[mingus88]

Amazon is full RTO in my city and there are now lines down the block for the food trucks this week at lunchtime.

I’m sure every business owner is conspiring together to get those captive office workers back in city centers where their wages can be siphoned.

[blackeyeblitzar]

This is definitely the case in Seattle, where every news story about Amazon RTO seems to feature a restaurant owner or business association praising Amazon and ignoring that they’re really just stealing from the employees who lose 1-2 hours to commuting each day.

[seanmcdirmid]

Amazon employees are universally complaining about it, while Amazon is the only FAANG that is actively hiring right now (they must have higher turnover).

[blackeyeblitzar]

Weird to hear that they’re complaining. On LinkedIn, I often see Amazon employees talking about how RTO has been great or that there’s a positive side to it. Maybe they’re just managers? Or maybe the silent majority is too afraid to speak against it publicly? I feel like Amazon looks very bizarre to an outsider, almost cultish in accepting this new reality of RTO, all just to shill almost universally Chinese made low quality products.

Either way if this didn’t spur them into unionization I don’t know what will. Not that I’m pro union either - I have concerns about how many of them run. But I feel like losing 1-2 hours daily is such a big cost that it’s worth dealing with that.

[seanmcdirmid]

No one is going to trash talk their company on LinkedIn, that’s just a quick way to being unemployable. I’m just talking about techies anyways, and the grumbling I hear in social conversations.

It is difficult to get tech workers making > $200k/year to unionize. At that point, it’s more grumbling about first world problems than about oppressive working conditions (yes, working from home is better, but no, RTO isn’t some sort of unreasonable request for the compensation involved, but people will still complain of course).

[blackeyeblitzar]

Personally I think RTO is unreasonable regardless of compensation, since it isn’t required for the job and improves nothing. It probably hurts the company more. To me taking away 1-2 hours of time everyday from people is a huge change in working condition.

[bdndndndbve]

It is definitely tough to get tech workers to unionize. There's a lot of possible lines of organizing like not destroying the Earth, or not contributing to genocide, or solidarity with staff who don't make 200k a year. But historically labour organizing has been about the immediate material circumstances of the workers, because people are pretty selfish and short sighted in aggregate.

[seanmcdirmid]

> or solidarity with staff who don't make 200k a year.

I don’t really see it. Amazon techies wouldn’t have much in common with Amazon warehouse workers, and I’m not seeing any other people they could share solidarity with. But think if you are an SWE say at a traditional manufacturer, your needs and interested are going to differ a lot from someone working the assembly line.

[hdjjhhvvhga]

> Weird to hear that they’re complaining. On LinkedIn

We might live in different universes but in mine LI is exclusively used in positive tones and for praising. Saying anything negative about any company, and especially the one you work for, is the greatest taboo. You can occasionally criticize something about an unnamed company for virtue signaling. Like really, LI is for people looking for a jobs so who would to hire a person publicly complaining about their employer?

[sebazzz]

There is nothing preventing anyone from bringing a lunch box with them to work?

[thunky]

I can't believe all those dummies in line for lunch never thought of that.

[bdndndndbve]

This sounds conspiratorial but where I live this is literally the case. Owners of buildings and large businesses in the downtown core (which has been vacant due to WFH) are collectively lobbying large employers to force RTO. It's not a secret, it's a public project to "save our downtown".