Amazon is seeing some employees quit instead of moving to a new state as part of relocation mandate::As Amazon tries to get employees back to the office, some staffers are being told to relocate to hubs in different states if they want to keep their jobs
Yep, even before COVID in my old job we moved office that basically changed my commute from a 10 minute walk to a 1 hour drive thru a shitty downtown traffic and my mental health sank. Even though in my previous job it was similar. I was already so used to having only 20 minutes of my day taken for commute (and the ability to have lunch at home).
Having that changed to at least 2 hours a day (take into account more expenses due to using personal vehicle, more time taken due to looking for a parking spot, and no I didn’t use public transport because it’s shitty in my area and can add another hour to my commute).
Since going full remote at the start of COVID basically the first thing I ask to any recruiter contacting me is whether the role is remote or not. If yes the next question is whether the management have plans to go back to the office in the current or next fiscal year.
Even with it’s drawbacks, remote work has been a boon for me. I get to spend more time with my children, I get rewarded when I work efficiently because I can finish working faster. With Discord I can still keep building rapport with my coworkers by having game nights weekly.
It’s really understandable, and even just a 1-hour commute changes an average day from 8 hours to ten hours, which is a huge quality of life difference.
As a manager, it’s a little frustrating because I have great job applicants that are only interested in 100% remote but much of my work requires people to be hands on with hardware, and my company has a hybrid policy, so everyone has to be in plant some days.
My team is all software developers, and I have no doubt about them being as productive or more from home as at work (though in-person collaboration is more effective than remote). I don’t have any personal issue with it and am as liberal as policy allows about approving remote work, but some things we do just have to be hands-on.
Thankfully, my personal commute is about 15 minutes, so isn’t a big impact in my day