The RTO requirement at Amazon was the penultimate straw for me.
The final straw was when we got the word that we would be required to move so that we would be co-located with our management in the HQ2 offices, or we would have to find alternative employment elsewhere.
We weren’t given a timeframe on when that was going to happen, but based on the timeframe I saw from the announcement of RTO to the enforcement of RTO, I knew it wouldn’t be long. So, I chose to leave as quickly as possible.
I gave my manager early warning that I was actively looking for alternative employment, and I kept him appraised of how the interview process was going, and then how the decision process was going, and then how the hiring paperwork process was going. When everything was finalized, he then got my official two weeks notice.
That was also when I told a few people inside the company that I was leaving and where I was going, but my official notification to the team wasn’t made until my actual final day — my manager requested that he be the one to make that announcement.
During my final two weeks, my manager also told me that he decided to also leave, and move back to India. I don’t know if he was forced out because too many people had left the team within the past year, or if it was truly a personal decision. But I do know we lost a lot of good people.
So, RTO is not the worst thing that can be done to you by your employer. Wait until they force you to move to be co-located with your manager and the rest of whatever team remains. And all without any kind of assistance with the moving costs, because you’re just that damn lucky to still have a job at all.
But that’s the Amazon way. RTO, forced co-location, stack ranking, unregretted attrition, the whole nine yards. Humans really are one hundred percent disposable if you work at Amazon.