Amazon Ends Remote Work, Former Employee Asks If This Is The Company’s Version Of ‘Silent Sacking’

Amazon.com Inc AMZN is set to end its work-from-home regime and mandate a return to full-time office work starting in January.  CEO Andy Jassy shared the news to employees in a Monday memo, also announcing changes to the managerial structure.

The end of a flexible work-from-home mandate has a more meaningful impact for the average employee. This decision has drawn considerable attention, particularly from former employees such as John McBride, a former Amazon Web Services (AWS) software engineer, who shared his opinions in an X post.

McBride, who worked at AWS for a year before resigning due to Amazon’s insistence on relocating from Denver to Seattle, believes the move to reinstate full office presence is primarily driven by economic factors — as headcount reduction helps the company boost its margin.

Amazon hired heavily in the COVID-19 aftershock, adding over 400,000 employees through 2020. McBride believes the company has overhired and since then, has gone through several phases, starting with mass layoffs and gradually implementing stricter office requirements to push employees into resigning if they refuse to relocate.

His former colleague, former AWS senior developer Justin Garrison, documented such a practice as “The Silent Sacking.”

Garrison explained that instead of openly laying off employees, Amazon quietly encourages them to leave by making their roles undesirable. Employees are excluded from meetings, given unfulfilling work and generally made to feel unwelcome, pushing them to quit voluntarily.

This method helps Amazon cut costs without formally announcing mass layoffs or offering severance packages. His experiences show a company that quietly subverts its employees, avoiding the public scrutiny of large-scale firings.

While the means offer a reasonably clear explanation, the ends are mixed.

McBride’s claim about AWS’s thin operating margins is unsubstantiated. That segment has been the most profitable, with margins reaching almost 40%.

Still, his remark on tax breaks and the office presents a more reasonable angle. In 2022, Amazon received at least $5 billion in U.S.-based tax breaks and other subsidies from 38 states, with $824 million coming from Virginia, where the corporation has a second domestic headquarters.

The company specifically located the second headquarters there, Crystal City, which is part of Arlington, Virginia, after asking for subsidy proposals from state and local governments.

Furthermore, office-based work can positively impact local economies by supporting restaurants, transportation and other services around corporate hubs. This creates a ripple effect that benefits not just Amazon, but the broader business ecosystem in cities like Arlington.

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