Yep this has been the modus operandi for businesses who want to reduce workforce without having to pay for layoffs.
Comment on Amazon tech workers leaving for other jobs in response to return to office mandate
OldWoodFrame@lemm.ee 1 day ago
5 day RTO is a stealth layoff. This is a feature, not a bug.
kameecoding@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Stupidmanager@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Like many companies, they overhired in the last 4 years. Some of these people are due years of severance (my offer listed 2months for every year after 1 year), not to mention the vested stocks and other bonuses granted during this insane hot hire period.
So how do you remove people not loyal to the company? The most hated mandate ever. Amazon is a company that doesn’t need people in the office. This is nothing more than screwing people over.
aaron@lemm.ee 1 day ago
So they’re not paying severance to employees they fire?
Jrockwar@feddit.uk 1 day ago
Yes, but they’re making people quit instead. They don’t need to pay severance to employees who quit because of RTO.
Stupidmanager@lemmy.world 1 day ago
They are getting severance when terminated, unless for cause. My comment was, this is how they avoid it by forcing people to quit.
foofy@lemmy.world 1 day ago
No rank and file US-based employees at Amazon are getting years of severance. They don’t do that.
Stupidmanager@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Yeah, that was a typo and my experience is limited towards the AWS side which is also facing this issue. But the numbers are there, some people have been at Amazon for a decade, so 20 months (if they had MY package of 2mos per year). Amazon was throwing everything at new hires, because they were making bank on their work.
Scribbd@feddit.nl 1 day ago
Quiet firing, if you will.
scarabic@lemmy.world 1 day ago
If Amazon don’t think that remote work is productive, then they don’t think they’re losing anything. I don’t even know how “stealth” this is at all. They must believe that those individuals could be productive, because they are trying to keep them working in office. I’m not sure why anyone thinks a company like Amazon would try to be “stealth” about a layoff anyway. They don’t need to.
Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world 1 day ago
You don’t have to fund severance if people leave on their own.
sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
And returning to the office probably doesn’t count as an unreasonable change to the agreement, so you probably won’t win if you sue, and the unemployment office probably won’t help.
So yeah, sucks all around.
zbyte64@awful.systems 1 day ago
So they don’t have to pay severance or other state penalties for doing an actual layoff. They aren’t thinking of talent with this move.
sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
Yeah, I think they want to reduce headcount, and this is the cheapest way to do it. I’m guessing they’re getting some flack for investing so much in AI w/o enough return to justify it, so they’re culling a lot of the workforce to juice the numbers a bit until that investment starts to make sense.
scarabic@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I find that unconvincing. That they will give up all control in order to save what is ultimately a small amount of money. Paying severance to cut people is already a way to save and reduce budgets. To say they will give up control and take real risks with who they lose just to avoid a piddling 2 months salary per head… it doesn’t add up.
zbyte64@awful.systems 16 hours ago
They’re giving up control by exercising control?
Sauerkraut@discuss.tchncs.de 1 day ago
I am pretty sure working from home has proven to be more productive, so I think other factors are at play here. I worry that returning to the office might be the only way to keep the capitalists from trying to send our jobs over to poorer nations. If the tapeworms think the job needs to be done face to face then it is much hardet to send those jobs to India or S. America.
WoodScientist@lemmy.world 1 day ago
They’ve already tried to send all the jobs they can to India or South America. It ultimately didn’t work. They can send some, but the language and cultural barriers, plus the difficulty of assessing quality candidates just doesn’t make it viable at scale. They’ve already tried that game and it failed.
jonne@infosec.pub 1 day ago
It’s like reverse stack ranking. They’ll be left with the people that couldn’t find another job.
funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
and the people who know exactly how to waste time in an office.
Spacehooks@reddthat.com 1 day ago
That’s literally what we all do in office. Just sit ans chat. It’s country club. Productivity went up during covid.
sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
Yup, I waste way more time in the office than at home, and I waste plenty of time at home. Also, the time I don’t waste is more productive at home than in the office.
I still value going to the office, but doing it everyday would just kill my soul. I need some time to myself to get stuff done.
Snapz@lemmy.world 1 day ago
A.k.a. Twitter and the elon filtering moment
werefreeatlast@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Brain drain is the perfect way to end monopolies.
DrDickHandler@lemmy.world 18 hours ago
This is false.