The Remote Work Weekly #12

Welcome to the 12th edition of The Remote Work Weekly!

If it is your first time here, my name is Amr, and I am the author of this weekly newsletter. The goal is to keep you up-to-date on what's new in the world of remote work, whether that's news, emerging trends, insights, studies, and more. So, feel free to subscribe so you don't miss an update.

In this week's edition, you will find more return-to-office news, read survey findings about workplace surveillance and its connection to remote work, and explore a new Tool of the Week.

Amazon Officially goes Fully back to the Office in 2025?

Amazon recently announced that it will require employees to return to the office full-time starting in January 2025, ending its current hybrid work model that allows two remote workdays per week. In a memo to staff, Amazon's CEO Andy Jassy emphasized the importance of in-person collaboration and gave indications that exceptions will only be made in special circumstances.

Besides this return-to-office policy, it is also worth noting that Amazon plans to cut down on its management layers by increasing the ratio of individual contributors to managers by 15% by early 2025. This decision comes as many companies in the tech industry continue to offer flexible work policies, while others, even indirectly, incorporate policies to curb remote work.?

How Company Surveillance Relates to Remote Workers' Mental Health

Since we started discussing mental health for remote workers in edition #11, this week, we bring fresh survey findings about company surveillance and how it relates to the employees' mental health. The survey was conducted by Secure Data Recovery and included both U.S. and U.K. residents to understand surveillance practices and employee sentiments in each country. While this survey didn't focus specifically on remote workers, it relates closely as there have been reports of companies that installed or attempted to install surveillance software on their remote employees' devices.

The survey found that over a third of the workers say that workplace surveillance hurts mental health, and 3 in 4 workers said that surveillance decreased their job satisfaction. Of all employees surveyed, 47% believe their bosses are fully transparent about surveillance, while in the U.K., 71% of workers say workplace surveillance is unethical.

Tool of the Week: Visualize your Habit Tracking

Time management and maintaining productive habits are some of remote workers' main challenges. Habit tracking apps aren't that uncommon, and Everyday app may be just another one with no extra revolutionary features. However, what caught my attention in this app is the engaging habit-tracking visualization, user-friendliness, and gamification elements.

You can simply pick a color for each habit, and the color gets darker by the days that you keep the habit. The app has a broad platform coverage, including web, iOS, Apple Watch, and Android versions, in addition to browser extensions.

Wrap-up

This wraps up the 12th edition of The Remote Work Weekly. I hope it was informative, insightful, and entertaining :). To receive notifications about each week's edition, feel free to subscribe.

If you'd like to share your thoughts or suggest a useful tool, your input is always appreciated. You can reach out to me directly here.

See you next week!

Amr