Amazon makes 850,000m2 bet that its people will get off the kitchen table and back to an office
- Reference: 1597822146
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/08/19/amazon_rents_more_offices/
- Source link:
The company said on Tuesday that it will add 3,500 corporate jobs and almost 850,000 square metres of office space across its hubs in New York, Phoenix, San Diego, Denver, Detroit and Dallas over the next two years.
To put the new hires in perspective, Amazon is the second largest employer in the US behind Walmart, employing about 600,000 people. Only around 100,000 of these work in corporate positions, with the others made up of warehouse and other staff.
The expansion goes against the grain at a time when many companies in Silicon Valley and beyond have signaled that they expect high levels of remote working to continue well after the pandemic. Facebook said in May that it would transition up to half its employees into remote work within five to 10 years and Twitter has said they can work from home indefinitely. Atlassian has done likewise, but also said it will continue with construction of a new HQ in Sydney.
One reason Amazon can make such a bold bet is that it has so far made big bucks out of the pandemic. The company's e-commerce platform has become all-but an essential service and its cloud service has boomed.
Last month, Amazon posted a [1]40 per cent increase in revenues year-on-year for its second quarter. This in a period in which the greater US economy contracted 33 per cent.
The new jobs will range across a number of the company's divisions, including AWS, Alexa, advertising, and its grocery delivery service, Amazon Fresh.
A spokesperson confirmed the jobs are in addition to [2]previous commitments .
Amazon employees are currently allowed to work from home until January 2021. The company said that it expects much of its staff to return to the office eventually, but will take its cues from the authorities. ®
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[1] https://www.theregister.com/2020/07/31/amazon_q2_2020/
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2020/04/13/amazon_hiring_75k/
[3] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
This could be about getting remote from Seattle more than a divergence from other tech companies regarding remote working.
It's probably a good time to invest. Rents are falling in all big US cities, and you can probably find good deals if you happen to have the money.
Why offices?
Having worked from home for months I wonder why bother with offices. Occasional meet-ups would be nice, and some centralised tech support is needed, but hard worth a full-scale office that would have everyone inside.
I also LOVE not having to sit in traffic
Re: Why offices?
I left the world of big corporateness 12 years ago, started on my own, working from the spare bedroom. Within a couple of weeks I started to wonder why corporate offices exist, and why I had spent the previous 20 years of my life commuting, sitting in traffic, and all that.
Considering how much technology has evolved in 12 years, I am amazed that more businesses have not looked at this earlier. Any costs incurred by being at home all day (gas, electricity) are easily compensated by saving £40 a week on petrol and 2 hours each day of my life sitting in traffic.
For many businesses it really should be a no brainer.
Re: Why offices?
Middle managers don't like it. They're incompetent and insecure, and feel better when they can watch their charges.
Re: Why offices?
I'm sure I'm in the minority, but I really, really miss it.
I usually work from a client's site Mon - Thu, staying overnight 3 nights a week in hotels, WFH on a Friday. I miss the diversity, engaging face to face with clients and colleagues and I actually miss the commute believe it or not. Time to ramp up for work or to unwind before seeing SWMBO and the kids is something I sorely miss to be honest. Actually making time to listen to a podcast or a radio show just doesn't seem possible to me when working from home like I am currently - I'm only using my ears so it's the perfect driving / commute task to do. I can't bring myself to sit away from the family for an hour or two just to listen to the radio.
I recently joined an existing project that's been ongoing for over a year, and trying to get up to speed remotely has been a real struggle. The obvious social interactions such as a drink after work is one thing, but just spending 10 minutes by the water cooler / coffee machine / outside having a smoke can be surprisingly productive both directly and indirectly.
Think I probably had the best of both worlds as the nature of the role means it's very diverse anyway, so there's a lot of getting up to speed on the latest project and meeting new clients - both of which are made easier face to face. Combined with a very small commute to/from a hotel and working from home on a Friday does make me somewhat more bias that most I guess.
Re: Why offices?
Actually making time to listen to a podcast or a radio show just doesn't seem possible to me when working from home like I am currently
That's the one thing I've missed. Listening to a CD on the way in, another on the way home, I would work through my collection over a year. I have hardly listened to anything for years now.
But, overall, the pros outweigh the cons, and I could never go back to regular office working or commuting.
It is important to ensure home working doesn't turn into a simulation of incarceration in prison, especially if living on one's own. That's been difficult for some in recent months.
Tax relief
For those of you that were not aware. You can claim around £6 a week tax relief backdated to when you started working from home. Not a lot but may help someone.
https://www.tax.service.gov.uk/claim-tax-relief-expenses/who-claiming-for
https://blog.moneysavingexpert.com/2020/04/martin-lewis--working-from-home-due-to-coronavirus--claim-p6-wk-/
1 in 6 corporate positions ?
You'd think a guy like Bezos who apparently hates paying his employees would have less overhead.