Post by barb43 on Mar 4, 2023 18:07:09 GMT
Amazon pauses HQ2 construction after nationwide battle royale over location
techcrunch.com/2023/03/03/amazon-pauses-hq2-construction-after-nationwide-battle-royale-over-location/
With so many retail establishments scaling back their operations, and even closing down due to the economy & lack of available employees, who's have expected those problems to affect Amazon? Here are some snippets from the article.
techcrunch.com/2023/03/03/amazon-pauses-hq2-construction-after-nationwide-battle-royale-over-location/
With so many retail establishments scaling back their operations, and even closing down due to the economy & lack of available employees, who's have expected those problems to affect Amazon? Here are some snippets from the article.
Remember when Amazon turned the United States into Thunderdome, making every state battle over the right to host the company’s next big headquarters and 25,000 jobs? Well, after laying off more than half that number, Amazon is tapping the brakes on HQ2 in Virginia, putting off construction of three 22-story office towers.
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Although Amazon was adamant that “this shift is not a results, nor indicative, of role eliminations,” it’s impossible to consider the decision without reckoning with the fact that the company recently laid off some 18,000 people across the company.
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This isn’t the only place where Amazon seems to have gotten ahead of itself in office space. In its Seattle headquarters, entire floors are vacant and construction has stopped on a new office tower in Bellevue (just east of Seattle) and in Nashville.
It’s not alone in this, of course: Many tech companies were building millions of square feet of new offices leading up to 2020. Amazon wasn’t even the only one going fishing to see which state would offer the biggest tax breaks.
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And it’s not alone in not knowing exactly what to do in this new world of remote work, having invested truly enormous sums on office complexes that, as it turns out, very few employees want or need. Simply forcing people to come in to work has been one “solution,” and kicking the can down the road on more expensive offices is another.
But Amazon committed to bringing 25,000 jobs to HQ2 by 2030 and “our long-term intention and commitment remains unchanged,” the company wrote in a statement. A company as large and durable as Amazon can weather the dual storm of macroeconomic conditions and the folly of its leadership’s business decisions, filling the sails on the next upturn and hiring like crazy when the time comes. After all, there are tax breaks to be had!
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Although Amazon was adamant that “this shift is not a results, nor indicative, of role eliminations,” it’s impossible to consider the decision without reckoning with the fact that the company recently laid off some 18,000 people across the company.
---
This isn’t the only place where Amazon seems to have gotten ahead of itself in office space. In its Seattle headquarters, entire floors are vacant and construction has stopped on a new office tower in Bellevue (just east of Seattle) and in Nashville.
It’s not alone in this, of course: Many tech companies were building millions of square feet of new offices leading up to 2020. Amazon wasn’t even the only one going fishing to see which state would offer the biggest tax breaks.
---
And it’s not alone in not knowing exactly what to do in this new world of remote work, having invested truly enormous sums on office complexes that, as it turns out, very few employees want or need. Simply forcing people to come in to work has been one “solution,” and kicking the can down the road on more expensive offices is another.
But Amazon committed to bringing 25,000 jobs to HQ2 by 2030 and “our long-term intention and commitment remains unchanged,” the company wrote in a statement. A company as large and durable as Amazon can weather the dual storm of macroeconomic conditions and the folly of its leadership’s business decisions, filling the sails on the next upturn and hiring like crazy when the time comes. After all, there are tax breaks to be had!
