Inside Amazon's Mini Rainforest Work Space Spheres (cnbc.com) 85
Amazon's indoor rainforest-like office space opened today after being in development for seven years. CNBC reports of what can be found inside the Spheres: The Spheres' three glass domes house some 40,000 plants of 400 species. Amazon, famous for its demanding work culture, hopes the Spheres' lush environs will let employees reflect and have chance encounters, spawning new products or plans. The space is more like a greenhouse than a typical office. Instead of enclosed conference rooms or desks, there are walkways and unconventional meeting spaces with chairs. Amazon has invested $3.7 billion on buildings and infrastructure in Seattle from 2010 to summer 2017, a figure that has public officials competing for its "HQ2" salivating. Amazon has said it expects to invest more than $5 billion in construction of HQ2 and to create as many as 50,000 jobs. The Spheres, designed by architecture firm NBBJ, will become part of Amazon's guided campus tours. Members of the public can also visit an exhibit at the Spheres by appointment starting Tuesday.
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the tooth fairy
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/... [pinterest.com]
working in the Amazon jungle (Score:2, Funny)
Huh (Score:2, Insightful)
Just imagine how much more productive and happy their workers would be if they'd invested $3.7 billion in the salaries of workers in Seattle.
Re:Huh (Score:4, Interesting)
Just imagine how much more productive and happy their workers would be if they'd invested $3.7 billion in the salaries of workers in Seattle.
Or, just dumped Seattle and went to the Midwest with that $3.7 Billion where labor is cheaper and the standard of living easier to maintain.
So I've got to ask, when you say "invest" in salaries of workers you mean give them raises right? The problem with handing out $3.7 Billion all in one year is that you have just increased your baseline costs unless you just hand out a one time bonus. One time bonuses are only have a short term benefit on employee's good feelings towards the company. Give them a few months and the benefit is all gone.
So Amazon spent $3.7 Billion on a hopefully better facility to improve the working environment. It might be that this has a longer term effect on how the employees feel about work and it might be just as effective as handing out cash.
Re:Huh (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Huh (Score:5, Insightful)
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WTF does the Portland connection have to do with anything? Amazon is based in Seattle.
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if you locate where the cost of business is the lowest, the talent will relocate there to work for you -- and be unable to find any competing jobs
That rules Austin out then, on cost and competition.
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Most end up moving there anyway. Look at how many companies have huge presence in Georgia, Florida and Texas...not exactly states known for their spending on education.
Back in the 90s, when companies needed a much bigger semi-skilled white collar labor force, they'd move their back-office functions to places like Atlanta or Dallas. Taxes are cheap, and land/houses are cheap if you're willing to drive a lot. And the executives are happy wherever they end up. They can build whatever housing they want, and certainly don't use the public school system to educate their kids. I was asked to move to Florida for a relocation once, and even the real estate agent trying to sell me a house said I'd have to put my kids in private school if I wanted a New York-equivalent education. Later on, people I kept in touch with who did make the move confirmed this was true. It's the trade off for cheap houses and low taxes -- long car commutes and expensive private school tuition.
Georgia, Texas and Florida are very diverse states where you can't compare their metropolitan areas with their towns in the middle of nowhere. They are countries in their own right.
I suggest you read "The New Geography of Jobs" by Enrico Moretti. It will disabuse you and anyone else of the notion that companies that rely on knowledge workers can, should and/or will relocate from where they are. The notions is pretty freaking bollocks.
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The Midwest is just fly over country to you I guess... Have you even been here? Of course not.
What breathtaking ignorance you have...This is why we make jokes about the idiot liberals on the coasts who think they are better than everybody else, only we do so in private and with obvious sarcasm and just don't blurt out such nonsense as facts. I was raised in the mid west and have spent time on both coasts. There are smart and stupid people every place I've ever lived, in roughly the same mix. I do find ar
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Surely, THIS will be the bubble that lasts!
-Dorianny, Expert Slashdotter
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LOL... https://www.thehtgroup.com/ht-... [thehtgroup.com]
Read it and weep my coastal friend.. BTW this article is not discussing everything. Amazon is looking at the Dallas area for it's second regional headquarters and there are a pile of companies who may not be moving their head quarters to north texas, but are sure expanding their operations here. I got to ask, why do you think all this is going on here? Yea, we are all just poor stupid folks with southern drawls and cowboy boots...
Feel free to stay where you are th
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Of course not.. But Amazon apparently has considered a number of locations and Dallas is the obvious choice according to the Wall Street Journal:
https://www.dmagazine.com/frontburner/2017/11/wall-street-journal-says-amazon-is-totally-coming-to-dallas/
Would you like some mustard on that crow you are eating? :)
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Have you even been here? Of course not.
I have lived there for many years, in southern Wisconsin. I had several friends and colleagues transition from public research to private spinoff companies. Out of five I can think of that grew to more than half a dozen people, four moved to the west coast, and the fifth opened a second office on the east coast. That last example's choice to have two offices was not for business reasons, but because the founder's family was slightly more attached to their location, enough to accept growth limitations and
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You know, as one of the "coastal liberals" you hate so much; I can't recall the last time I've heard anyone derisively refer to the midwest as "fly over country". Probably 90% of the time I hear or read the phrase are cases exactly like this one: Midwestern republicans complaining about coastal liberals derisively referring to the midwest as flyover country. Most of that last 10% is liberals. But they're not derisively referring to the midwest as flyover country. They're mocking you midwestern republic
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Well, look at it from my perspective having been raised in the mid-west, read the previous posts and I think you will see that I'm not dissing you specifically, unless you think the shoe fits. I'm dissing the guy who basically said all us folk in the Midwest are uneducated and stupid.
I think ignorance abounds on both coasts and the middle and the ignorance is about exactly who we are as individuals and the inherent value each person has. If you wish to lecture me about my views of liberals, I suggest you
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No harm no foul. And I guess I should have specified that I was using the plural "you" and not trying to attack you singularly. So, my bad there.
But the "flyover country" thing really does tickle me. First, because I was telling the truth when I said I hardly ever hear people here on the coast use it derisively against the midwest as a whole. But two, the dichotomy between one day being offended at the notion that we only fly over, and the next making it very clear that we would not be welcome there. A
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I've lived on the West coast nearly my whole life. I suppose I'm what you might call a "idiot liberal." The vast, vast majority of people I have met from the Midwest have been really nice to me--at least, to my face, since I have no way of knowing what might possibly be said about me behind my back, not that I go around feeling paranoid about such things that are not under my control.
And the way you characterize or stereotype me by way of geographic origin or cultural identity is incredibly hurtful--or at
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Apologies to you.. I was talking to the previous poster who dissed the Midwest as full of stupid people.
I don't talk about it much, but most of my family is in California and although I grew up in the mid-west I was born on the left coast myself. In my experience, liberal/Conservative, left/right, Democrat/Republican or from a red or blue state doesn't really matter. We are generally all the same. Though I must admit, I do find the liberal mindset to be a bit more "we are better than you" in general and
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The lower taxes and cheaper living in those states come with the trade-off of lower spending on education, infrastructure and cultural institutions all of which are very important to the highly sought out employees companies like Amazon need.
There are cities in the Midwest. Most of the land-grant universities [wikipedia.org] are there. It's not all cornfields.
One Upmanship (Score:4, Interesting)
My company bought new office furniture five years ago because "the trend" was to move to smaller desks. Some of the furniture in the collaborative work spaces now has a thick layer of dust because it's gone unused.
Now we're getting a new office layout this year. No more assigned desk! Sit where ever you want. How is that supposed to work?
No desks available? Sit down on the loveseat. (Seriously, this is an office. Not a dorm!) If you don't like the loveseat, there will be an area with different levels, like bleachers, or that episode from Seinfeld. [youtube.com]
I just want a comfortable chair to sit on, a place to put my stuff, HVAC, a fridge, a microwave, and a restroom. Half the time that stuff doesn't work.
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money was the primary reason, but the open plan office is the runner up as to why I'm leaving my current job.
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I worked for a company that replaced the furniture in one of its largest meeting rooms with bean bags, so that people would be comfortable and relaxed and more creative.
The women refused to sit on them while wearing a skirt. The men refused to hold meetings there because the women couldn't sit down. The room stopped being used entirely.
The room's sponsor continued to be confused that people didn't want to be creative..
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This kind of crap is going on everywhere. Here in the Midwest, companies are changing their offices
If you put this kind of office in Denver no one would work in it; the heat and humidity would drive everyone out the door in a few minutes.
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Now we're getting a new office layout this year. No more assigned desk! Sit where ever you want. How is that supposed to work?
It absolutely sucks. I'm only convinced management does it because they know it pisses everyone off and they want to downsize without firing anyone so they pull passive aggressive shit like this.
If you want shit to get done by your development staff get them all their own offices and let them arrange it to their own tastes. I'd even suggest having only a single meeting room, which makes it difficult for managers to schedule long meetings that just piss everyone's time away.
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It absolutely sucks. I'm only convinced management does it because they know it pisses everyone off and they want to downsize without firing anyone so they pull passive aggressive shit like this
The jokes on them when they have to foot the bill for the repetitive strain injury claims. [wikipedia.org]
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Sit where ever you want. How is that supposed to work?
There's a big mahogany desk in that corner office. Dibs!
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But human nature being what it is, humans are inherently resistant to change and there are enumerable ways for people to sabotage new systems and make sure they don't work.
That tends to make it very difficult for managers to tell if the changes that were made were good or bad.
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I think some of this is driven by trends. Business leaders see "other companies" in glossy magazines, in the news or wherever doing something "fun" and they want in on it too for fear of being left out.
But I think some of the "sit on the loveseat" is driven by management's own disconnection with how actual workers get actual work done. They "work" in jobs that mostly consist of going to meetings and writing reports about meetings and arranging for informal meetings with other managers. To them, "work" is
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But I think some of the "sit on the loveseat" is driven by management's own disconnection with how actual workers get actual work done. They "work" in jobs that mostly consist of going to meetings and writing reports about meetings and arranging for informal meetings with other managers. To them, "work" is kind of an extended cocktail party, except with frappacinos, kambucha or giant water bottles, so sitting around on couches or in non-office type spaces makes complete sense.
Yes. I had this discussion with a technician once.
He said to me, "As you move up the chain of command, you do less and less real work."
I told him, "Your work changes as you move up. You do less value added work, like building things, and more communication."
"So the CEO does nothing but goes to meetings all day?"
"Yup"
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Don't forget a coffee machine. I lost that with my last career move. I miss it.
They tried taking away our coffee machines! That didn't last...
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Top of Dotcom Bubble 2.0 (Score:5, Insightful)
When companies start showing off fancy real estate, or initiating a Hunger Games style race to the bottom for cities to be their next headquarters, it's a good sign the next bubble is coming to an end. Sun moved to a fancy new campus and were shortly bought by Oracle. There was an article a few momths ago about how Microsoft is building tree houses for their employees to work in. This is the second tech bubble I've lived through and the end always seems to be a new trend in office design.
I guess I'm old school. but I really don't like collaborative brightly colored preschool workspaces. I want a comfortable private workspace with decent temperature control and access to decent coffee/snacks. Even when I was younger I couldn't understand why people would voluntarily work crazy hours if an employer gave them a "fun" office environment.
The problem with the current office trend is that it's not easily undo-able. You can't easily go back from people crammed around cafeteria tables to even semi-private spaces without showing that it has a direct effect on productivity.
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On paper, Jeff Bezos is now the richest man in the world, worth at least 50 times what Trump is worth -- why do you think Trump hates Bezos so much?
Until Trump releases a tax return, I am going to stand by my opinion that Trump isn't worth jack-shit. He's got some expensive properties and is probably so cash poor that he can barely afford to run them. The only thing we have to value Trump are his own statements about his worth and he thinks his name alone is worth billions. My guess is that he has squandered most of the fortune that his grandfather and father have left him.
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I want a comfortable private workspace with decent temperature control and access to decent coffee/snacks.
A few years ago my company bought a bunch of trendy new office furniture, and then turned down the heat to 65 deg F, and took away the coffee machines.
There was a revolt...
unconventional meeting spaces with chairs (Score:3)
WTF?
A pretty place (Score:3)
To be a slave.
Minimum wage (Score:2)
Yes, there is a frog and a unicorn (Score:1)
Sad thing is, they don't let the unicorn out during the day.
And since fish are in the spheres, there is, of course, pee
Meanwhile (Score:2)
Somethings wrong with this country.
With Huey, Dewey and Louie? (Score:2)
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Here's the ending scene with the last surviving "drone" tending to the last forest https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
The rainforest sucks (Score:2)