Were always listening and will continue to do so, but were happy with how the first month of having more people back in the office has been, Amazon spokesperson Brad Glasser told Fortune. 

In February, CEO Andy Jassy sent a memo saying remote workers should return to the office on May 1. We should go back to being in the office together the majority of the time (at least three days per week), he wrote. 

Pamela Hayter, an employee, told workers gathered at the Wednesday walkout that her heart just dropped when she read announcement because I knew immediately the negative impact that this would have on my family.

Working from home, she explained, had allowed her to spend more time with her family than she thought was possible before the pandemic. 

We dont have to spend hours of our lives in traffic, hours of our lives at an office building, she told those gathered on Wednesday. 

Glasser told Fortune that since the return-to-office mandate went into effect theres more energy, collaboration, and connections happening, and weve heard this from lots of employees and the businesses that surround our offices.

Earlier this year, Hayter started an internal Slack channel where workers could voice their support for remote work. She described the channel as the largest concrete expression of employee dissatisfaction in Amazons history during her speech.

Former Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield recently commented on such Slacktivism while speaking to Bloombergs Odd Lots podcast. The super power in peoples ability to have conversations at work will include conversations that sometimes managers wish they didnt, he said. 

But, he added, amid large tech layoffs and economic uncertainty people are now more worried about job security so theres lessand Im not saying this is a good thing, necessarilybut theres less labor organizing happening on Slack than there would have been two years ago.

Amazon downplayed the attendance at the headquarters walkout, estimating the crowd to be 300 people (organizers put the number higher) and noting it has 65,000 corporate and tech employees in the Puget Sound region, and 350,000 globally. Employees protesting the companys environmental impact and recent layoffs were also part of the walkout.

Jassy is not alone in demanding employees start working in the office again. Bob Iger at Disney, Howard Schultz at Starbucks, and Robert Thomson at News Corp are among the many others. Last month, Tesla CEO Elon Musk called working from home morally wrong, arguing the laptop class were unfair in demanding privileges that other people, like service workers or factory employees, couldnt enjoy.

And OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told a Stripe conference last month: I think definitely one of the tech industrys worst mistakes in a long time was that everybody could go full remote foreverI would say that the experiment on that is over. 

Meanwhile at Uber rival Lyft, new CEO David Risher recently ordered remote workers back to the office one day after laying off more than 1,000 employees, or about 26% of the workforce. 

In March, Amazon announced 9,000 employees would be let go, adding to the 18,000 jobs cuts that took place earlier this year and last November.

Despite the return-to-office mandates, swaths of office blocks across the country are still lying partially empty. Shark Tank star and real estate mogul Barbara Corcoran agreed with Musks warning this week that commercial real estate is melting down fast.

No one really believes its going to turn the corner. People are staying home, Corcoran told Fox Businesss The Claman Countdown.

Many remote workers contend that working from home is just fine in terms of productivity. In a recent Pew Research survey, 56% of respondents said working from home helps them get work done and meet deadlines, while 37% said it neither helps nor hurts.

We can be productive, customer obsessed, we can do our good work, we can make a difference, and it does not have to be in an office building, Hayter said at this weeks walkout.

Amazon, however, is sticking with its mandate.

We understand that its going to take time to adjust back to being in the office more, said Glasser. There are a lot of teams at the company working hard to make this transition as smooth as possible for employees.

The couple lives in Kansas City, and theyve done everything millennials were told to do to succeed: Go to school, get good jobs, buy an affordable house, limit expenses, and so on. They share one car that is completely paid off, and Gail, 36, works from home so she can care for their one-year-old daughter and save on daycare expenses. Together, they bring home around $170,000 per yearRobert, 38, crossed the six-figure threshold earlier this year when he jumped from working in the public sector to the private.

Still, despite living almost monk-like, according to Robert, cracks are forming in their financial foundation. The federal student loan repayment pause will end at the end of the summer, and Robert and Gailwhose last names have been withheld so they can speak freely about their financeswill need to redirect a few hundred dollars a month toward their cumulative $38,000 in debt; at the same time, they will need to start sending their daughter to daycare so Gail can return to work as an assistant professor full-time.

Theres a reason we havent changed our lifestyle, Gail told Fortune during a joint interview with Robert. Theres this pending financial storm.

Their attitude is reflective of that of many elder millennials. After beginning their adult lives during the Great Recession, theyve endured hit after financial hit. Theyve graduated with more debt than previous generations; housing prices have sky-rocketed, as have, in recent years, the cost of many necessities; childcare is unattainably expensive for many (It costs more than our mortgage, says Gail), pushing primarily women out of the job market at a time when its not feasible for many households to get by on a single income.

Its a sacrifice. She loves her career, says Robert of Gail reducing her hours this year so she can stay home with their daughter. But aside from Gail taking the professional hit, the couple couldnt see any other way to make the math work.

Everyone says you can have it all, but you actually cant, says Gail. Its a total misrepresentation. You have to choose how to spend your time and spend your money.

Because when you add up what the average life in the U.S. costs today, its not much of a surprise that even six-figure earners are living paycheck-to-paycheck. For those like Robert and Gail who have student loans, the federal payment pause felt like a temporary blip that could help them finally get ahead. But with that reprieve coming to an end, its back to reality.

I know day care costs will go down eventually, but were not that young, says Gail, noting they finally feel secure enough to prioritize their retirement investmentsat least until the fall. How many Americans dont have enough for retirement? We dont want to be in that group, it scares us.

Gail and Robert have done as much as possible to prepare for the fall. They are staying in a house that doesnt quite fit their familys needs because theyve almost completely paid off the mortgage (Robert bought it back in 2011). Ideally, theyd like to retire earlythus the monk-like adherence to frugality. Theyve thrown thousands of extra dollars at their student loans over the past three years, with the hopes of being debt-free by the end of this one.

We always have food, we always have a place to live, we drive one car, says Gail. A goal for us is always to be financially independent and not work until we die.

After years of speculation, the stage is set for the widely anticipated announcement to be made Monday at Apples annual developers conference in a Cupertino, California, theater named after the companys late co-founder Steve Jobs. Apple is also likely to use the event to show off its latest Mac computer, preview the next operating system for the iPhone and discuss its strategy for artificial intelligence.

But the star of the show is expected to be a pair of goggles perhaps called Reality Pro, according to media leaks that could become another milestone in Apples lore of releasing game-changing technology, even though the company hasnt always been the first to try its hand at making a particular device.

Apples lineage of breakthroughs date back to a bow-tied Jobs peddling the first Mac in 1984 a tradition that continued with the iPod in 2001, the iPhone in 2007, the iPad in 2010, the Apple Watch in 2014 and its AirPods in 2016.

But with a hefty price tag that could be in the $3,000 range, Apples new headset may also be greeted with a lukewarm reception from all but affluent technophiles.

If the new device turns out to be a niche product, it would leave Apple in the same bind as other major tech companies and startups that have tried selling headsets or glasses equipped with technology that either thrusts people into artificial worlds or projects digital images with scenery and things that are actually in front of them a format known as augmented reality.

Apples goggles are expected be sleekly designed and capable of toggling between totally virtual or augmented options, a blend sometimes known as mixed reality. That flexibility also is sometimes called external reality, or XR for shorthand.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has been describing these alternate three-dimensional realities as the metaverse. Its a geeky concept that he tried to push into the mainstream by changing the name of his social networking company to Meta Platforms in 2021 and then pouring billions of dollars into improving the virtual technology.

But the metaverse largely remains a digital ghost town, although Metas virtual reality headset, the Quest, remains the top-selling device in a category that so far has mostly appealed to video game players looking for even more immersive experiences.

Apple executives seem likely to avoid referring to the metaverse, given the skepticism that has quickly developed around that term, when they discuss the potential of the companys new headset.

In recent years, Apple CEO Tim Cook has periodically touted augmented reality as technologys next quantum leap, while not setting a specific timeline for when it will gain mass appeal.

If you look back in a point in time, you know, zoom out to the future and look back, youll wonder how you led your life without augmented reality, Cook, who is 62, said last September while speaking to an audience of students in Italy. Just like today you wonder how did people like me grow up without the internet. You know, so I think it could be that profound. And its not going to be profound overnight.

The response to virtual, augmented and mixed reality has been decidedly ho-hum so far. Some of the gadgets deploying the technology have even been derisively mocked, with the most notable example being Googles internet-connected glasses released more than a decade ago.

After Google co-founder Sergey Brin initially drummed up excitement about the device by demonstrating an early models potential wow factor with a skydiving stunt staged during a San Francisco tech conference, consumers quickly became turned off to a product that allowed its users to surreptitiously take pictures and video. The backlash became so intense that people who wore the gear became known as Glassholes, leading Google to withdraw the product a few years after its debut.

Microsoft also has had limited success with HoloLens, a mixed-reality headset released in 2016, although the software maker earlier this year insisted it remains committed to the technology.

Magic Leap, a startup that stirred excitement with previews of a mixed-reality technology that could conjure the spectacle of a whale breaching through a gymnasium floor, had so much trouble marketing its first headset to consumers in 2018 that it has since shifted its focus to industrial, healthcare and emergency uses.

Daniel Diez, Magic Leaps chief transformation officer, said there are four major questions Apples goggles will have to answer: What can people do with it? What does this thing look and feel like? Is it comfortable to wear? And how much is it going to cost?

The anticipation that Apples goggles are going to sell for several thousand dollars already has dampened expectations for the product. Although he expects Apples goggles to boast jaw dropping technology, Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives said he expects the company to sell just 150,000 units during the devices first year on the market a mere speck in the companys portfolio. By comparison, Apple sells more than 200 million iPhones, its marquee product a year. But the iPhone wasnt an immediate sensation, with sales of fewer than 12 million units in its first full year on the market.

In a move apparently aimed at magnifying the expected price of Apples goggles, Zuckerberg made a point of saying last week that the next Quest headset will sell for $500, an announcement made four months before Meta Platform plans to showcase the latest device at its tech conference.

Since 2016, the average annual shipments of virtual- and augmented-reality devices have averaged 8.6 million units, according to the research firm CCS Insight. The firm expects sales to remain sluggish this year, with a sales projection of about 11 million of the devices before gradually climbing to 67 million in 2026.

But those forecasts were obviously made before its known whether Apple might be releasing a product that alters the landscape.

I would never count out Apple, especially with the consumer market and especially when it comes to finding those killer applications and solutions, Magic Leaps Diez said. If someone is going to crack the consumer market early, I wouldnt be surprised it would be Apple.

Red flags that pricey luxury shares have hit a peak are piling up as conviction on the China reopening trade takes a hit. A slew of economic numbers point to a fading recovery, upending a trend thats been central to making LVMH and Hermes International some of Europes favorite stock plays this year.

The countrys shoppers account for about a fifth of the $325 billion global luxury market, PwC estimates, and its weighing all the more now as the US heads for a possible second-half recession. That would dent growth in two key markets.

The fallout has been dramatic. Just a few weeks after becoming the first European company to hit $500 billion in market value, LVMH shares have lost more than $50 billion as investors trim their holdings. Its also hitting the personal fortune of Bernard Arnault, who lost his position as the worlds richest person to Elon Musk, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. 

The Stoxx Europe Luxury Index fell almost 5% in May, its first monthly decline this year. That followed a near-50% rally since early October when China reopening bets took off, pushing the valuation multiples of luxury stocks to near-record levels compared with Europes benchmark. Hermes trades at nearly 50 times forward earnings, the same level as Nvidia Corp., the worlds hottest tech stock at the moment.

You have no margin for error at those valuations, said Raphael Thuin, head of capital markets strategies at Tikehau Capital. Buying high valuations is like driving on the highway at 200 miles per hour. Its fine but if something goes wrong, there is a little something on the road or if you are a bit too harsh on the wheel, it can go bad very quickly.

Signs of a slowdown are mounting. China retail sales in April fell short of forecasts, as did industrial production. Reacting to weaker industry surveys, Bloombergs Chief Asia Economist Chang Shu said they increase concern about the strength and sustainability of the recovery. 

With the youth unemployment rate at a record high in China, the consumer situation looks increasingly shaky. Big-spending Gen Zs, the prospective buyers of these expensive goods, are already becoming more hesitant, citing the stalling economic recovery. 

Thirty-year-old Kathy Nie, who works in Beijing, says she bought luxury bags in the past because everyone seemed to be doing it, but shes not planning any more purchases. 

For one thing, the economic situation is not good, so I need to save more money, she said. Furthermore, most luxury brands have raised prices during the pandemic to unacceptable levels.

The selloff in luxury undermines the commonly touted theory that the sectors exposure to wealthy customers keeps them somewhat insulated from economic ups and downs.

At these levels of valuations, I find it hard to tell investors to go for it, said Roland Kaloyan, a strategist at Societe Generale SA. These stocks have boosted portfolios since the beginning of the year and now investors might ask themselves whether the best is behind them, if now is not a good time to take profits and rotate to other sectors. 

Hes been wary of the sector for a while, cutting it to neutral in February.

LVMH declined to comment on China, while Hermes didnt respond to e-mails sent by Bloomberg News.

Theres more at stake than just billionaire rankings and revenue growth that now rivals US Big Tech. A sustained decline would undermine broader markets in Europe, especially France. Following their brisk rally since October, luxury giants now account for an outsized proportion of benchmark indexes. 

The Chinese reopening is fully priced in and the risk is to find new negative surprises in consumer spending, so all in all it is time to trim those stocks a bit, said Alberto Tocchio, a portfolio manager at Kairos Partners. Valuations are still expensive despite the recent small correction.

For some, China demand will remain resilient even during bad times. China will be no different from the pattern we saw in Japan, said Raj Shant, a client portfolio manager at PGIMs Jennison Associates. Even when growth has gone sideways in Japan, luxury demand kept growing. 

His Global Opportunities Fund has Hermes and LVMH among the top 10 holdings.

Meanwhile, economists say more stimulus will be needed to keep the countrys recovery going, although central bank measures alone wont be enough to boost consumer and business confidence.

Elsewhere, the US market is flashing amber, with Swiss watch exports to the biggest market for pricey timepieces falling for the first time in more than two years in April. Cartier maker Richemont has fallen 6% from its all-time high in May, while Swatch is off more than 20% from its March peak.

Kevin Thozet, a member of the investment committee at Carmignac in Paris, says the boom period may have run its course. He however likes the sector over the medium term.

Last weeks movement is a sign that the easy money period is behind us, he said. The upside on the luxury sector is now more limited.

With assistance from Lin Zhu, Charlotte Yang, Michael Msika, Daniela Wei and Angelina Rascouet.