this post was submitted on 18 Oct 2024
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One of Amazon's (AMZN.O) top executives defended the new, controversial 5-day-per-week in-office policy on Thursday, saying those who do not support it can leave for another company.

Speaking at an all-hands meeting for AWS, unit CEO Matt Garman said nine out of 10 workers he has spoken with support the new policy, which takes effect in January, according to a transcript reviewed by Reuters.

Those who do not wish to work for Amazon in-office five days per week can quit, he suggested.

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[–] thesporkeffect@lemmy.world 77 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Let them enforce it. Don't quit, that's what they are trying to accomplish anyway.

[–] BrianTheeBiscuiteer@lemmy.world 45 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Or just skip ahead and unionize.

[–] thesporkeffect@lemmy.world 25 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Both things should be done simultaneously!

[–] NatakuNox@lemmy.world 9 points 2 weeks ago

Along with eating the CEO with a side of Jeff Bezos

[–] TachyonTele@lemm.ee 5 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

How would that work? People are just going to stay home in front of a disconnected PC and somehow not get fired?

[–] thesporkeffect@lemmy.world 27 points 2 weeks ago

Institutional inertia is real. Obviously every situation is different but in most cases they are not blocking remote access, they're just tracking if you badged in that day. If you are still doing work, it's going to take them awhile to respond - they are hoping you quit rather than having to fire you.

[–] bork@sh.itjust.works 5 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Why would the PC be disconnected?

[–] TachyonTele@lemm.ee 3 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

If the company doesn't want you to work from home they're not going to let you connect to their system.

[–] themoonisacheese@sh.itjust.works 18 points 2 weeks ago

That's constructive dismissal

[–] bork@sh.itjust.works 14 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

They want people in the office, but they still want people to be able to work when they're at home too. No shot RTO comes with blocking remote access to corp systems, or even prod for that matter.

How would oncalls be handled without it even?

[–] TachyonTele@lemm.ee 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I'm guessing by going into the office haha.
Fuck'em.

[–] bork@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Oncall is usually a 24/7 type of thing, where speed is a major factor, and I doubt they would want to restrict oncall engineers to on-site only.

[–] TachyonTele@lemm.ee 1 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

I'm not seeing anything about 24/7 on call workers. The article is about five days a week employees. Did I miss something?

[–] Sundial@lemm.ee 5 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

Bork is saying a blanket ban on computers connecting remotely would not work in a company that has a huge operations department who need to be on-call.

[–] TachyonTele@lemm.ee 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Ok, I understand that. But I didn't say anything about either of those things.

[–] Sundial@lemm.ee 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

You kind of did?

Unless I'm misinterpreting your comment.

[–] TachyonTele@lemm.ee 1 points 2 weeks ago

I don't know what comment exactly you're referring to. So probably yes.
Nothing I've said has been complicated or profound.

[–] thesporkeffect@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago

Usually it's phased and they don't cut off remote access entirely. They still want you to be able to work on the weekend at home...

[–] RaoulDook@lemmy.world 63 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

"9 out of 10 workers support the policy" he decided to imagine and then say out loud

[–] RobotZap10000@feddit.nl 18 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

9 out of 10 dentists recommend our toothpaste.

[–] csm10495@sh.itjust.works 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I've always wanted to meet that 1 out of the 10 who don't. Probably would be interesting to have a beer with.

[–] Ragnarok314159@sopuli.xyz 5 points 2 weeks ago

It’s probably one of the dentists I visited while in the army.

“Toothpaste! Use sandpaper you bitch. No, I’m serious. Then floss with it.”

[–] expatriado@lemmy.world 37 points 2 weeks ago

RTO was always lay-off without compensation

[–] KLISHDFSDF@lemmy.ml 29 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Would really suck if people said "fuck it", did return to work but intentionally decreased productivity. Best to get laid off than quit.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 16 points 2 weeks ago

Amazon policy is to stack rank all of its employees and regularly fire anyone in the bottom tranche. So any kind of deliberate slowdown would need to be incredibly well-coordinated. Even then, there would inevitably be a ton of attrition as the automatic Fire Everyone triggers started kicking in.

Its not enough to play by the rules with a company as vast and encompassing as Amazon. You need to take it a step further and start sabotaging the anti-organizing functions of the company. Start shoving monkey wrenches in the employee monitoring systems. Start dismantling the automation that allows the business to function at such a breakneck pace. You've got to get in there and break the machine before it breaks you.

[–] davel@lemmy.ml 8 points 2 weeks ago

Sometimes union take actions that are less severe than outright striking:

[–] ohwhatfollyisman@lemmy.world 25 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

"ceo of cloud company says employees must work on premise."

must do wonders for the marketing of the capability of their platform.

I mean, they aren't reporting to the data center...

[–] newthrowaway20@lemmy.world 19 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

CEO Matt Garman said nine out of 10 workers he has spoken with support the new policy

Got news for you, Matt. 9 out of 10 workers are kissing your ass.

[–] Crashumbc@lemmy.world 14 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

More likely it's an outright lie.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 10 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

I'm willing to believe he asked ten of his VPs and nine of them agreed with him. Also, that he's currently looking to fill a newly opened tenth position.

[–] theshatterstone54@feddit.uk 19 points 2 weeks ago

Operation: Eat the Rich is a go! I repeat: Operation Eat the Rich is a go!

[–] mub@lemmy.ml 15 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

This was always what he intended. Get people to quit instead of paying redundancy when he has to reduce the work force. Classic stuff done by many big orgs over the years. Make the place shit to work at and people quit for you.

[–] MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Good for the market i guess, since mostly people who have it easy tho find a new job (highly qualified) leave that way.

[–] JoMiran@lemmy.ml 11 points 2 weeks ago

This lines up with their marked decrease in service quality. Azure is eating AWS' lunch.

[–] tabular@lemmy.world 5 points 2 weeks ago

I beseech you god of Irony, make it so Amazon workers can vote him out of office.

[–] skuzz@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 2 weeks ago

That worked out great for Apple, Microsoft, and others. Good luck, Amazon.

[–] jmcs@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 2 weeks ago

AWS SLOs are going to shit aren't they?

[–] illi@lemm.ee 1 points 2 weeks ago

At least he is honest about their intentions I guess?

[–] Sanctus@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago