this post was submitted on 11 Aug 2023
243 points (96.2% liked)

Technology

59340 readers
5274 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Amazon warns workers to come back into the office::This week, a reminder email was sent to employees who didn't work on-site at least three times a week.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 0 points 1 year ago (2 children)

At least you've proposed a possible reason that would make sense in some companies.

However, Amazon has routinely burnt out employees and hired replacements. Loyalty doesn't seem to be rewarded at Amazon, so I don't know why they would institute a loyalty test now.

[–] DigitalTraveler42@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's like the old saying about how fascists cannibalize themselves, even if Amazon leadership hasn't shown that they value loyalty it's probably still a very sought after trait among their employees since the loyal ones grumble the least, true believers are always the biggest enablers in cults, and HR operates very similar the part of cult leadership that maintains cult discipline and beliefs, they're the corporate true believers, and loyalty is always the most sought after trait in cultists.

But hey it's just a theory, I don't work for Amazon and I doubt I ever would, but I do know quite a few people who do and from their stories they make it sound very similar to places like Walmart in terms of culture and not giving a fuck about their employees.

[–] HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah, but at least your theory makes more sense than people saying that Amazon executives feel the need to fill office space due to "reasons".

[–] DigitalTraveler42@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Eh, but even some of those reasons can be absolutely plausible, for instance the theory behind RTO being about middle management trying to justify their existence, because most middle management positions are just glorified babysitters with too much power and time on their hands. Another plausible one is the narcissism of the executive class, there's plenty of executives writing about how their "people" provide them with "energy" and that they feel lost without their involuntary audience. Then there's the plausibility of the point about property values, companies that own their properties understand that the property itself is an investment, and in business your entire goal is to reach that almighty ROI, return on investment, so not only do empty unused offices harm that, but so do falling property values.

There's almost always an inkling of plausibility in any theory, that's one of the reasons why so many people fall to the attraction of conspiracy theories, but at the end of the day you have to remember that these are just people, and people are often selfish and not always selfish for the same reasons, we all have things that are more important to us than aren't as important to others.

[–] HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 2 points 1 year ago

But then you can also say that companies want people back because they are secretly harvesting their skin cells at work to see to alien larvae. It is a theory.

The problem with Amazon choosing to do this compared to nameless companies is that a lot of Amazon's work culture has been written about, and not all of that written about them is positive.

Amazon as a company is obsessed with driving down costs holding managers accountable to well defined metrics which filters down to everyone. This is the reason why warehouse people let others die in the warehouse.

The argument that Amazon, this company obsessed with metrics, is going to tell people to come into the office even though they are more productive at home, doesn't make sense.

[–] 5BC2E7@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

They don’t reward loyalty. They profit from it. Their greed is catching on to them though. They have mostly gone through all the available workers for warehouses and they know they are running out of people willing to give them a chance. Most people know it’s a shit place for engineers as well.