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Good Morning,

It was a great week last week for employers who hate change and don’t trust their employees.

Amazon announced they’re canceling remote work and bringing corporate employees into the office five days per week, in perhaps the most brazen “quiet layoff” we’ve seen since the pandemic.

The announcement is here, in which CEO Andy Jassy (clown) shares two initiatives:

1. “Increase the ratio of individual contributors to managers by at least 15% by the end of Q1 2025.”

   • I just want to point out that this is the most hilarious, bullshit, corporate-speak way to say you’re going to get rid of managers. It’s like me saying “I’m going to increase the ratio of meat to veggies in my meal,” then proceeding to scrape vegetables off my plate into the trash bin.

2. Prohibit remote work, requiring all employees to work from an Amazon office five days per week, beginning January 2nd, 2025.

It’s no coincidence these two are in the same announcement; they’re related. Amazon knows it’s less expensive to let employees resign due to the RTO mandate than to fire them.

And managers — who are more likely to be older, have kids, and value work-life balance — are less likely to want to commute every single day of the week. Meaning there’s a chance that more managers resign due to this policy.

There’s one more reason for Amazon’s RTO that isn’t widely shared: Amazon is given substantial tax breaks by the cities and states they operate in (you might remember local governments vying for Amazon’s “HQ2” location; Arlington, Virginia won the designation in 2018).

Arlington expected Amazon to hire local employees, and for those employees to be present at Amazon offices — which would contribute to a strong local economy. And according to this WaPo article, Amazon is behind on their hiring commitments for HQ2.

So it may not be the #1 factor, but financial incentives for occupying office space are definitely something that Amazon’s top brass was cognizant of while making this decision.

Now naturally, there was a ton of media coverage about this announcement last week, and every media outlet who wanted engagement said something along the lines of “is remote work over?”

No, it’s not.

The long and short is this:

Older companies — especially those who want to downsize and/or do not consider it necessary to attract new talent (like Amazon) — are likely to implement and enforce return-to-office mandates.

But companies who want to grow and attract top-tier talent are far more likely to allow remote work.

That’s it. Onward and upward. And if you know someone at Amazon, tell them about our job board 🤝

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Remote Source Job Board

Featured companies:

Ensono: 43 remote jobs
Aircall: 14 remote jobs
Real: 16 remote jobs

🤝 Find Remote Jobs Here

Need to Know

🙅🏻‍♂️ KPMG: CEOs think remote work will end
Another week, another biased headline intended to minimize the remote work trend.

In KPMG’s most recent CEO outlook survey, they found that “79% of U.S. CEOs envision the working environment for corporate employees whose roles were traditionally based in-office to be back in the physical workplace [every day] in the next three years.”

At the bottom of the page, you’ll find which CEOs they survey: 1,325 CEOs from 11 countries, only at companies with minimum revenue of $500 million; 1/3 of CEOs surveyed work for companies with revenues exceeding $10 billion. So this pro-office sentiment is coming from maybe 100-300 US-based CEOs of major corporations.

The biggest companies in the world have far more real estate investments than smaller companies — and therefore, much more to lose if the world moves to remote work.

Plus, these companies have likely been around for decades, with office presence being a foundational part of their culture. If it worked until the pandemic, why not go back? In their eyes, they’re reducing risk by going back to the way things were.

So remember: when you see headlines implying remote work’s days are numbered, there’s often a financial incentive tied to the subject or those publishing it. (KPMG)

💰 Tips for landing high paying tech jobs
This career coach has three tips for those interviewing for high paying tech roles:

• Give credit to colleagues where its due: mentioning how much you appreciated and learned from a previous boss, for example, is received well by hiring managers.

• Provide numbers: be able to explain your specific impact and relate your job to the company’s financial (or other) goals.

• Turn the interview into a conversation: ask intentional questions about the company, hiring manager, their goals, and more.

She expanded by saying that these days, most candidates interviewing for a job have the technical requirements; once that’s established, interviews become much more focused on establishing whether the hiring manager and the team would be able to work well with you. (Business Insider)

👻 How to spot a “ghost job” listing
Here’s a troubling stat: “81% of recruiters admitted that their employer posts ads for jobs that either don’t exist or are already filled.”

If the job description is vague, the job description is old, or the job listing isn’t appearing directly on the company site, the likelihood it’s a ghost listing go way up. (Fast Company)

Side note: part of what makes the Remote Source job board high quality is that we source job data directly from the company career pages themselves. We don’t redirect you to sketchy third-party job sites like many other remote job boards do! While we can’t protect against ghost jobs, I’d bet we have a lower percentage of them than any other remote job boards 🫡

🇺🇸 Politicians aware of looming commercial real estate crisis
A bipartisan group of politicians has introduced a bill that’s intended to make it easier for developers to convert underutilized office space into housing with a “temporary 20 percent tax credit for qualified property conversion expenditures.”

While one similar policy has been introduced in New York, this bill could have an impact across the country. Add in the Fed’s 50bps rate cut last week, and there might be more incentive for developers to transition buildings from office to residential.

I’m glad to see that politicians on both sides of the aisle understand what’s at stake here. Office space that drops in value will hurt the real estate industry, which will in turn hurt the banking industry providing loans for those buildings. There’s no magic spell to fix the situation, but creative policies could help lessen the blow, and it appears industry leaders are welcoming the opportunity. (Politico)

🧳 Selina sold: what’s next?
The trendy hostel company that went public via SPAC in 2022 unfortunately flew too close to the sun, unable to sustain growth required to fulfill its liquidity needs.

They entered “insolvency” in July, with the board giving up control to administrators until its assets were sold at a bargain-basement price.

The new owner is Destination Group, an experienced hospitality company based in Southeast Asia that’s planning to build on Selina’s progress to date. Some ideas they’ve already mentioned are adding “adventures” to guest stays, and operating ghost kitchens out of properties during the hours that the hotel kitchens aren’t in use.

Looking forward to seeing this brand grow — a stronger Selina & ownership group means better experiences for remote workers all over the world 💪 (Skift)

Stuff We Like

🏃‍♂️‍➡️ First2Apply
Given the prevalence of AI job application services, and the current high number of job seekers, the number one piece of advice that recruiters have shared in the past year is to apply to jobs as soon as possible once they’re posted.

As a disclaimer, I haven’t tried this service — and it does cost money to subscribe — but the premise is incredible if it does work. Their home page says “Land more interviews by being the first to know when new jobs are posted. Stop wasting time manually browsing LinkedIn, Indeed, Dice or other job boards.” If anyone tries this out… please let me know about your experience! (First2Apply)

🌏 Global hotspots for nomads
Booking.com highlights four cities across the world that are particularly appealing for digital nomads — Taipei, Porto, Denver, and Lima — sharing some ideal hotels and experiences that cater to those working and exploring during their stay. (Booking.com)

👌 Optimize your remote environment
Author Carl Pullein shares tips in his blog to help remote workers ensure they’re able to be as productive as possible. One we don’t see too often: “be mindful of airflow, temperature, and sound.” It’s worth paying attention to these details for a place where you spend half your waking hours! (CarlPullein.com)