Forget it Jake, It's Amazon

So Amazon is insisting that employees report to the office 5 days a week even though there is no space for them.

If you were wondering if this is about workplace performance, or if it's just a crude and cruel attempt to put workers in their places, I think that you have your answer:

Amazon announced in September that it will require workers to be in the office five days a week starting in January. Employee backlash ensued, not just because return-to-office (RTO) mandates can be unpopular but also because Amazon is using some of the worst strategies for issuing RTO mandates.

Ahead of the mandate, Amazon had been letting many employees work remotely for two days a week, with a smaller number of workers being totally remote. But despite saying that employees would have to commute five days per week, the conglomerate doesn’t have enough office space to accommodate over 350,000 employees. Personnel in “at least seven cities,” including Phoenix and Austin, Texas, have had their RTO dates delayed until after January, Bloomberg reported today, citing “people familiar with the situation." Employees in Dallas won’t have enough space until March or April, and an office in New York City won’t have sufficient space until May, per Bloomberg's sources.

RTO dates are also delayed in Atlanta, Houston, and Nashville, Tennessee, Business Insider reported this week, citing “internal Amazon notifications.”

………

The differing messaging around workers returning to offices full-time represents another hiccup around a debated policy. Amazon’s approach thus far seems to align with what some research suggests irks employees about RTO mandates.

A November study of over 3 million "high-tech and financial" workers at 54 companies on the S&P 500 index (PDF) concluded that RTO mandates could lead to employees doubting leadership’s ability to lead and make decisions. Amazon workers were already questioning the “non-data-driven explanation” provided to them for the RTO policy, as over 500 Amazon employees wrote to Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman in October. Issuing a strict, widespread mandate only to share three months later that the self-proposed deadline is unfeasible in some places likely exacerbates concern about Amazon's ability to effectively manage an exodus from hybrid work and the necessity of returning to offices full-time in January at all.

The RTO mandate is about 2 things, demonstrating management's power, and engaging in a stealth layoff.

I might suggest that Amazon office workers consider a union, though given the realities of Amazon (mis)management, this is a non trivial action.