Amazon’s head of HR rejects staff’ return-to-office petition

It is lastly Friday, friend-o. I am Diamond Naga Siu, and I’ve made it via one other week of procrastination (AKA speaking an excessive amount of).

I spend a whole lot of my day fascinated by writing. Then I speak for hours with colleagues about something and the whole lot. However as soon as my stress hits a breaking level, I’d lastly hunker down with noise-canceling headphones to jot down.

Possibly I ought to shake issues up by following software program engineer Cameron Perrin’s lead. He struggled with procrastination a lot that it even impacted his profession targets. However Cameron found his procrastination panacea: “monk mode.”

The viral approach forces folks to completely give attention to one activity for a set time period. The recent lifehack has even been utilized by CEOs and entrepreneurs to skyrocket their productiveness.

Earlier than I am going take a look at out this method, let’s dive into right this moment’s tech.

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1. Amazon rejects an anti-return-to-office petition. Beth Galetti, the corporate’s HR head, formally responded to a letter that gathered ~30,000 worker signatures. She despatched an electronic mail to the group that organized the anti-office advocacy. Insider obtained her full memo.

• Galetti wrote in her electronic mail that Amazon’s tenet is to “make our prospects’ lives higher and simpler every single day.” She mentioned the corporate is assured that workplace work will enhance the corporate’s capacity to ship for purchasers.
• Dissatisfied Amazon staff flooded an inner Slack channel known as “distant advocacy” after her response. One individual known as the response disconnected. One other mentioned they felt like a “complete failure” after the unsuccessful attraction.
• My colleague Eugene Kim obtained Galetti’s full electronic mail and walks us via how Amazon staff really feel concerning the response.

Learn the leaked, anti-remote work response right here.

In different information:

2. This free, relationship simulator sport will assist you to file your taxes. Iris, an anime character, walks folks via their taxes in “Tax Heaven 3000.” The artwork collective MSCHF — of Lil Nas X “Devil Shoe” fame — created it. Prepared Participant One for all the small print right here.

3. Growth and bust: classes we must always be taught from the pandemic explosion. Tech cycles have produced some main tech winners and losers. My teammate Asia Martin shares the teachings (like agility and sturdiness) we must always be taught from these patterns. Verify all of them out right here.

4. MacKenzie Scott is giving $1 million to 250 nonprofits. The notorious philanthropist — and Jeff Bezos’ ex-wife — is at it once more. She’s at the moment on the seek for “organizations making constructive change of their communities.” Get all of the donation particulars right here.

5. TikTok’s ‘catastrophe’ day in DC. Congress grilled CEO Shou Zi Chew for hours concerning the app. And he seemingly did not calm any privateness fears. One politician even mentioned his testimony raised extra questions than solutions. Seize your front-row seat to TikTok’s fairly tough day right here.

6. Carta wooed public companies. Now it is kicking them off. Carta provides fashionable software program to assist staff handle their fairness. It made a significant push to realize the enterprise of public firms. However after the lengthy courtship, it is kicking them off in June. Extra on the bait-and-ditch right here.

7. A quick historical past of Elon Musk’s pets. A “nasty, brutish” Yorkshire Terrier named Hobbes. Floki, a Shina Ibu. Plus, just a few extra publicly-known pets. Get the total record right here.

8. Electrical automobiles with the longest battery life. Cadillac, Rivian, Tesla, and different main firms have fashions that prime the record. They every have greater than a 300-mile vary. Get the total record of 17 automobiles right here. Bonus: Take a look at Hyundai’s robotic arm that’ll cost your EV for you.

Odds and ends:

9. Mass blackouts have gotten the norm. They was a once-in-a-lifetime occasion. However a potent combo of profit-obsession and local weather change is making them far more frequent. This is why America’s vitality system is woefully unprepared to deal with our unsure future.

10. Older US tanks > Russia’s Soviet-era armor. The US is sending its previous tanks to assist Ukraine. They’re going to improve the nation’s present forces, and have a historical past of defeating Russia’s tanks. See them in motion right here.

The most recent folks strikes in tech:

• Google is experiencing a significant AI mind drain. Insider tracked the place its prime AI researchers are working now, together with DeepMind and LaMDA.
• From renting out air mattresses on the ground to being value almost $10 billion: that is the rise of Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky.
• Shopify rescinds job provides to interns. Months in the past, former interns had been advised they bought full-time roles. However the provides had been verbal. And the corporate advised Insider it is solely bringing on “mission-critical hires.”

Curated by Diamond Naga Siu in Los Angeles. (Suggestions or suggestions? Electronic mail [email protected] or tweet @diamondnagasiu) Edited by Matt Weinberger (tweet @gamoid) in San Francisco and Hallam Bullock (tweet @hallam_bullock) in London.