The post-festive return to work in the dark days of January is never easy, but this new year is shaping up to be tougher than usual for UK workers. Not only must they brave days of severe cold and ice, but many face the end of post-pandemic hybrid working.
A range of big employers are hauling their teams back to the office, with Amazon issuing the strictest mandate, demanding staff attend in person five days a week.
Such orders are provoking fresh battles between employees and their bosses, who believe staff need to be brought together to foster collaboration, creativity and a sense of belonging.
While the luxury of being able to work remotely is not possible for all jobs, it has increasingly become viewed as a right in the almost five years since Covid lockdowns forced staff to carry out their roles from their dining tables, spare bedrooms or sheds at the bottom of the garden, with many arguing they are just as productive at home.
So Amazon does it. That doesn’t mean it’s a trend of everyone going back to fucking work. Stop making it seem as if WFH is going away. People will fight tooth and nail for it now. If you pull it away then your best workers will go elsewhere.
Right, Amazon can do it because their best workers already left or never existed. Gigantic churn rate, terrible reputation.
Their best workers never existed - scheiße.
You would think being THE place that’s known almost exclusively as a career stepping stone in tech would set off some alarm bells in the c-suite. Then again, narcissists and sociopaths aren’t exactly introspective. It’s probably just easier to keep pretending that everyone else is the problem.