Early next year. That’s when Amazon wants corporate employees to stop remote and hybrid work and return to five-day work weeks in the traditional office environment.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, Amazon corporate employees were working up to three days per week in the office, as reported by CNN.
The new policy, which takes effect January 2, 2025, was announced by CEO Andy Jassy yesterday. Jassy wrote that the change will help Amazon’s employees “invent, collaborate and be connected enough to each other and our culture to deliver the absolute best for customers and the business.”
In a 2023 memo, Jassy advocated for employees to work in the office because their physical presence improved company culture. On Monday, he said “we continue to believe that the advantages of being together in the office are significant.” According to Jassy, “it’s easier for our teammates to learn, model, practice and strengthen our culture; collaborating, brainstorming and inventing are simpler and more effective; teaching and learning from one another are more seamless; and teams tend to be better connected to one another.”
Refusal to follow the new policy could hurt chances for promotion. Additional leadership approval will be required to make exceptions for employees to work from home.
Amazon employees staged a walkout in July 2023 at Seattle headquarters because of such a policy. The walkout happened a few months after approximately 27,000 employees were laid off in a course of multiple rounds of staff cuts.
Across the United States, many companies have not demanded a return of employees to the office after the COVID-19 pandemic. A CEO survey from The Conference Board stated that 4 percent of CEOs in the U.S. and 4 percent of CEOs worldwide at the start of 2024 said they will prioritize workers returning back to the office full time.
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Rebecca Barnabi
