Seattle's 5 largest tech employers agree: It's return-to-office time

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

When several hundred Seattle Amazon.com Inc. employees staged a walkout on May 31, it was in part over the company's stricter return-to-office policy that went into effect at the beginning of May. Its requirement that employees work in the office three days a week meant Amazon's 65,000-employee local corporate and tech workforce have had to resume — or in many cases begin — commuting to downtown Seattle and Bellevue.

On June 1, Meta Platforms Inc. became the latest tech giant to revise its remote work policy, telling employees that many would be expected back in the office soon.

Now all five of the Puget Sound area's largest tech employers — Amazon, Microsoft Corp., Meta, Google LLC and T-Mobile US Inc. — have announced or enacted hybrid work policies that require workers to come regularly to the office.

Downtown businesses that cater to those employees — such as restaurants, retailers and dog day care providers — stand to benefit, while building owners and managers hope such policies will encourage tenants to slow their rush to unload underused office space.

https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2023/06/05/amazon-meta-in-person-work-office-space.html

[Blues Heron]

1. no need - the 20th century work model is pretty much over

Why force your employees to jump though hoops for basically no reason - car, dry cleaning, day care, hair nails makeup perfume, shaving, ties, expensive unhealthy lunch, parking, etc. etc.

We have the technology. This order is basically a massive pay cut when you factor in all of the above.

[Quakerfriend]

3. Exactly! I am surprised that there wasn't

more resistant to this.

My son works in product management for Amazon & has been working from home out of NYC, with his ‘home base’
being in Arlington, Va. At first, Amazon left it up to each individual manager to decide whether, or not, to require employees to be in the office.

Then they said everyone had to be in the office- no exceptions. This eventually evolved to ‘You can stay in NYC but, must go into office there 3 days/week’.

He says they gave him a ‘big raise’ to make up for this which I thought was atleast somewhat decent of them.

It’s all so nonsensical, especially as we face the need to address climate change.

[Shermann]

2. How does three days in the office even work?

Is the office 40% vacant every day?

I know "hot desking" is a thing, but I can't imagine moving all my stuff around that much. You just can't be that mobile with certain (most?) types of jobs. So, companies have to keep these desks allocated and don't see much savings from the 3 office / 2 remote thing.

[MichMan]

4. If people find the working conditions are so deplorable, they need to quit and work for someone else

[regnaD kciN]

5. What this means for most employees...

…is an extra two-to-three (or more) unpaid hours spent commuting added to the work day, thanks to Seattle’s horrendous traffic and astronomical housing prices that force non-wealthy people to live in the far suburbs.