UNION BUSTING
Amazon is reportedly encouraging their US call center employees to work from home indefinitely — so they can eventually close their officesLakshmi Varanasi
Wed, September 28, 2022
An Amazon logo is displayed on a fulfillment center. Being the world's largest online retail company, Amazon operates more than 175 fulfillment centers worldwide, totaling in over 166 million square feet.
Gabe Ginsberg/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
Amazon is asking some of its US-based call center employees to work from home indefinitely, according to Bloomberg.
The request is part of a broader push by Amazon to shut down several call centers across the country.
The move might also help Amazon recruit more call center workers across the country.
Amazon is weighing in again on the return-to-office debate.
The tech giant is reportedly telling many of its US-based call center employees to work from home, according to a report Wednesday by Bloomberg News.
Earlier this month, Amazon's CEO Andy Jassy said at the Code Conference in Los Angeles that the company would embrace a flexible model that allowed for remote and hybrid work. Jassy said many of Amazon's tech workers have returned to the office.
Call center workers though, comprise a small percentage of Amazon's 1.5 million-employee workforce, Bloomberg reports. The decision to keep them at home comes as part of a larger push to close several call centers across the country.
Aside from saving money on real estate, Amazon might be going remote to widen its call center talent pool. By requesting those workers to stay at home, the company can hire people from more remote parts of the country. That might also help Amazon retain more workers in a sector with high turnover rates, Bloomberg notes.
Amazon spokesperson Brad Glasser told Insider via email that, "We're offering additional members of our Customer Service team the increased flexibility that comes with working virtually. We're working with employees to make sure their transition is seamless while continuing to prioritize best-in-class support for customers."
Amazon is asking some of its US-based call center employees to work from home indefinitely, according to Bloomberg.
The request is part of a broader push by Amazon to shut down several call centers across the country.
The move might also help Amazon recruit more call center workers across the country.
Amazon is weighing in again on the return-to-office debate.
The tech giant is reportedly telling many of its US-based call center employees to work from home, according to a report Wednesday by Bloomberg News.
Earlier this month, Amazon's CEO Andy Jassy said at the Code Conference in Los Angeles that the company would embrace a flexible model that allowed for remote and hybrid work. Jassy said many of Amazon's tech workers have returned to the office.
Call center workers though, comprise a small percentage of Amazon's 1.5 million-employee workforce, Bloomberg reports. The decision to keep them at home comes as part of a larger push to close several call centers across the country.
Aside from saving money on real estate, Amazon might be going remote to widen its call center talent pool. By requesting those workers to stay at home, the company can hire people from more remote parts of the country. That might also help Amazon retain more workers in a sector with high turnover rates, Bloomberg notes.
Amazon spokesperson Brad Glasser told Insider via email that, "We're offering additional members of our Customer Service team the increased flexibility that comes with working virtually. We're working with employees to make sure their transition is seamless while continuing to prioritize best-in-class support for customers."
Amazon plans to close several U.S. call centers - Bloomberg News
A logo of Amazon is seen on a company's logistics centre
Wed, September 28, 2022
(Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc is planning to close several call centers in the United States in a move toward remote working, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday citing people familiar with the matter.
The shift to remote working across most industries was accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic with cloud call center companies such as Five9 Inc seeing a boom in business.
Amazon, the world's largest online retailer, is also encouraging its customer service employees at some call centers in the country to work from home in a move that would save money on real estate, the report added.
The company's cloud computing division, Amazon Web Services, also sells Amazon Connect software that enables companies serve their customers using remote networks.
Amazon is working with employees to make sure their transition to remote working is seamless, a spokesman for the company told Reuters, but did not comment on the planned closure of call centers.
(Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)
A logo of Amazon is seen on a company's logistics centre
Wed, September 28, 2022
(Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc is planning to close several call centers in the United States in a move toward remote working, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday citing people familiar with the matter.
The shift to remote working across most industries was accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic with cloud call center companies such as Five9 Inc seeing a boom in business.
Amazon, the world's largest online retailer, is also encouraging its customer service employees at some call centers in the country to work from home in a move that would save money on real estate, the report added.
The company's cloud computing division, Amazon Web Services, also sells Amazon Connect software that enables companies serve their customers using remote networks.
Amazon is working with employees to make sure their transition to remote working is seamless, a spokesman for the company told Reuters, but did not comment on the planned closure of call centers.
(Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)
Amazon wants more WFH and less offices
Erik McGregor—LightRocket/Getty Images
Sophie Mellor
Thu, September 29, 2022 at 6:02 AM·3 min read
Amazon is trying to slim down the number of people coming into its offices by encouraging its call center employees to work from home. `
The e-commerce giant is offering full remote work to its customer service workers and is planning to shut down multiple call centers around the country to save money on real estate, Bloomberg reported.
After the pandemic proved that many office jobs can be done remotely, companies like Amazon have concluded that most customer service roles—which fill up precious office space—do not need to happen in person. Customer service positions also experience quick turnover, and Amazon's remote working scheme could help it recruit more employees across different cities in the U.S.
“We’re offering additional members of our Customer Service team the increased flexibility that comes with working virtually," said Amazon spokesperson Brad Glasser. "We’re working with employees to make sure their transition is seamless while continuing to prioritize best-in-class support for customers.”
The move to cut in-person call center offices coincides with other plans within Amazon to trim real estate holdings it bought up during the pandemic-era surge in online shopping. Amazon is looking to lease 10 million square feet of space and vacate even more by ending leases with landlords, according to Bloomberg, in warehouses in New York, New Jersey, Southern California, and Atlanta.
A staffing problem
There is a greater shift happening within Amazon away from the no-frills, low-wage, high-turnover labor model it has operated under for years.
In June, a leaked Amazon internal research memo published by Recode found that the tech giant could run out of workers to hire for its warehouses by 2024. The company also announced today that it would be increasing its hourly pay in the U.S. for most frontline employees in warehousing and transportation to more than $19 an hour.
Amazon has also already allowed remote work for its corporate employees. “We don’t have a plan to require people to come back,” CEO Andy Jassy told tech journalist Kara Swisher at Vox Media’s 2022 Code Conference, adding, “We don’t right now. But we’re going to proceed adaptively as we learn.”
One reason that Amazon may be more inclined to give concessions to its employees is that it is facing increasing employee activism and union drives across its warehouses in the U.S.
Amazon recently lost its attempt to overturn a historic union election held last April, where workers at a Staten Island, N.Y., warehouse voted to unionize—making the 8,000-employee Amazon facility the first to do so. Another union vote is scheduled at a facility in Albany, N.Y., next month.
Amazon is the second-largest private employer in the U.S., behind Walmart, and the company employed more than 1.1 million people in the U.S. at the end of 2021. While call center employees make up a small fraction of its workforce, it is another indication of a power shift toward the worker.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
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