She led fight against Amazon’s return to office, then had to leave a job she loved

Small earthquake hits near Seattle | Meet the new Techstars Seattle startups ADVERTISEMENT [GeekWire]( SPONSOR MESSAGE: Explore our immersive expo: [Meet and learn from hundreds of AWS Partners all in one place.]( TODAY'S TOP STORIES Good morning, GeekWire readers. You may have felt that earthquake near Seattle on Sunday, but it didn’t trigger ShakeAlert. We’ve got a look at 24 startups in Techstars Seattle; and a former Amazon employee who pushed back against the return to office shares why she left the company and what she learned. An Amazon employee who helped lead the fight against the company’s return-to-office mandate had to leave a job that she loved. Pamela Hayter (above) spent more than eight years at Amazon, and considered the tech giant her “forever company.” But after three years working from home, the prospect of going back to in-person wasn’t feasible. - Hayter started the “Remote Advocacy” Slack channel that attracted 33,000 members, and she helped organize an employee walkout. - "There was no data,” Hayter said of the return-to-office reasoning. “I kept trying to find the reason. That’s what we do at Amazon, we find the why. There was no why that I could find. And I think that really got to me.” - Facing the cost of commuting again, and feeling as if her work environment was deteriorating, Hayter left Amazon this summer. [Read the story.]( Shake near Seattle: A magnitude 4.3 earthquake hit 35 miles northwest of Seattle on Sunday evening. ShakeAlert, an earthquake warning notification system, did not activate because the quake was not big enough to meet the alert threshold. [Read more.]( Meet the latest Techstars Seattle cohort: The 24 startups in the accelerator program feature industry vets from diverse fields like healthcare and robotics, and founders who hail from large tech companies such as Meta, Microsoft, and Nordstrom. [Read more.]( Seattle startup NoxuData landed a $250,000 pre-seed investment after winning a competition hosted by Madrona Venture Labs over the weekend. [Read more.]( Early bird pricing to the upcoming GeekWire Summit ends this Thursday, [so grab your tickets today](. We’ve got a [great agenda on tap]( — and a surprise geeky movie screening, topped off with world-famous popcorn at the former Cinerama Theater. Hot Links: - As big tech companies turn increased focus and energy to AI, turning a profit is a struggle because of the cost it takes to run new programs. ([The Wall Street Journal]( - Seattle techie Rebekah Bastian built a website that uses AI to auto-generate “mansplaining responses to any statement.” ([Wellactually.lol]( Thanks for [subscribing]( to the GeekWire newsletter, and have a great week. — GeekWire managing editor Taylor Soper, taylor@geekwire.com; and GeekWire reporter Kurt Schlosser, kurt@geekwire.com. SPONSOR MESSAGE [WSU takes on old, new, and next diseases in Africa]( Washington State University scientists are in East Africa testing animals and people to find emerging diseases before they spread. They’re working on new ways to control old diseases, like rabies. And they’re training disease detectives in Africa, for Africa. Go Cougs Means Discovering Solutions. [Learn More.]( LATEST HEADLINES [Seattle data analysis startup lands $250K after winning Madrona Venture Labs competition]( [She helped lead the fight against Amazon’s return to office — and then had to leave a job she loved]( [Meet the 24 new startups in Techstars Seattle, as accelerator doubles class size]( [Magnitude 4.3 earthquake hits near Seattle; tsunami not expected]( [Week in Review: Most popular stories on GeekWire for the week of Oct. 1, 2023]( GEEKWORK: TODAY'S TECH JOBS - [Council for the Advancement of Science Writing: Communications Coordinator]( - [INRIX: Lead Software Engineer]( - [NTTA- North Texas Tollway Authority: Sr ETL & Data Modeling Developer]( - [City of Redlands: IT Systems Supervisor]( - [City of Redlands: Network Engineer]( - [GeekWork: Senior Backend Engineer]( - [City of Portland Water Bureau: Technology Manager]( - [INRIX: Product Marketing Manager, Public Sector]( [FIND MORE JOBS ON GEEKWORK]( [HIRING? BUY A FEATURED LISTING TO APPEAR HERE]( [About GeekWire]( [Contact Us]( [Advertise]( Copyright © 2023 GeekWire LLC, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you opted to receive emails from GeekWire LLC.  Our mailing address is: GeekWire LLC 123 NW 36th St, Suite 203 Seattle, WA 98107  [change email frequency or address]( | [unsubscribe](