I've worked at Amazon for years, but now I'm looking for a new job because our RTO mandate would force me to uproot my life

• Amazon recently said staff would have to relocate to a hub office, switch teams, or risk being "voluntarily resigned."
• One software-development engineer who doesn't want to move is now interviewing for other jobs.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with an Amazon software-development engineer. Insider has verified their employment but isn't naming them in order to protect their career. It has been edited for length and clarity.

I worked at Amazon for several years before leaving and coming back. The first time I worked at Amazon I was on the same team the entire time, so I was already looking for a change. Then, the company started saying it was looking to bring people back into the office, but I was happy to be fully remote. That was sort of the final thing that pushed me to look outside of Amazon and take a new job.

After about a year of working elsewhere, I returned to Amazon last year for a role advertised as remote, and up until the last six months, I was happily working here in my city. But then Amazon made an announcement about returning to the office, and now I'm being told I need to move to Seattle or switch teams, or I'm out of a job.

It wasn't even a year ago when Andy Jassy was saying there were no plans for an RTO. So that already was just a huge slap in the face.

I'm angry and frustrated about the RTO mandate

Every update since has gotten worse and worse. This whole time, I've been kind of fatalistic; I assumed I'd be out of my job at some point because they'd make me move to Seattle. It's been a stressful six months. My partner has told me I've become more angry and depressed this whole time.

No one in my local management chain has any power to help with this. It's 100% a top-down mandate. I'm angry, I'm frustrated. I came back specifically to work remotely; to have this taken away is just a huge breach of trust.

I've already told my management I have no intention of relocating. Knowing there's an end coming up has made me the happiest I've been in six months.

I like to talk. I'm a pretty gregarious person, so in an office, not only do I get distracted, but I know for a fact I'm also distracting. Working remotely, we can still hop on Slack any time to help each other out.

I moved to this area 13 years ago. I own a house here. My partner has a career here. I've built a home here. All the arguments about supporting downtown Seattle businesses — I mean great for them, but what about the businesses here? Why don't they deserve my money just as much or more?

The mood is miserable. I've never seen Amazon make any sort of large-scale, top-down mandate like this without some sort of reason behind it. We're a data-driven company, but I look at these mandates, and I'm like, what's happening?

Finding a new job as a developer is hard right now

I see comments all the time saying, "These Amazon employees are complaining about having to go into the office but what about all the warehouse employees?" If warehouse employees could do their jobs without going into fulfillment centers, I'd 100% support that. If I can do my job, get positive performance evaluations, and "delight customers" without sitting in an office in Seattle, why should I be expected to move? Even before the pandemic, I wasn't going in three days a week.

It's a crappy time to be looking for a new job as a developer. The jobs I'm looking at are significant pay cuts. Companies are laying off tens of thousands of people and forcing the rest to relocate, which is driving more people out of work. It leads to frustrating and worrisome discussions with hiring managers where I have to ask, "Okay, it's remote today. Will it be remote tomorrow?" No one is giving a certain answer. I have a hard time trusting they won't roll it back someday because that's what's happening now.

If I were to take a new remote job somewhere, all it might take is one senior manager or C-level person to get replaced, and all of a sudden everyone has to be back in the office. As someone who is straight-up unwilling to move, that means I could just lose my job for reasons entirely unrelated to my performance at any moment at any company, and that's scary.

I don't see myself ever coming back here. Too many bridges have been burned. I'm just done with it. I'm at the point now where if Amazon said, we'll take everything back, and you can have your job, I wouldn't accept it. I don't trust anyone there enough at this point.

Are you an employee at Amazon or elsewhere with a story to share about how return-to-office plans have affected you? Email this reporter from a non-work device at sjackson@insider.com.