Amazon said Monday it would require employees to return to the office five days a week, starting Jan. 2.
“We have decided that we will return to being in the office as we were before COVID. Looking back over the past five years, we continue to believe that the benefits of being together in the office are significant,” said Andy Jassy, the CEO, in a note sent to employees around the world.
The e-commerce giant previously required its workers to be in the office three days a week. Amazon workers can claim “extenuating circumstances” or request exceptions from senior management, according to Jassy’s memo.
“If anything, the past 15 months of being in the office at least three days a week has reinforced our belief in the benefits.” He cited improved collaboration and connection between teams as reasons for the new requirement, as well as the ability to “strengthen our culture.”
As part of an organizational restructuring, Amazon is looking to reduce the number of managers in its organization and increase the number of individual contributors by the end of the first quarter of 2025 to reduce bureaucracy. Like other tech companies, Amazon grew rapidly at the start of the coronavirus pandemic and then laid off a large portion of its staff.
“We are also going to bring back desk assignments in places that were previously organized that way, including the U.S. headquarters (Puget Sound and Arlington),” Jassy said.
Since workers were forced to stay home four years ago due to COVID-19 lockdown measures, employers and employees have clashed over how many days of the workweek they should spend in the office. In May last year, employees at Amazon’s Seattle headquarters staged a walkout in protest against the e-commerce giant’s climate policy changes, layoffs and order to return to the office.
“Prior to the pandemic, it was not a given that people would be able to work remotely two days a week, and that will be the case going forward as well,” Jassy wrote. “Our expectation is that people will be in the office outside of extenuating circumstances.”
