Upper leadership makes decisions without accounting for the personal impact or providing sufficient data to back up their decisions. Most recently, they have decided to implement a 3-day per week mandatory return to office (RTO), which they have applied globally to all corporate employees. Many of us were hired with the expectation and understanding that we would be entirely remote, so many of us do not live within commuting distance to the offices we work in. The previous model, which has been extremely successful over the past three years, has allowed each team to make their remote vs office arrangements. This new mandate does not allow for that anymore, and they are simply expecting people to relocate to areas with significantly higher costs of living, and densely populated areas. There are insufficient desks for the number of people they expect to bring in, desks are not assigned or guaranteed, and there is little consideration given for the increased time and cost required for commuting into the office three days a week. The issue is less about requiring office attendance, and more about the lack of concrete data to support this decision (rather than anecdotes about "culture" or "riffing"), and the lack of transparency. Many of us feel lied to about what to expect of our experience at Amazon, and built our lives around very different understandings and expectations.
