When I joined Amazon in 2017, it prided itself on being a data-driven company. If you had an idea for a product or a service or a process, and could back it with credible data, you’d get support to implement it.
Andy Jassy has lost sight of that core principle. In a much-newsed temper tantrum, “Mr Jassy declined to share data that motivated his decision to require employees to return to the office. … “Mr Jassy told Amazon staff he had spoken to many other CEOs and ‘virtually all of them’ preferred having their employees back in the office.”
Oh, honey… talking to other CEOs who share your executive blinders (and lower level managers who tell you what you want to hear) is not the same as having actual data about the productivity you claim will be gained, and indeed Jassy “said it was a ‘judgement call.’”
IMO, the real drivers of the back-to-office push include:
• All that expensive commercial real estate sitting empty looks bad to shareholders.
• All those expensive homes near the office (owned by the higher echelons of the companies, who can afford them) will lose value if being near the office no longer matters.
• Executives feel that employees gained too much power during the pandemic, and are desperate to regain control — even at the cost of reneging on “forever” promises. Forcing employees to do something they don’t want to shows you’re in control.
• Managers and execs are stuck in an old worldview where being able to look over your crew of peons in person and “actively manage” them is a marker of power, regardless of what useful work those people are actually performing.
• Executives are like teenagers in their need to be part of the in crowd. The in crowd of corporate execs has now decided that a “strong leader” gets people back into the office, and they are increasingly draconian in their anxiety to catch up with their peers. Their employees are not their peers, and execs do not care what those employees think about them.
…probably you can come up with more on your own!
deirdres /
npub1ml…r3asr
2023-08-30 00:32:35
Author Public Key
npub1mlqg25l2ghjf4uyfp4hjj0qqcrk09nm9x59kkkngqxvmhu8yy6ss9r3asrPublished at
2023-08-30 00:32:35Event JSON
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"content": "When I joined Amazon in 2017, it prided itself on being a data-driven company. If you had an idea for a product or a service or a process, and could back it with credible data, you’d get support to implement it.\n\nAndy Jassy has lost sight of that core principle. In a much-newsed temper tantrum, “Mr Jassy declined to share data that motivated his decision to require employees to return to the office. … “Mr Jassy told Amazon staff he had spoken to many other CEOs and ‘virtually all of them’ preferred having their employees back in the office.”\n\nOh, honey… talking to other CEOs who share your executive blinders (and lower level managers who tell you what you want to hear) is not the same as having actual data about the productivity you claim will be gained, and indeed Jassy “said it was a ‘judgement call.’”\n\nIMO, the real drivers of the back-to-office push include:\n\n\t•\tAll that expensive commercial real estate sitting empty looks bad to shareholders.\n\t•\tAll those expensive homes near the office (owned by the higher echelons of the companies, who can afford them) will lose value if being near the office no longer matters.\n\t•\tExecutives feel that employees gained too much power during the pandemic, and are desperate to regain control — even at the cost of reneging on “forever” promises. Forcing employees to do something they don’t want to shows you’re in control.\n\t•\tManagers and execs are stuck in an old worldview where being able to look over your crew of peons in person and “actively manage” them is a marker of power, regardless of what useful work those people are actually performing.\n\t•\tExecutives are like teenagers in their need to be part of the in crowd. The in crowd of corporate execs has now decided that a “strong leader” gets people back into the office, and they are increasingly draconian in their anxiety to catch up with their peers. Their employees are not their peers, and execs do not care what those employees think about them.\n\n…probably you can come up with more on your own!",
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