There’s no denying that in recent months, one of the fastest-growing trends, especially among tech companies, is to have their employees work remotely, whether from home or from wherever they choose. Google and Facebook, for instance, have given their employees the option to work remotely through next summer. And Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Square and Twitter, has said that his team can choose to work remotely forever if they’d like. And plenty of other big-name corporations have offered similar options to their employees. As a company, Amazon is usually leading the way in many of these popular trends – but not this time.
In fact, it’s quite the opposite. The Amazon Blog recently announced their plans to create 3,500 new tech and corporate jobs across Dallas, Detroit, Denver, New York (Manhattan), Phoenix, and San Diego. These expansions, which also include leasing corporate space, “represent an investment of more than $1.4 billion and will host teams supporting businesses across Amazon,” according to the blog.
The Wall Street Journal also reported that the e-commerce giant “is expanding its physical offices in six U.S. cities and adding thousands of corporate jobs in those areas, an indication the tech giant is making long-term plans around office work, even as other companies embrace lasting remote employment.” The professionals mentioned will work out of nearly 1 million square feet of leased office space in the designated cities.
Amazon in the pandemic: primed for success?
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos saw his net worth skyrocket, growing by billions of dollars. What’s more, Amazon stock prices went through the roof, as competing brick and mortar retailers were forced to shut down and people were either afraid or unable to leave their homes to shop for necessities. This left Amazon is a prime position for success in a time when most other businesses and companies were struggling.
“People from all walks of life come to Amazon to develop their careers – from recent graduates looking for a place to turn their ideas into high-impact products, to veterans accessing new jobs in cloud computing thanks to our upskilling programs,” says Beth Galetti, senior vice president of Human Resources at Amazon. “These 3,500 jobs will be in cities across the country with strong and diverse talent pools. We look forward to helping these communities grow their emerging tech workforce.”
Looking to the future
Amazon has said that it doesn’t expect the majority of its workforce to return to the office until next year, but that there is no reason to have large numbers of their staff work from home permanently, as many other tech giants have done. By focusing on bringing employees back into the office, and even creating thousands of new positions, Amazon is breathing new life into the retail sector and giving hope to an industry that has been struggling for months.
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