Thanks to the pandemic, an increasing number of companies are adopting remote working as a viable option for many of its employees. Matter of fact, pundits have been quick to say the “work from home” era is upon us. Yet, Amazon, one of the world’s largest companies, has just suggested that WFH isn’t going to kill the office any time soon.
That’s because Amazon has scooped up a ton of new office space in no fewer than six US cities just at the time when many offices are sitting empty, reports The Wall Street Journal. The paper says Amazon is getting ready to add 3500 corporate jobs in new offices in New York, Phoenix, San Diego, Denver, Detroit, and Dallas.
Two thousand of those jobs will reportedly be officed in the former Lord & Taylor flagship department store in Manhattan. The WSJ says Amazon bought the building from the beleaguered WeWork for “more than US$1 billion.” The jobs housed in the new offices will include roles in engineering and product management for the company’s Alexa, Amazon Fresh, advertising, and AWS teams.
Major tech companies including Facebook, Apple, Twitter, and Google—all Amazon competitors in some form—have said that many of their employees can work from home into 2021. However, Amazon is only allowing its staff to do so until January 8, 2021. As Ardine Williams, Amazon’s VP of workforce development, told the Journal, “The ability to connect with people, the ability for teams to work together in an ad hoc fashion—you can do it virtually, but it isn’t as spontaneous. We are looking forward to returning to the office.”
And now, Amazon will have more offices than ever to house them in.
fastcompany.com
