Backlash over Amazon's return to office comes as workers demand higher wages

I wonder what drives these decisions? Is there that much solid evidence that they get more value out of people in the office rather than home? Or are there other reasons like tax incentives that encourage in-person work over remote? Is this just a control thing or or there a compelling argument that I am missing?

RTO seems to have nothing to do with the warehouse workers asking for a piddly $25/hour and health and safety guarantees. It's flabberghasting that the union votes keep failing.

Related:

Amazon ordered a return to the office – but research says they'll backtrack

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41580488

Amazon employees: 'I'd rather go back to school than work in an office again'

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41570981

Amazon tells employees to return to office five days a week

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41558554

Amazon tech workers should unionize.

I hope the folks driving these harcore RTO initiatives understand the big backlash that is coming their way, in terms of talent drain, loss of customer trust and reputation, and increased competition from smaller, more independent firms. This is not the 1980s and corporatocracies are no longer as influential as they once were due to the changing market, demographic, and rise of AI.

This article seems to be more about warehouse workers than corporate workers. The warehouse workers have no choice but to come to the office. I do think they deserve more pay and benefits though. Amazon is pointing at what they’re providing as being competitive or industry leading, but that hides the reality of working at a grueling warehouse where everyone is pushed to physical limits and measured in brutal ways. That type of work takes a toll. And I don’t mean just the people who have experienced injuries and filed lawsuits, but everyone. They will probably all have some lasting health impact. They should be compensated much more for how Amazon runs those warehouses.

As for the return to office aspect: if employees - especially those with families that live in homes that are only affordable or available further away - have to lose 1-2 hours commuting each way, then yes they do deserve additional compensation to make up for the RTO policy. I’m sure Andy Jassy won’t recognize that or offer it up though. He and Jeff Bezos share a view that work life balance is “debilitating” (https://www.savvydime.com/jeff-bezos-believes-work-life-bala...) and Bezos has used code phrases before that suggest he favors young workers - which may be why this policy will hurt older workers and those with children the most.

Hum... For those eligible to WFH, there is no higher salary, simply state WFH or you will not find any workers interesting in working for you. IT workers united means no IT company can survive against them.

Are they doing anything like letting on call staff work from home to make up for the added work of commuting in and still not getting to log off in the evening?

Jassy needs to go. Either kick him back down to AWS or kick him to the curb.

Unions in the UK are nothing short of a broken promise, collecting fees from workers while offering little in return. It’s infuriating to see how they portray themselves as champions of the working class, yet when push comes to shove, they’re nowhere to be found. They’ll happily take your hard-earned money month after month, selling you the idea that they’ll fight for your rights. But when you actually need them—when management is pulling the rug out from under you—their usual response is something along the lines of, "Well, there’s not much we can do when management has already made a decision." Really? That's what we pay for?

The truth is, they’re masters of taking credit when it benefits their public image. When a company backtracks on an unpopular decision, it’s often due to public outrage or fear of bad PR, but the unions will still swoop in and claim victory. They act like they’ve led the charge, when in reality, they were sitting on the sidelines, waiting for someone else to force management’s hand. It’s a performance, and a poor one at that, designed to justify their existence. And let’s not even start on how little they’re actually doing to protect workers in an increasingly precarious job market. They’re loud when they want to be heard but silent when it truly counts. The whole thing is a farce, and it's time we stopped pretending unions are still the powerful advocates they once were. They're not. They're out of touch, ineffective, and quite frankly, taking advantage of the very people they’re supposed to be defending.

The advantage of working from home was that you could take care of kids and do all the housework, this worth thousands of dollars per months. For years companies didn't adjust salaries in accordance to inflation and the cost of outsourcing kids care and house care, all that while keeping interest rate low and bailing rich bankers with printing of money. This caused funneling of wealth from the workers to asset holders which increased house and stock prices rather than creating new actual wealth or GDP per capita while destroying almost every class of society except the 1 percenters who became richer. It is about time the system will balance itself otherwise the western world will go back to de facto feudalism.

It doesn't seem like a coincidence that Amazon's RTO is being paired with a middle manager haircut.

With less middle managers, the executives are probably thinking they'll need individual contributors physically present in order to monitor them effectively.

I still can't imagine why anyone agrees to work at a place that treats it's employees like children.