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Amazon India Chief Tells Employees To Maintain 'Work-Life Harmony', No Emails and Phone Calls After Office Hours (indiatimes.com) 70

An anonymous reader shares a report: Amazon gets trashed on the international stage pretty often for its inhumane work conditions in its warehouses. However, it seems the Indian arm of the company is trying to do better, at least according to the latest announcement from Country Head Amit Agarwal. According to Business Standard, in an email to senior staff members this week, Agarwal has reportedly asked employees to leave themselves enough time to spend at home, and maintain a healthy "work-life harmony." He's told employees to stop taking calls and emails after hours, and specifically that, "No business decision should be made between 6 pm and 8 am." It's still unclear whether this decision comes from Agarwal or from the company's global leadership. Likely the latter, considering there's been no such chatter for US employees. It'll also be interesting to see how long this plan will hold, given the sheer size of the e-commerce portal. In the email, Agarwal also said that responding to emails while on vacation is "not cool."
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Amazon India Chief Tells Employees To Maintain 'Work-Life Harmony', No Emails and Phone Calls After Office Hours

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  • by Anonymous Coward

    That's for damn sure.

    • Probably not, however he seems to be allowed to manage his own little kingdom in the Amazon Empire.
      A lot of the discussions seems to make good business sense, because with management making decisions off hours, it just creates confusion, as not everyone will be able to respond to it.

  • by Rik Sweeney ( 471717 ) on Thursday August 09, 2018 @09:55AM (#57096520) Homepage

    "Responding to emails while on vacation is not cool."

    Sent from my sun lounger in Cancun.

    • Re:Holiday emails (Score:4, Interesting)

      by ranton ( 36917 ) on Thursday August 09, 2018 @10:13AM (#57096620)

      Responding to emails while on vacation is not cool.

      I have generally found that occasionally checking in while on vacation helps me schedule more vacations more freely. Otherwise it is harder to find a week where my wife and I can both take time off. The majority of vacations I never respond to a single email, but being able to leave during a busy time in a project knowing my team can handle anything because I am available just in case makes the whole process of taking a vacation far less stressful.

      Or perhaps you could just say I am too indoctrinated into corporate life.

    • Yeah, I want to see how quickly that rule gets thrown out the window when Jeff Bezos sends someone on his team one of those infamous ? e-mails.

  • I assume that this could not be universal, as they must have some people working at 'night' which would be the daytime state side.

    • by AHuxley ( 892839 )
      Thats the part any normal nation will do. Work in a shifts and have experts on each shift. So everyone gets some time away from work.
      • by Anonymous Coward


        Thats the part any normal nation will do.

        Sort of. In the US and developed countries, developers don't work at night. For anything mission-critical, the night crew is normally just a skeleton crew that can fix somewhat minor problems. Anything big they call up someone on call, at home.

        Real shift work only happens in industries that need the extra productivity. The shipping industry is a prime example. My wifes son used to work at UPS doing late night shift work. It's necessary because the trucks come i

        • Bwahahaha!

          Can't tell if this is trolling or simple ignorance.

          At Amazon, you are in communication at pretty much all times. And you'd best be able to log on regardless of your location or the time of day or whether you're the on-call or not.

          Same is true for other on-lines, though, none seem to be quite as aggressive as Amazon is.

  • They have labour law there and can't fire some for just saying to no do an 80 hour day also working on holidays = X2 pay.

  • the US really needs more of the EU labor laws / OT

    • by Anonymous Coward

      That's communist talk.

      I work 5 jobs and have a shit home life, that makes me morally superior to the Euro-weenies who spend most of their time with their families/friends and get to spend waaaayyyy too much time enjoying their lives. And don't get me started on the Frenchies. They raise their kids IN PERSON not via text message. Pure laziness. They should be at work all day long!!!

    • by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Thursday August 09, 2018 @10:28AM (#57096694)
      Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • What we have in the US are powerful business groups who "nominate" our legislators for re-election through private campaign donations. Until all elections are financed by public funds, none of this will change: employment-at-will, binding arbitration, noncompete clauses, and reform of overtime for exempt employees.

  • I guess that means that all of the burden of evening/early-hour meetings with them goes to the people in other hemispheres.

    • I think it depends on when 'work hours' are defined. Personally, while I don't want to have odd hours meetings ALL the time, alternating what's "good" for someone in India and what's "good" times for someone in USA isn't unreasonable.
  • by Green Mountain Bot ( 4981769 ) on Thursday August 09, 2018 @10:45AM (#57096780)

    It's still unclear whether this decision comes from Agarwal or from the company's global leadership. Likely the former, considering there's been no such chatter for US employees.

    "Former" refers to the first of two earlier mentioned list items (Agarwal, in this case), while "latter" refers to the second (global leadership, in this case). If it were the latter, that would suggest there would be "chatter for US employees".

  • The next day Amit Agarwal announced that he was voluntarily leaving Amazon "to spend more time with his family".

  • In particular, this one:

    "No business decision should be made between 6 pm and 8 am."

    A couple of points I'd like to bring up about this

    While in general, I do agree that this should be the ideal, at the very least, if the company has clients overseas, there's a pretty good chance that the clients' business hours aren't going to always coincide with the company's. Practical business sense demands more flexibility than some hard-and-fast rule like like "no business decisions after 6pm" .

    Secondly, it can

  • "Definitely don't check work email from home, but if your emails for the day aren't answered (because you are 120% utilized) then you'll have to stay until they are."
  • I vote for no emails or phone calls DURING office hours!

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