A former Amazon techie revealed he gave up his $203,000 ( ₹1.69 crore) job after the company issued him a return-to-office order. The man, who worked as a software development manager, said the huge pay cut was ‘worth’ rather than being forced to move across the country and abandon his dream life for the job.
The New York-based software professional, whose identity has been kept secret over concerns of professional backlash, told Business Insider that he had started work with the e-commerce giant in April 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic unfolded. He recently bought a property and was in no mood to relocate.
In February this year, Amazon had issued an order asking employees to begin preparations to return to office. The software developer in question said the order had triggered chaos within internal teams in the company.
According to him, some managers quickly implemented the order and enforced disciplinary measures against employees to failed to comply. As per the website, this professional was reporting to a manager who insisted the former worked in Seattle, nearly 3,000 miles away from New York. The diktat, according to him was issued despite the professional being promoted to a position designating as a remote role.
The man said he tried to negotiate and argued before the company officials that the relocation would cost him and his family a whopping $150,000 ( ₹1.24 crore). He also asked for a relocation package, but it elicited no response.
The professional said he started putting in job applications after a conversation with his manager. He felt the order was intentional the way the company was pushing people out. He finally ended up with a new job and is getting paid the same base salary as Amazon.
An Amazon spokesperson Brad Glasser told the website that the company could not verify the account after Insider refused to reveal the identity of the source.
“We’ve repeatedly made our position clear: In February, we shared with employees that we’d be asking them to start coming into the office three or more days per week beginning in May because we believe it would yield the best long-term results for our customers, business, and culture,” Glasser was quoted as saying.