Flexibility And The Competition For Top Talent

Last March, Amazon announced that the majority of its workers in Seattle would come back into the office in the fall. 

Compared to Microsoft’s policy in nearby Redmond that allowed workers to work from home, in the office or a hybrid of the two, this move was not received well by Amazon’s workers.

In the post-pandemic workforce, the competition for top talent has never been more intense. As demand for flexible work arrangements grows, it’s clear that companies, like Amazon, need to put forward more progressive policies if they want to retain their employees.

On the heels of the backlash, Amazon clarified its rules and told workers it would provide them with two days of remote work. However, this still may not be enough.

“People can be wooed away by other companies,” said one Amazon software engineer. “I am jealous of Microsoft. There is implicit trust in Microsoft’s policy, that trust is meaningful.”

When choosing whether to stay with their company, workers have said the employer’s workplace policies played a huge role in their decision, especially if they do not offer many remote work privileges.

For instance, Brescia Young, a senior data scientist at Zillow, said she chose to work for the real estate website because she did not want to relocate from her home and the company offers full flexibility on where their employees can work.