Future of Work Roundup: June 7th

This week’s Future of Work Roundup looks at the drama around hybrid work practices, from the potential fallout with Elon Musk & Co. to the folks who prioritize work freedom over money.

Amazon is more than happy to take your top talent.

After Elon Musk announced that his employees need to shape up (head into the office) or ship out (find another job), Amazon said, “We got you, boo.”

Well, well, well… how the tables have turned.

• “If the Emperor of Mars doesn’t want you, I’ll be happy to bring you over to #AWS,” Zafar Choudhury, technical recruiting leader at Amazon Web Services, wrote on LinkedIn.
• With remote work being one of the biggest benefits for employees these days, Musk may learn the hard way that simply working for his prestigious companies isn’t enough to keep his talented workforce around… or, maybe that’s his goal?

The bottom line: RTO policies, generally publicly available information, are a hot datapoint in the war for talent. And, maybe, a tactic to control headcount.

Source: Business Insider

Tesla is considering laying off 10% of their 100k workforce.

If you’re a Tesla employee and thinking about quitting because you don’t want to work in an office 40-hours a week, the decision may just be made for you.

Perhaps you should respond to that Amazon recruiter.

• Elon Musk reportedly sent an email to Tesla executives ordering a freeze on new hiring, and wrote that he has a “super bad feeling” about the state of the economy. 
• It’s a familiar play for Tesla, which has gone through bouts of growth and change before – like its 9% reduction in staff in 2018.

The bottom line: Coupled with last week’s RTO news, Musk’s casual comments raise a lot of questions: What does he know that we don’t? Is he giving a not-so-subtle nudge to his people that they need to leave asap? Or, is he just a big-ego billionaire trying to stir up some drama for attention?

Source: Forbes

The people who prioritize hybrid work freedom over a plush paycheck.

Well now that we’re all adequately shook up, here’s some food for thought: would you rather take a pay cut or return to an office?

Makes me queasy just thinking about it.

• According to a recent survey, 45% of people who WFH would likely look for a new job if they were required to return to work in person. And a similar percentage said they’d do the same if their employer implemented a pay freeze.
• The same survey mentioned that employees equate being able to work from home to an 8% pay raise – signaling that there is a price to having a better work/life balance.

The bottom line: Our normal way of working has shifted, and hybrid work is here to stay – meaning that we’re realizing that money talks, but the freedom of hybrid work talks much louder.

Source: CNBC