Amazon Makes Work From Office Mandatory for at Least 3 Days a Week From May

Amazon.com would require employees to be in office at least three days a week from May 1, the e-commerce giant said on Friday.

The COVID-19 pandemic had altered the workplace, with companies sending employees home to work remotely. Even as lockdowns eased around the world, a large population of employees remains remote or in a hybrid environment.

In a message that was posted on Amazon’s blog, chief executive Andy Jassy wrote the decision was taken at a meeting earlier this week and the move would make it easier to learn and collaborate.

“This shift will provide a boost for the thousands of businesses located around our urban headquarter locations in the Puget Sound, Virginia, Nashville, and the dozens of cities around the world where our employees go to the office,” Jassy wrote.

The company added there would be some exceptions to the rule — customer support roles and salespeople would have the option of working remotely.

Amazon had said in October 2021 it would let individual teams decide how many days corporate employees would be expected to work from office in a week.

In January this year, Amazon announced plans to cut jobs in the United States, Canada, and Costa Rica. The steps were taken under laying off of 18,000 employees, the e-commerce giant said in a memo to staff seen by Reuters.

The company reportedly terminated 2,300 employees in Seattle and Bellevue, according to an update on the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) site. The US labour law requires companies planning a mass layoff to inform employees 60 days before the closure.

Amazon was one among many tech companies to announce layoffs and job cuts over the past few months.

© Thomson Reuters 2023