#hubstrategy

Hearing the new version of hub locations are TNLs, it's acronym but don't remember. Here ACE regional support staff, will have to relocate to TNL location or find another field facing position or leave company. Hear TNL list will be out later this year, impacted folks notified and decisions have to be made.

Took a new role in CSO based in Charlotte. Anyone here work in CSO? How is that part of the org? Anyone in Charlotte? My understanding is it’s a CSO hub (or rather is becoming one). I understand lots of things are changing, and there’s a lot of frustration around RTO but other than that trying to get a feel for the CSO area.

Any word on when the next wave hits for technology? I thought it was October but I haven’t heard anything for a while.

Are they going to pull out of markets that do not have a hub?

Is the bs they are telling claims. Even the wfh employees that they are needed. But no promotions or openings for wfh, only in hubs. Very suspicious. Appears as if they are moving jobs to the hub but with 40% of the workforce being fully wfh how would they ever get it all into the hubs? Everyone is miserable and praying for the exit offer.

Can someone confirm if that’s true. I have been hearing that Specialty Markets will start to exit starting 2026 with the aim of completely be operating out of only hubs by 2027, with some exceptions for management to remain remote if they are located at a specialty market.

The company and John Stankey have made it clear that the direction is for employees to be colocated in Dallas. It doesn’t make sense for us to operate and keep open hubs or offices across the U.S. for a distributed workforce. Either relocate to Dallas or quit.

And none of this nonsense of I work in a (fake) hub located in LA, St Louis, or Arkansas city. I have specialized skills or deliver exceptional value nonsense. We run a dynamic customer-facing business, tackling large-scale, challenging initiatives. This is why we work in person, together in Dallas, during common working hours. If working in another city is important to you, then do it for some other company.

I am loving AT&T’s new company culture under John Stankey. I roll into the Dallas office after 10AM, and collect my badge swipe. Stay until a little bit after lunch. Get to grab something tasty for lunch. As for actual work? I do as little of it possible. Tasks that would take me an hour, I now stretch out to the whole day.

If I have any ideas or thoughts! Cute - I keep them to myself.

That’s all I have to do. I don’t have the same pressure to perform as non-hub people in California or Missouri - fu-k those guys. Just shift your work to non-hub and overseas employees. Stankey does it all the time - like how he shifts blame or responsibility from himself to others. Follow the leader and you’re safe! Fu-k everyone else!

We need to finish this headcount reduction that Stankey wants quicker rather than dragging it out. It’s like peeling a bandage quickly vs peeling it slowly and feeling the pain of arm hairs getting pulled.

Once the headcount is where it needs to be, then there will be less of a focus on a 5 day RTO and we will get the flexible schedule back. It is just the people that are working hard out of non-hub cities - anything outside of Dallas, Atlanta, NJ to be honest - that are holding us back at this point. Either relocate to Dallas, Atlanta, NJ or leave as Stankey is mentioning. Yet yall stay and we all get punished by Stankey for it.

Amazon Sits Out AI Talent War — Here’s Why

By Eugene Kim, August 28, 2025

Full story: https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-ai-talent-wars-internal-document-2025-8

Amazon, one of the world’s largest technology companies, has largely sat on the sidelines of the AI talent war that is reshaping Silicon Valley. While competitors such as Meta, Google, OpenAI, and Microsoft are actively pulling in high-profile researchers and engineers, Amazon has failed to make equivalent moves. A confidential internal document and testimony from current and former employees help explain why this has happened, and the picture is complex.

The internal memo identifies several major challenges. It lists location restrictions, strict compensation bands, and a reputation for lagging in AI as the central reasons Amazon is struggling. It states: "GenAI hiring faces challenges like location, compensation, and Amazon's perceived lag in the space… Competitors often provide more comprehensive and aggressive packages." These constraints, insiders argue, have placed Amazon at a significant disadvantage at precisely the moment when demand for AI expertise is surging.

Compensation has emerged as one of the most hotly debated issues inside the company. Amazon is known for its cost-conscious culture. From the earliest days, founder Jeff Bezos embraced frugality, with the company famously using doors from Home Depot as makeshift desks. This "door desk" philosophy became a symbol of Amazon’s careful spending and has continued to shape its culture decades later. In AI recruiting, however, frugality has clashed with the reality of the market. The company’s adherence to fixed salary bands and its reluctance to adjust ranges for highly specialized roles mean that many offers fall short of those from rival firms. The memo warns: "The lack of salary range increases for several key job families over the past few years does not position Amazon as an employer of choice for top tech talent." Amazon’s stock compensation model adds another challenge. Its vesting schedule is heavily backloaded, making it less appealing to new hires compared with upfront-heavy packages at competitors. Even executives receive few cash bonuses, which makes the offers less flexible.

Amazon’s workplace policies have further reduced its ability to compete. The company’s strict return-to-office mandate, combined with its "hub" policy requiring employees to relocate to specific offices, has limited its talent pool. The internal document plainly states: "Hubs constrain market availability." Recruiters note that candidates have started turning down offers, even when salaries are competitive, simply to avoid relocation or commuting. One recruiter admitted: "We are losing out on talent." This policy has made it easier for competitors to poach Amazon employees. Bloomberg reported that Oracle alone hired more than 600 Amazon staff in just two years, citing the rigidity of Amazon’s RTO rules as a key factor.

Externally, Amazon also faces a reputational challenge. SignalFire, a venture capital firm, reported that Amazon ranks low in engineering retention compared to Meta, OpenAI, and Anthropic. Jarod Reyes of SignalFire explained: "Amazon hasn’t clearly positioned itself as a leader in the generative AI wave… Engineers are paying attention and they’re voting with their feet." In other words, even if Amazon offers competitive pay, many engineers do not see the company as the place to work on groundbreaking AI research.

Amazon has responded publicly by insisting it remains competitive. A spokesperson initially emphasized that the company is adapting its compensation and work arrangements. Hours later, the response was updated to call the story’s premise "wrong." The spokesperson also insisted: "Our compensation is competitive, but we also want missionaries… there’s no better place in the world to build." Despite this, the internal documents and accounts from employees suggest that the issues are systemic and not easily fixed.

Amazon is not entirely absent from the AI landscape. It recently brought in Adept’s CEO David Luan as part of a licensing deal, placing him in charge of Amazon’s AI agents lab. It also continues to build AI capabilities through AWS Bedrock, its cloud-based generative AI platform. Still, the company has seen key departures, including senior leaders such as chip designer Rami Sinno and Bedrock vice president Vasi Philomin. These departures reinforce the perception that Amazon is not keeping pace with rivals.

Plans are underway to address the challenges. The internal memo describes upcoming strategies such as refining compensation and location approaches, hosting events to showcase generative AI capabilities, and creating specialized AI recruiting teams within business units like AWS. However, multiple insiders told Business Insider that no formal changes have been implemented yet. One manager noted the company’s reluctance to abandon long-standing systems: "Based on how we run our business… there are more risks than potential benefits from changing an approach that has been so successful for our shareholders over the past several decades."

This caution reflects Amazon’s broader identity. The company has long prioritized efficiency, frugality, and consistency. These traits have delivered strong results in e-commerce and cloud computing, but in AI, where talent is scarce and competition is fueled by high spending, they may become liabilities. Amazon risks being left behind while rivals make bold bets on generative AI.

The consequences of missing out on AI talent could be significant. The pool of world-class researchers and engineers is limited. Without them, companies struggle to push the boundaries of large language models, computer vision, and multimodal systems. Amazon has yet to deliver a breakthrough product to rival OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Anthropic’s Claude. Instead, it is relying on incremental progress through AWS services. Investors are noticing. On a recent earnings call, a Morgan Stanley analyst pressed CEO Andy Jassy about fears that AWS is falling behind in AI. His answers did little to reassure the market, and Amazon’s stock slipped.

Some argue that the AI hiring frenzy may itself be overblown, driven by hype and investor pressure. Indeed, a few of the high-profile AI hires made by Meta have already left. Yet the risk for Amazon is clear: if generative AI fulfills its promise, the companies with the strongest teams will be positioned to lead. For now, Amazon appears to be struggling to convince both talent and investors that it belongs in that group.

In summary, Amazon’s cautious culture, rigid pay structures, and strict return-to-office policies are limiting its ability to compete in the generative AI talent race. While the company insists it is adapting and remains a strong player, insiders and analysts point to clear signs of weakness. Whether Amazon can overcome these barriers and reassert itself as a leader in AI will depend on how willing it is to adapt the very cultural and structural elements that have defined it for decades.

Source: Eugene Kim, Business Insider, August 28, 2025

The facility managers or people who think they own the office are monitoring reservations and checking attendance.

I relocated to the hub based on assurances of job security and professional growth. Despite these commitments, I have now been laid off. It is deeply concerning to see management decisions that appear to disregard the well-being and stability of employees’ lives.

Latest development for 2026 plan is for job growth at the regional hub in Bloomington Minnesota.

Does anyone here have further insight into the location strategy Sam posted about? Specifically as it relates to the buildings that were previously deemed “hubs” (such as lake Mary, Tulsa) and her message regarding future hiring focused on the 3 centers going forward?