Back to office articles.

I am acquainted with some Amazon employees in various roles. Their experience would seem to confirm that.

My company saved so much money by going fully remote. They were practically begging us to go fully remote years before the pandemic started, but there were too many people still attached to office culture (honestly I was one of them, I didn't have enough space where I lived at the time for a dedicated office and I had toddlers running around and interrupting all the time). But as soon as lockdowns came, my company seized the moment and permanently closed our main office and half of our second office (they still kept a smaller office for visitors and for the occasional on-site meetings and events). The rent alone was in the $1m/year range, we got free breakfast and lunch, fully stocked snack cabinets, unlimited coffee, drinks on tap, etc. They don't have to pay for any of that anymore.

Can confirm, absolutely toxic and miserable work environment based on firsthand anecdotes of colleagues.

I work in big tech and am surprised (and thankful!) that my employer hasn’t done any RTO moves since the pandemic. While everyone else was trying to get people back in the office, we were being told to go full remote because they saw that we didn’t come in often enough to warrant a dedicated desk space. Cross fingers that this doesn’t change.

It really depends on your team. I know people who like theirs and have overall had a positive experience at Amazon (the tech side).