Amazon requiring workers to return to office

Amazon will require workers to return to the office five days a week starting next year, marking the company’s latest shift in its in-office working policy following the pandemic.

In a memo Monday, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy informed employees they will soon be required to come into the office five days a week, an adjustment from the company’s current mandate to be in the office three days a week.

“We’ve decided that we’re going to return to being in the office the way we were before the onset of COVID,” Jassy wrote Monday, adding later, “If anything, the last 15 months we’ve been back in the office at least three days a week has strengthened our conviction about the benefits.”

The company’s team members have been able to better collaborate, brainstorm, and invent while together in the office, Jassy argued, noting there will be exceptions including for sicknesses or emergencies.

“Before the pandemic, not everybody was in the office five days a week, every week,” Jassy said. “If you or your child were sick, if you had some sort of house emergency, if you were on the road seeing customers or partners, if you needed a day or two to finish coding in a more isolated environment, people worked remotely. This was understood and will be moving forward as well.”

The new requirement will take effect Jan. 2, 2025, Jassy said.

The e-commerce giant has been operating under a three-day in-office policy since May 2023, when the company shifted away from its previous policy that allowed team members to decide on their work location.

Last year’s shift was met with some resistance from employees. In May 2023, hundreds of corporate staff walked out of the company’s Seattle headquarters in protest of its climate issues and return-to-office mandates.

Jassy last year said it was “past the time to disagree” with the policy.

“If you can’t disagree and commit, it’s probably not going to work out for you,” he said during an internal Q&A session in August 2023.