NEW YORK — Amazon employees have been expressing their concerns about the company’s return-to-office policy, but CEO Andy Jassy has now made it clear that he expects them to comply.
During a recent internal Q&A session, Jassy urged employees to “disagree and commit” to the policy, which requires corporate employees to work in the office three days a week.
The phrase “disagree and commit” is one of Amazon’s leadership principles, frequently used by the company’s founder and current executive chairman, Jeff Bezos.
Jassy emphasized that it is unfair for some employees to be in the office three days a week while others refuse to do so. His comments were initially reported by Business Insider and later shared by Amazon.
The current office attendance mandate, implemented in May, represents a departure from Amazon’s previous policy that allowed team leaders to determine their own work arrangements. However, the company clarified that the prior policy was not intended to be the norm and highlighted a blog post by Jassy in 2021, where he stated that Amazon would make adjustments based on new information.
When announcing the updated policy, Jassy explained that it was based on observations during the pandemic and conversations with leaders from other companies. He noted that employees tend to be more engaged and collaborative when working in person.
However, many workers remain unconvinced. In May, hundreds of Amazon employees protested the new policy at the company’s Seattle headquarters. Additionally, an internal Slack channel advocating for remote work had amassed 33,000 members.
Some employees have also requested data to support Jassy’s claims. During the Q&A session, Jassy mentioned that the company’s leadership examined available data and found that meetings were less effective when conducted remotely. He acknowledged that Amazon has made significant decisions in the past without perfect data, citing examples such as the creation of an online marketplace for sellers and the development of AWS, its cloud computing unit.
In July, Amazon implemented a policy requiring some employees in smaller offices to relocate to larger cities where main offices are located, according to multiple media reports.
Amazon employs 1.4 million people worldwide, but the exact number of office-based employees is undisclosed.