Amazon (AMZN) is time traveling back to 2019 with its latest workplace change that many employees may not enjoy.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has just revealed in a memo to employees that the company wants to “deliver the absolute best for customers and the business,” and that means returning to the office five days a week.
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“We’ve decided that we’re going to return to being in the office the way we were before the onset of Covid,” said Jassy in the memo. “When we look back over the last five years, we continue to believe that the advantages of being together in the office are significant.”
The change comes after Jassy informed employees in February last year that they will need to return to the office at least three days a week after working remotely full-time since the beginning of the pandemic.
In the new memo, Jassy now claims that working three days a week for the last 15 months has emphasized the benefits of working in person, which is the reason why employees will need to return to working in the office five days a week.
“I’ve previously explained these benefits (February 2023 post), but in summary, we’ve observed that 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,” said Jassy.
Despite the change, employees will, however, still have the option to work remotely under “extenuating circumstances.”
“Before the pandemic, not everybody was in the office five days a week, every week,” said Jassy. “If you or your child were sick, if you had some sort of house emergency, if you were on the road seeing customers or partners if you needed a day or two to finish coding in a more isolated environment, people worked remotely. This was understood and will be moving forward as well.”
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The change will take effect on Jan. 5, 2025, and once employees return to working in the office full-time, they can also expect assigned desk arrangements, which will be active in office locations that were previously organized that way before the pandemic.
In addition to returning to working full-time in offices, Jassy also announced that the company will reduce the number of managers it has by 15%, a change that will be complete by the end of the first quarter of 2025.
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“Having fewer managers will remove layers and flatten organizations more than they are today,” said Jassy. “If we do this work well, it will increase our teammates’ ability to move fast, clarify and invigorate their sense of ownership, drive decision-making closer to the front lines where it most impacts customers (and the business), decrease bureaucracy, and strengthen our organizations’ ability to make customers’ lives better and easier every day.”
Amazon employees have fought back against return-to-office efforts
The announcement from Jassy comes after Amazon employees have reportedly been dodging the company’s 2023 return-to-office mandate by coffee badging, which is when employees swipe their badges into the office and only stay long enough for a cup of coffee or to attend a meeting.
After Amazon allegedly caught wind of the trend, the company started requiring employees to spend at least two to six hours a day per office visit, depending on the team.
The return to working in offices full-time is expected to ramp up significantly in corporate America. According to a recent survey by KPMG, which polled 1,300 global CEOs, 64% of CEOs predict a full return to the office by 2025. Also, 87% of CEOs “are likely to reward” employees who return to the office “with favorable assignments, raises or promotions.”
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