this post was submitted on 30 Sep 2024
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Common theory l, that I have heard is that if business owns their office space then it's value is inherently tied to profit margins. If office goes unused, value will drop, which affect bottom line, which affects boards willingness to pay out large CEO bonuses. So getting employees back into the office becomes vital for the leadership.
IMO it's worse than this. It's likely to do with Seattle real estate only, because Amazon has their HQ in Seattle, most of the STeam is in Seattle, and it's where most of the big decisions are focused. There is an acronym that has existed at Amazon for decades, NEWS (Not Everyone Works in Seattle). Sadly, like many Amazonian things, they're not really a thing any more...
Seems right. I have a friend who works for Amazon and lives in Portland, OR. They're asking them to relocate to Seattle to RTO. Now they're debating if they even want to stay at the company. Supposedly they have until EOY to decide.
That's a shame, and sadly it's all too uncommon. Given Amazon's history with layoffs, and the countless stories of people that moved from NYC to Seattle, only to be laid off days/weeks later, there's no way I'd move for Amazon.
The funny thing is that many people in our Seattle team constantly complain about not being able to park at the office - and that's without everyone at the office and more to come.
Even if they don't own it, there is cost associated with downsizing an office. Selling off furniture is impossible at the moment. Leases are down. Subletting is much harder. But there places are, paying plant, hvac and cleaning, maintenance on virtually unused office space.
Most places just need a conference room, some temp offices and a bathroom.
Yeah but bringing people back is still more expensive because it means more maintenance, more cleaning, and in the case of Amazon paying more for the office perks.
I'm sure at some point, somewhere, someone forced people to rto because it was better for their real estate investment....but I just have not been able to make sense of the claims that this is driving factor.