to some example of this?

No one is saying in loco work is going away, only that remote is here to stay. The two will obviously coexist, they already did, just that the latter got stronger.

And if you’re hiring, would you rather choose from the whole world or just the tiny subset willing and able to relocate and/or commute? Why not include the people that prefer working alone and/or enjoy having more family time all while saving a ton of money in office expanses in the process?

I would not take that for granted tbh.

It’s entertaining, but also dumbfounding that Mr. Jassy would choose to say that he’s conferred with other CEOs, and they feel the same way. Well, I guess that’s not surprising — validating his opinions with like-minded folks. Rather than pontificating about how other CEOs “feel” about RTO, perhaps deeper reasoning would be a more compelling an argument.

"Best Places to Work in 2023"

1. Home

1..5 Home 6..10: a tropical island or nomadding.

> at Amazon

As to the matter of remote in general, I'll go back to the office once they stop putting said offices downtown in expensive cities where I can't afford to buy anything worth the hassle in a >60km/1h commute radius despite being a relatively high earner in this country. For reference, I'm about 65km out of town right now (straight line on the highway), commute downtown would take over 1h15 on a good day, and in the area, I could maybe afford a condo, or an old bungalow with an unfinished basement that needs tons of renos.

Or once nobody wants to pay me for it - which doesn't seem to be a problem yet.

Weird, I swear I had a recruitment email from amazon before the pandemic highlighting that this team was doing 4 day weeks with only 2 days in the office.

Always take anything a recruiter says with several large grains of salt.

Working a 4 day week isn't mentioned in the article - maybe the position you were approached for was special?

...but I would not be at all surprised if the requirement to be in the office was prorated too.

In other words, if you work 5 days a week (and that's probably the vast majority of employees, so generalising for an article like this is reasonable), you need to be in 3 days, but it you work 4 you might only need to be in 2.

...so I don't think the job you were approached for contradicts the position put forward in the article?

All of the inconvenience with little of the benefit.

> Jassy made the comments during a meeting earlier this month during which he expressed frustration over the fact that some employees were not taking the return-to-office mandate seriously, according to the news site Insider, which obtained a recording of the CEO’s comments.

God that must hurt. He probably spent the most productive and energetic parts of his life sacrificing to become the CEO of Amazon, one of the few trillion dollar companies to ever exist, only to find out that the peons don't take him seriously.

That's some incredible impotence for a CEO. It's probably not going to work out for him.

Pay isn't increasing but travel costs are. Remote is the only way to compete and have people live at prices they can afford.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com