NEW YORK — Amazon employees have been expressing their concerns about the company’s return-to-office policy for several months, and it appears that CEO Andy Jassy has reached his limit.
During a pre-recorded internal Q&A session earlier this month, 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 and was frequently used by the company’s founder and current executive chairman, Jeff Bezos.
Jassy emphasized that if employees cannot embrace this principle, it may not be the right fit for them at Amazon. He also stated that it is unfair for some employees to work in the office three days a week while others refuse to do so.
Business Insider initially reported Jassy’s comments, which were later shared by Amazon.
The current office attendance mandate, implemented in May following its announcement in February, represents a departure from Amazon’s previous policy that allowed team leaders to determine their teams’ work arrangements. However, the company rejects the notion that the prior policy was intended to be the norm and points to a 2021 blog post by Jassy, where he mentioned that adjustments would continue to be made based on new information.
When announcing the updated policy earlier this year, Jassy explained that Amazon made its decision after observing successful practices during the pandemic and consulting with leaders from other companies. The company’s senior executives, known as the S-team, concluded that in-person work fostered greater engagement and collaboration among employees.
However, many workers remain unconvinced. In May, hundreds of Amazon employees protested the new policy during a lunchtime demonstration at the company’s Seattle headquarters. At that time, 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 session, Jassy stated that the company’s leadership had examined available data and found that meetings were not as effective when conducted remotely compared to in-person. He also highlighted instances where Amazon had made significant decisions without perfect data, such as the creation of its online marketplace for sellers and its cloud computing unit, AWS.
According to multiple media reports, Amazon implemented a policy in July requiring some employees in smaller offices to relocate to larger city offices.
Amazon employs 1.4 million people worldwide, but the exact number of employees working in office settings versus warehouses and other locations is undisclosed.