Given how much Bezos and now Jassy push data for decision making I find the “culture” hand waving ironic. The fact they have economic value to the south lake union “neighborhood” on hand but nothing about how “serendipity” helps Amazon or its employees is telling. My favorite is the “it’s for the children” rationale for RTO. My observation has been kids rolling out of college having been successful enough to graduate with good grades through covid hit the ground running at remote companies. I think it’s folks who have had a long successful career by exploiting in office dynamics who can’t see a different way of doing business, despite the fact their mode is a post highway commuter culture emergent reality itself.
However my understanding is Amazon negotiated aggressive funding and tax agreements in many locales including Seattle that are contingent on the people they have in office to create economic activity in business districts.
All this malarkey has a shelf life IMO. I know from the companies I worked at urban office costs per seat often run in the $18k/head. Google’s average per head (I know, average doesn’t tell the best story) is $124k. That’s more than a 10% “tax” for “serendipity” - I just don’t see the hand waving and emotional appeals working past the end of tax agreements when talking to a board looking to boost EPS. At a certain point you need to prove it’s worth it, and I don’t think anyone will be able to demonstrate that big a lift from “culture” and definitely not for the “kids,” who as the structurally lowest earners would be marked up more than the 10% average.
I also suspect workers would rather not commute and make 10% more than be able to see the actual photons reflected from their coworkers faces rather than real time reproductions.
Finally, I think after 3 years of really leaning into remote work we haven’t scratched the surface of the tools and techniques possible to improve “serendipity” and our ability to save the children by warehousing our bags of mostly water in human hamster wheels.
What is the "it's for the children" rationale? I would imagine wfh for the parents would be better for kids as they would get to spend more time with their parents.
Yes, but you’re thinking about human beings and not employees. The “it’s for the kids” rationale is “kids joining out of college need oldsters to be physically present to learn how to do their job.” My belief is it’s the opposite - the kids coming out of remote college with good grades can teach the oldsters how to be successful at a different way of working. But the truth of the matter is it’s not about either. It’s about people holding onto the way they did things because they can’t imagine a different way.
However my understanding is Amazon negotiated aggressive funding and tax agreements in many locales including Seattle that are contingent on the people they have in office to create economic activity in business districts.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2023-02-21/another-t...
All this malarkey has a shelf life IMO. I know from the companies I worked at urban office costs per seat often run in the $18k/head. Google’s average per head (I know, average doesn’t tell the best story) is $124k. That’s more than a 10% “tax” for “serendipity” - I just don’t see the hand waving and emotional appeals working past the end of tax agreements when talking to a board looking to boost EPS. At a certain point you need to prove it’s worth it, and I don’t think anyone will be able to demonstrate that big a lift from “culture” and definitely not for the “kids,” who as the structurally lowest earners would be marked up more than the 10% average.
I also suspect workers would rather not commute and make 10% more than be able to see the actual photons reflected from their coworkers faces rather than real time reproductions.
Finally, I think after 3 years of really leaning into remote work we haven’t scratched the surface of the tools and techniques possible to improve “serendipity” and our ability to save the children by warehousing our bags of mostly water in human hamster wheels.