A software engineer who used to work with Amazon Web Services (AWS) before quitting due to its return-to-office mandate has claimed that the tech giant's recent rule making it compulsory for employees to work from the office from January 2 has less to do with "inventing and collaborating" as has been claimed by CEO Andy Jassy, and more to do with reducing headcount without causing a massive tax liability.
Colorado-based John McBride had worked with the tech giant for a year until June 2023. Taking to X, he said that Jassy's announcement should not have surprised anyone paying attention to how the company has been functioning for years. "Ultimately, it comes down to taxes and economics," he wrote.
Breaking down Amazon's supposed plan into five phases, McBride said the first phase was laying off 30,000 employees; the second was starting the return-to-office mandate when employees were required to work from an office near their residence two to three days a week to an office near you. "I went into the Denver office near me, a 20-minute commute," he said.
Phase 3 was “return to team” where employees had to work from offices where their team was physically located. In McBride's case, it meant moving to a different city, Seattle. "Many, many people left during this phase. This is when I personally left in 2023 because I wouldn’t relocate to Seattle," he said.
Then followed “silent sacking”. Explaining what he described as phase 4, McBride said, "If you managed to somehow stick around this long, your work life would be made incredibly unsatisfying and cumbersome: you'd be left out of in-person meetings, you'd be stiff-armed by management, you wouldn't be given interesting or meaningful work, etc. And finally, Phase 5: death of remote. Everyone must sit at a desk in a physical office where your team is located."
At least two former Amazon employees had shared on social media that they were forced to resign under similar circumstances. One among them, Robert Lacis, was ordered to work from the office in a different city even when he was hired as a remote worker.
McBride called the tech giant's move an effort to reduce their headcount, avoid massive tax liability, and increase profit margins "now that spending and books across the economy are very tight". "Amazon's strict return-to-office policy isn't just about fostering innovation or collaboration - it's a strategic move driven by macro and micro economics. By consolidating their workforce in physical offices, they're aiming to maximise tax incentives and reduce operational costs," he said.
The former Amazon employee further explained that the company gets massive tax benefits in cities where their offices are situated, but if they continued to allow a hybrid or remote working facility, empty offices would not give the government authorities any incentive to continue to let Amazon get off tax-free.
"If Amazon continued to enable a remote workforce, the tax man would come knocking and they'd be liable for hundreds of millions of dollars," McBride said. "In the end, Amazon's strict return-to-office policy isn't just about fostering innovation or collaboration - it's a strategic move driven by macro and micro economics. By consolidating their workforce in physical offices, they're aiming to maximize tax incentives and reduce operational costs."
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