Starting next year, Amazon.com will require employees to work at company offices five days a week, strengthening the previous three-day requirement.
In a letter to employees posted on the company’s website, CEO Andy Jassy explained that this shift is aimed at fostering innovation, collaboration, and connection. He noted that the trial period with the three-day mandate reinforced the company’s belief in the advantages of working in the office.
Since the pandemic, many companies have permitted employees to work from home, resulting in near-empty downtown offices in several cities, including San Francisco and Seattle.
On the other hand, a few tech companies are starting to require workers to come into work two or three days a week.
As the daily threat posed by COVID-19 has decreased, Amazon has adopted a more stringent strategy than many of its competitors. Workers have shared with Reuters that Amazon has pressured them to either relocate to Seattle or report to remote offices to keep their jobs.
Furthermore, employees who repeatedly ignored the three-day office mandate were notified that they were “voluntarily resigning” and had their access to Amazon’s systems revoked. It remains unclear whether the new directive will enforce similar strictness, as an Amazon spokesman and the employee Q&A provided to Reuters on Monday did not address this question.
The new mandate has faced significant backlash from a vocal group of employees who argue that working from home is not only effective but also saves time and money on commuting. Last May, workers at Amazon’s Seattle headquarters staged a walkout in protest against changes to the company’s climate policy, layoffs, and the return-to-office requirement.
As part of a broader organizational restructuring, Amazon aims to boost the ratio of individual contributors to managers by at least 15 percent by the end of the first quarter of 2025. In a recent Q&A, Amazon indicated that some roles might be deemed unnecessary, though no further details were provided.
According to the Q&A, Amazon is also discontinuing a previous initiative that gave employees the choice to work from anywhere for four months out of the year.