Amazon Postpones Return To Office Until January 2022; Won't Implement Vaccine Mandate

Amazon told employees Thursday that it will delay its timeline for returning to regular work in the office until early next year. GeekWire reports: The new date: Jan. 3, 2022. Previously, Amazon had expected employees to start working in the office regularly the week of Sept. 7. However, Amazon stopped short of implementing a vaccine mandate for those who do work in the office, as companies including Microsoft, Google, and Facebook have done. Amazon said it requires employees to wear masks in the office, except for those who can verify they've been fully vaccinated. Earlier this week, Google told staff that it's approved 85% of employee requests to work remotely or relocate once its offices fully re-open. "Google is one the largest companies trying a hybrid approach to returning from the pandemic," reports Bloomberg. "It will ask most of its staff to go back to work in their previous offices, but let others do their jobs elsewhere."

Shockingly, only 10,000 of Google's 145,000+ employees asked to work from home.

Masks in the office

[calih71282]

According to the CDC you need to wear a mask indoors even if you are vaccinated. Why isn't Amazon following the science?

Re:Masks in the office

[Patent Lover]

Same reason they have people peeing in bottles and don't want a union. They don't care.

Re:

[Patent Lover]

Maybe you can become a teacher and fill the void. Thank you for your service!

Re:

[JackieBrown]

Peeing in bottles is common for truckers. Hell, I do it on long road trips when I don't feel like stopping.

Re:Masks in the office

[Known Nutter]

According to the CDC you need to wear a mask indoors even if you are vaccinated. Why isn't Amazon following the science?

Because the CDC does not create nor enforce workplace regulations. The CDC issues guidance and recommendations. Federal, state, and local authorities issue health orders and create regulations which must be followed. These orders are based on authority granted by law.

Amazon DFs, for example, in a county with a mask mandate health order in place, must comply, and workers there must mask up. King County (Seattle) where Amazon HQ is has no such mandate at this time (after a quick search).

Furthermore, the CDC science recommends masking in areas of high transmission (Florida 16k new cases yesterday) and not necessarily areas of lower transmission (2k new cases yesterday). So, they are indeed "following the science", as you say.

Re:

[Known Nutter]

** (2k new cases in Washington yesterday).

Re:

[BrainJunkie]

the CDC science recommends masking in areas of high transmission

The CDC's county by county map [cdc.gov] has 67.11% of the US shown as "high transmision". Apart from the NE corner of the US, the majority of counties not listed as high transmission are sparsely populated and not likely to have large employers like Amazon.

While the CDC does not set workplace regulations, the whole way through this thing the safe move has been to follow their guidelines in order to meet OSHA's General Duty clause. It is certainly a risk to the business to do otherwise, since if an outbreak occurr

Re:

[JackieBrown]

I'm loving the NE (particularly New York) acting like this is because they "followed the science" instead of just owning it's due in large part to the fact that they had some of the highest infection rates the first time around.

Re:

[gosso920]

Because Amazon has billions of dollars of "fuck you" money.

I appreciate being copied

[rsilvergun]

But you could be a little less harsh. You are absolutely correct the reason we're being dragged back into the office is property values. However, it's highly unlikely that the majority of Google's employees are owners of commercial real estate. Your comment is kind of incendiary and it isn't helpful. If you go through my comments you'll find by and large I avoid outright trolling of that sort. I might get a little animated, and that's okay for you too. But you shouldn't make things up that are patently fals

Re:

[calih71282]

Well that's weird. So who exactly are these property owners then that are forcing people back into the office? Do you have any names and ideas on how they are accomplishing it? I mean, if I was a business owner why would I want to give money to property owners just to keep the value of their commercial properties inflated? It would only make sense if the people voluntarily going back into the office were personally invested. Ergo: Google employees must be commercial property owners. There would be no other

Ok, you're just a troll

[rsilvergun]

weird that you're copying me. Did you use a sock puppet account to do the down mod, or am I getting downmodded for feeding trolls.

Amusingly I seem to be becoming a legend here on /..

Re:

[tlhIngan]

Well that's weird. So who exactly are these property owners then that are forcing people back into the office? Do you have any names and ideas on how they are accomplishing it? I mean, if I was a business owner why would I want to give money to property owners just to keep the value of their commercial properties inflated? It would only make sense if the people voluntarily going back into the office were personally invested. Ergo: Google employees must be commercial property owners. There would be no other

Re:

[rsilvergun]

Dude the Google engineers. They're hiring come earners with long-term career prospects. Landing a woman is not a problem for them.

Re:

[calih71282]

I think rsilvergun is overdosing on smog.

Re:

[DRJlaw]

31 posts in the last 8 hours through a new sockpuppet accout.

rsilvergun is living rent free in your head, and you apparently have no real work to do in your life.

*WINNING*

Re:

[DRJlaw]

I was laid off because of COVID. THANKS COVID. Can I move in with you?

Nope. That'd be communism. Pull yourself up by your bootstraps, you shiftless Demoncrat.

Re:

[iamacat]

Reality? Some kind of a woman is a possibility, a woman that a top 5% engineer can remotely relate to is a rarity. Most girls are not interested in rationality or abstract creativity despite heavy efforts to make them more so by today's society (I wish that worked). Among those they do, most go to the other extreme of prioritizing career and independence above normal connection with a guy in their own league. I am also not talking out of personally bitterness, as I am happily off the market for a decade and

Re:

[JackieBrown]

Dude the Google engineers. They're hiring come earners with long-term career prospects. Landing a woman is not a problem for them.

So women prefer men with lots of money? I mean, it's obviously true; I'm just surprised to see you acknowledge it.

Must be nice for the warehouse workers

[Joviex]

Not having to return to the warehouse to ship all tha.... wait..

Re:

[iamacat]

Imagine having to get a college degree for warehouse work. Constant presence at desk for programming jobs is kind of like that.

Funny

[Oxycontinental]

Funny how fast we went from 2 weeks to smooth the curve to shop me the papers. The difference between a conspiracy theory and facts seem to be around 6 months

Re:

[TheGratefulNet]

two regular shots and then a booster.

ie, one in each arrm.

Re:

[narcc]

On the contrary, it matters a great deal.

Stop licking doorknobs and just get the damn shot.