CALL A WAAHMBULANCE

Seattle Amazon employees are broken by the new, crueler, “return to the office 3 days a week” mandate. Not to mention WHAT IT’S DOING TO MOTHER EARTH.

Hundreds of @amazon employees walked out of the Seattle headquarters this afternoon. Employees tell me they’re here to speak out against the return-to-office mandate, recent layoffs and the company’s environmental impact. @KING5Seattle pic.twitter.com/4bEdKhc4Mt

— Brady Wakayama (@BradyWakayama) May 31, 2023

Did we mention the horrible impact on the climate our having to come into the horrible office is having?

It’s killing the planet…and #wymmins.

I mean, the #wymmins are not dead yet, because they were leading nifty anti-Amazon chants and sing-alongs. Powers to the purses!

Happening Now: Hundreds of Amazon employees are protesting outside HQ in Seattle for being “forced” to return to work in-person.

Amazon mandated employees to return to the office last month. They have been working remote since the start of the scamdemic.

@police_frequency pic.twitter.com/D0eegRuQGg

— sherriroseA (@SherriRose711) May 31, 2023

I’m sure they died right after this though. The lyrics are pretty uninspired and the pajama boys doing the “hay-yull, yassses” in the crowd aren’t exactly robust either.

The pirate hat was nice touch.

…Wearing a black pirate hat and red coat, Church Hindley, a quality assurance engineer, said working from home allowed him to live a better, healthier life.

“I’m out here because I refuse to just sit idly by while mandates are dictated from above down that don’t make sense and hurt the planet, hurt families and individual lives,” Hindley said. “And just to get us into a seat at the office for their tax incentives.”

Church is a natural rebel.

As is this fire breather.

…“Today looks like it might be the start of a new chapter in Amazon’s history, when tech workers coming out of the pandemic stood up and said, ‘We still want a say in this company and the direction of this company,’” said Eliza Pan, a former Amazon corporate employee and a co-founder of Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, a climate change advocacy group founded by Amazon workers.

One of these enterprising “workers” even found time to start an Amazon group to basically guilt trip the company about how awful Amazon was ruining the sweet home gigs everyone had going.

…Pamela Hayter, a project manager at Amazon, started an internal Slack channel called “Remote Advocacy” after the company announced its return-to-office policy. Its 33,000 members share stories about how the return-to-office policy impacted their lives.

“I cannot believe that a company in this day and age, a company that claims to be an innovative leader in its space, would do that to one of its most precious resources — its employees,” Hayter said during the protest in Seattle, drawing applause from the crowd.

33,000 whiny babies whinging about HOW BAD AMAZON SUCKS – that seems a productive use of time. Terrific for company morale. And doesn’t “internal” Slack channel mean it’s an Amazon corporate channel where everyone is pissing and moaning about the company that pays them?

Wow.

If they were all so gangbusters productive instead of whimpering on company comm channels, or busy being climate advocates while they should have been tracking sales, maybe they’d all still be working from home 5 days a week instead of the horrible and overwhelming 3 they’re required to appear at the office.

For all the lamentations, it turns out all those gains made when COVID first sent America home have largely disappeared. WAAH.

…Is the resistance to in-person work in progressive cities across the US really about fears of covid, saving the planet from scary carbon, or is it just childish entitlement? Three years after the covid pandemic was used as an excuse to shut down large swaths of the American economy and put millions of people out of work, certain groups, particularly in the tech sector, have actually benefited from the restrictions and they want to keep it that way.

In the early months of the work-from-home dynamic productivity remained stable, perhaps because many people were going above and beyond in order to make extra money or ensure job security in uncertain times. However, it did not take long for some employees to get comfortable and suddenly productivity plummeted for five consecutive quarters. It was the first instance of such a decline since 1948 and the illusion of the work from home Utopia was dashed.

Companies realized that remote work was a pipe-dream and that most people need to be outside the home environment in order to focus on their tasks. But, they still could not pressure employees back into the office after joining in the hysteria over covid. Now, with Joe Biden officially calling an end to the pandemic this year there isn’t any reason to give employees a free pass to lounge at home. Or is there?

With a company that’s laying people off, it’s pretty bold to be out front with a sign and a chant. One fellow I read said he’d shot out to get his lunch and made sure he got back early so no one could confuse him with the eggheads outside.

I mean, if PJs and WAAH are your principles, good for you.

I’d rather have the job right now.