Amazon exec says it’s time for workers to ‘disagree and commit’ to office return — “I don’t have data to back it up, but I know it’s better.”::“We’re here, we’re back. It’s working,” an Amazon Studios head said in a meeting, before acknowledging a lack of evidence.

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[–] 397 points 2 years ago* (1 child)

You should also pay everyone 2 million dollars a year. The company will do great and your employees will be happy. I don't have the data to back it up, but I know it's better!

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  • [+] 143 points 2 years ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)
  • [–] 248 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    "I don't have data to back it up, but I know it's better."

    This is every boss in every company throughout time lol

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  • [–] 83 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    How do statements like that not spook investors? You're telling me that leadership in the world's largest internet hosting service are making decisions without collecting relevant data first, or worse, wilfully ignoring the data available that doesn't support their preference? That is not a good sign for the future growth of AWS.

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  • [–] 47 points 2 years ago* (1 child)

    One of Amazon's core values is being data driven. If you want to change something, you colllect data about it first. It was one of employees large counterpoints to RTO at the org, the lack of data provided about its value.

    This is the exec admitting they aren't following the Amazon process, but are making people do it anyway.

    "Disagree and commit" is another one of their principles, i.e "we acknowledge that you disagree, but you need to commit anyway now that we made the decision." Better known as "Im the boss, so shut up."

    This guy is just a bald face saying "we dont have the data to back this up so we shouldn't do it, but i said do it, so do it."

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  • [–] 23 points 2 years ago

    "Disagree and commit" is a line that's used in Hardspace Shipbreaker by a terrible middle manager who's bullying his crew. It's so obviously framed in the game as just some bullshit to say shut up without using mean sounding words. I should have expected it came from the real world but it was so weird to see it crop up in a news article lol.

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    [–] 126 points 2 years ago (10 children)

    I wish these assholes would just come out and tell the truth: they need you in the office to justify their multi-decade office leases that they can't get out of.

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    [–] 122 points 2 years ago (15 children)

    Amazon monitors and logs and analyzes everything. As a company they are all about data. If they find something that will get the package out the door one half second faster, they'll spend millions rolling it out everywhere.

    If he doesn't have the data, there is zero chance that means the data doesn't exist. That means the data paints a very different picture and he has chosen to ignore it.

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    [–] 108 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    "I don't know how to micro-manage people unless I can see them sitting in an open floorplan."

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  • [–] 50 points 2 years ago

    AKA, he is so out of the loop he has no idea what his subordinates actually do, so he has no way of assessing their productivity. Thus his only recourse is to fall back on his gut feelings on whether people "look busy" and other nebulous bullshit .

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  • [–] 106 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Oh, that's interesting, because lots of people have the data. It says the exact opposite of that, though.

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  • [–] 30 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Do you have a link to that because it would be useful to pull up whenever some sycophant tries to defend forcing people back into the office

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  • [–] 27 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    https://toggl.com/blog/remote-work-statistics

    https://www.strongdm.com/blog/remote-work-statistics

    Couple links i found with sources for the statistics. Owllabs is a common source between tem but i tried to find at least 2 sites with different sources.

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  • [–] 79 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    I don't have data to back it up but I know it's better

    I do have data to back it up, and I know it's not.

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  • [–] 24 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    I have the data just from car usage alone. It is braindead easy to produce a detailed ROI document proving how much money both the employer and employees are saving from remote work. It's a lot from both sides, and that's not including all of the less tangible benefits, like morale, team building, more focused work with less distractions, etc.

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  • [–] 21 points 2 years ago

    If you dig into the links in the article, there is one study finding data entry workers in India worked only 87% as hard as their in office counterparts, however, the studies authors are quick to point out living conditions and management styles are significantly different there than in the US. There is also a study in the US which found that approximately 40% of time saved by not commuting went to additional work. Guess which study is brought up in more articles by FORTUNE?

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    [–] 74 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Once again, someone in authority misuses their power by dictating what they want reality to be as truth, rather than finding impartial data and serving stakeholders, they ignore their duty and serve their own ego.

    Evidence that top-down capitalism sucks ass even at what it is allegedly supposed to do. It's autocratic feudalism with extra steps, and should be confronted accordingly.

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  • [–] 69 points 2 years ago

    It really sounds like he thinks workers are refusing to return to work purely out of a sincere belief that wfh is better for the company and not “go fuck yourselves this is really nice and I’m able to do my job just as well from my home”

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  • [–] 63 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    How about... No?

    I'm one of the folks who actually likes to go in to the office every once in a while, but I'm never making it a daily commute. Never again.

    Hell, I'm on an international team now. Over the course of the pandemic, we built ourselves up with folks from multiple states and multiple countries. There is exactly one person on my team I could see regularly if we went back to the office. Literally everyone else is hundreds of miles away at a minimum. Many would need passports.

    And that one person? He's got an immune-compromised family member, so he's never going back to the office and risking his loved one's life.

    Fortunately, my employer knows it would make zero sense to require all of us to go back to the office. My boss doesn't even live in the same state as me.

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  • [–] 30 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Yeah, I'm never commuting again, either.

    For companies, your laziest employees are the ones who want to be in the office, because they know that's the only metric the company is measuring, so they go in and fuck around doing nothing all day.

    Companies who don't get with the remote work program are dinosaurs and will die off over time.

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    [–] 53 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    August 3, 2023

    Stop submitting old shit!

    Submit new shit!

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    [–] 41 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Say you're a control freak without saying you're a control freak 🤣

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    [–] 40 points 2 years ago

    They have the data. It's Amazon. The data just doesn't say what they want it to say.

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  • [–] 39 points 2 years ago

    Return to the office “My source is that I made it the fuck up” edition.

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  • [+] 31 points 2 years ago (3 children)
  • [–] 19 points 2 years ago

    A variation has been viral for years in the Hispanic sphere of the internet. “No tengo pruebas pero tampoco tengo dudas”, “I have no proof, but I have no doubts either”, said in relation to something that is inferred or assumed, specially when describing something negative about a third party who is mutually disliked.

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    [–] 24 points 2 years ago

    Fuck this piece of shit,

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  • [–] 22 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Since March 2020 I work from home. 2 years for a company ~20 miles from me, I went there 1 time to take a PC and 1 time to bring the PC back at the end of my contract. Then a year in a company ~100 miles from me (did 4 trips to bring HW), and for next year I should have a 2+ years contract for a company ~375 miles away.

    Never ever I will RTO commuting useless hours. If the job is 5 minutes from me I may, but else, never.

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    [+] 21 points 2 years ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (6 children)
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    [–] 20 points 2 years ago

    My company subleased 3 out of 4 stories of the office building when they realised most people could happily and effectively work from home. Crazy eh?

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  • [–] 19 points 2 years ago

    Ah, there it is

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  • [–] 17 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    I wish you could do word substitution in real life like you can with text substitution. If so, every time I heard "I don't have the data to back it up," it would become "I'm an idiot who doesn't know what I'm talking about but-"

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    [–] 16 points 2 years ago

    Literally everything he said rebuked that last sentence.

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  • [–] 15 points 2 years ago

    Trust me bro.

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  • [–] 15 points 2 years ago

    People don't want to because WFH is much better for employees. Why waste time on commute, gas, and get out from the comfort of your home?

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