Several Amazon employees have recently been leaving the company due to dissatisfaction with its strict return-to-office policy. In a message on the company’s internal Slack channel, one employee stated that their only reason for leaving Amazon was the return-to-hub policy. This trend has been observed in the “remote advocacy” channel, which has over 34,000 members this year.
Many employees at Amazon have received deadlines for returning to the office, and the increase in departures may be related to teams approaching those deadlines. Notably, Amazon Web Services (AWS), the company’s cloud unit, has experienced a number of resignations in the past week. One AWS employee who is leaving had previously expressed their concerns about the return-to-office policy on Slack.
Merritt Baer, who left AWS in July after more than 5 years, commented on the significant number of resignations within the past week. Other employees who have announced their plans to quit on Slack have also cited the return-to-office policy as their main reason for finding new jobs.
The return-to-hub policy was implemented by Amazon in July, requiring employees to work from designated hubs rather than the nearest office to their current location. While Amazon spokesperson Rob Munoz claims that attrition at Amazon, including AWS, is low, some employees have expressed their dissatisfaction with the lack of respect shown by management regarding the return-to-office policy and previous mass layoffs.
Employee attrition is one of the challenges faced by Amazon’s cloud business, as it deals with slowing growth and employee fatigue over the promotion of new AI services. If you are a tech-industry employee or have insights to share, you can contact reporter Ashley Stewart via the encrypted messaging app Signal or email.