Part 6/8:
The genuine incentive behind companies' push for a return to the office may be a hidden agenda of "quiet cutting" – a discreet form of mass layoffs. Former Amazon employees have shared accounts of the company's management falsifying performance ratings and placing employees in a "productivity program" called Focus, making it incredibly difficult for them to get out and often encouraging them to resign.
This tactic is not unique to Amazon, as evidenced by AT&T's relocation of 26,000 managers to just nine office locations and Dell's abrupt four-day notice for an immediate return to the office. These policies appear to be less about collaboration and more about making work so inconvenient that employees will resign, allowing companies to cut costs without the optics of traditional layoffs.