Amazon staffers slammed the corporate for being sorely underprepared after forcing them to return to the workplace 5 days every week — with not sufficient desks for everybody, packed parking tons and a startling surge in office thefts, in accordance with a report.
“Our upper ‘leadership’ has botched this so hard along with so many other things,” one Amazon employee mentioned by way of the corporate’s Slack, Enterprise Insider reported.
“Makes one wonder what other poor decisions will impact the company in the coming year.”
Among the many complaints was that regardless of the return-to-office mandate, which went into impact at the beginning of the yr, many nonetheless spend giant components of the day on video chats they might have achieved from dwelling.
In September, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy — who took the helm in 2021 — introduced the return-to-office mandate, which was a pointy flip from Amazon’s then-hybrid, three-day-a-week coverage.
He mentioned the in-person technique was an effort to foster collaboration amongst Amazon’s company staffers — about 350,000 out of a worldwide workforce of 1.5 million staff.
“We want to operate like the world’s largest startup,” Jassy mentioned.
Nevertheless it’s laborious to foster in-person collaboration below the present situations, in accordance with seven Amazon staff who had been interviewed by BI about their in-office expertise and shared their Slack messages with the outlet.
Some assembly rooms haven’t had sufficient chairs — and there additionally haven’t been sufficient assembly rooms for everybody, one employee advised the publication.
Staffers grew used to taking personal telephone calls all through the day at their houses, the supply mentioned.
Now, again within the workplace, they’re ducking into empty assembly rooms to take these calls, which is inflicting a scarcity — and main some managers to have personal chats with staff out within the open, the employee mentioned.
An Amazon spokesperson dismissed the grievance.
“Of the hundreds of offices we have all around the world, there are only a relatively small number that are not quite ready to welcome everyone back a full five days a week,” the rep advised The Publish in an announcement.
“It’s incorrect and misleading to suggest that we aren’t ready for the vast majority of our teammates to be back in the office.”
Nonetheless, merely reaching the workplace is a problem in itself, in accordance with the report.
Some complained they had been turned away from firm parking tons that had been full, whereas others griped about having to affix conferences from the highway on account of extra visitors on their solution to the workplace, in accordance with the Slack messages.
As soon as staffers conquer the challenges of reaching the workplace and discovering a desk, some lamented the shortage of in-person discussions since most of the conferences stay digital, in accordance with BI.
“Very little team discussion while here,” one worker wrote on Slack.
The Amazon spokesperson advised The Publish: “While we’ve heard ideas for improvement from a relatively small number of employees and are working to address those, these anonymous anecdotes don’t reflect the sentiment we’re hearing from most of our teammates.”
Staffers have additionally groused a couple of lack of workplace etiquette — together with theft, in accordance with the report.
Workers at Amazon’s Toronto workplace mentioned their private belongings have repeatedly been stolen from their desks.
“Despite being adults that are well-paid, it’s shameful that we can’t trust each other with leaving personal belongings unattended,” one employee wrote on Slack, as considered by BI.
Hygiene has additionally turn into a problem, forcing one worker to put up a “survival guide” on Blind, an nameless message board web site for company staff
“Deploy personal hygiene protocols BEFORE leaving your launch pad (home). Yes, that means actually using the shower you’ve been avoiding since WFH began,” the message mentioned.
One other put up pleaded with colleagues to flush the lavatory bogs after use: “The bathroom stall is not a ‘serverless’ environment.”
A 3rd put up reminded co-workers that “footwear is not optional.”
“This isn’t a beach sprint retrospective — keep those toes contained in their proper containers (shoes),” the message mentioned.
