Amazon Workers Hold Walkout In Seattle Over Objections To Return-To-Work Policy

People watch from inside Amazon's Seattle headquarters as Amazon workers last year protested return to office requirements, among other issues. (David Ryder/Getty Images)

Amazon is going back to the office full-time. The rest of tech is not.

The “world’s largest startup” isn’t acting like one

Rani Molla

9/17/24 10:30AM

In January, Amazon employees will have to go back to the office full time.

In order to “better set up to invent, collaborate, and be connected enough to each other and our culture to deliver the absolute best for customers and the business, we’ve decided that we’re going to return to being in the office the way we were before the onset of COVID,” CEO Andy Jassy said in a blog post Monday.

That puts the company, long known for its hard-driving and even abusive-seeming work culture, at odds with the rest of the tech industry.

In fact, rather than return to the office, tech companies have been getting more flexible in where people work, according to data from Flex Index, which surveys more than 9,000 firms on their office policies.

In 2024, the majority of tech firms (56%) let employees decide where they’d like to work. Another 23% are fully remote, while 18% are structured-hybrid, meaning employees are required to come in on some days. Only 3% of tech companies require their employees to be in the office full time, representing a decline from 2023.

When Amazon moved to three days in-office last year, the change was met with worker protests, and it’s likely we’ll see more this time. (It also will no doubt cause some workers to leave, which might just be another way for Amazon to cut costs.)

“In the immediate term, Amazon will see a lot of employee pushback and frustration. Employees that don't want to comply will immediately start looking for other opportunities,” Rob Sadow, CEO and co-founder of Flex Index, told Sherwood. “The job market in tech is tepid, but there are a lot of tech companies with more flexible postures who will jump at the opportunity to take talent from Amazon.”

He added, “All else being equal, the average employee will choose to go to a company that offers more flexibility. So Amazon may have to pay more vs. a competitor for the same talent, and will be confined in their hiring to people who live within a reasonable geographic radius of their offices.”

Other tech companies could decide to emulate Amazon, or scoop up the employees the new policies drive away.

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Uber is giving drone deliveries another go in a partnership with Flytrex

Ride-hail and delivery giant Uber on Thursday announced a new partnership with drone operator Flytrex to begin testing an autonomous delivery-by-air system by the end of the year.

As one of the few drone providers with Beyond Visual Line of Sight authorization from the FAA, Flytrex already partners with Walmart and DoorDash on similar programs. The company said it’s delivered more than 200,000 meals to suburban US households in the past three years.

This isn’t Uber’s first foray into drone deliveries. Under its then aviation arm Uber Elevate, the company tested the tech in a partnership with McDonald’s in 2019. Uber sold its aviation division to Joby Aviation in late 2020.

Uber shares didn’t move much on the announcement, up about 1% in premarket trading.

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Reddit bounces on report that it’s in talks with Google, OpenAI on fresh data-sharing deal

Reddit shares were down 5% in Wednesday trading before news that the company is in early talks to make its next AI content-sharing deals with Google and OpenAI sent them back up to roughly flat.

According to reporting by Bloomberg, Reddit is seeking a new data deal structure that includes dynamic pricing and would encourage the companies’ AI users to contribute to Reddit.

Reddit reportedly struck deals of $60 million per year with Google and OpenAI last year. The company scored $35 million in “other” revenue — which includes content licensing agreements — in its most recent quarter. That accounted for about 7% of the company’s overall revenue in the period.

“One of the things that we’ve learned, particularly through the data licensing deals is... how essential Reddit is to AI or LLMs as we know them and the next generation of search,” Reddit CEO Steve Huffman said on the company’s July earnings call. “And so I think a lot has changed over the last couple of years. Every variable has changed since we signed those first deals.”