Amazon Web Services CEO has received a letter from more than 500 employees urging the company to change its policy of full-time office return.
AWS parent company Amazon informed employees in September that they will have to return to work full-time by January 2025. Andy Jassy, the chief executive of the company, said that the company must “return to the office as we were before Covid”.
Jassy believes that having a full-time employee in the office would improve the culture of the company and the efficiency of its team.
This week, AWS employees wrote a letter addressed to Matt Garman. The letter stated: “We are appalled by the non-data driven explanation that you provided for Amazon’s five-day mandate in-office requirement.”
Garman claimed 9 out of 10 employees he spoke with were in favor of the return-to office policy. However, AWS employees stated that this “was inconsistent with many employees’ experiences” and “misrepresented Amazon’s reality”.
Reuters, who had seen the letter, was told by a spokesperson from Amazon that the employees would receive commuter benefits, eldercare and subsidised parking in order to assist with their return to work.
Amazon has a policy which requires its employees to work three days per week. According to reports, the company told its employees that they could either work in regional offices or move to Seattle where it has its headquarters.
The letter stated that employees with neurodivergent disorders or those who have childcare responsibilities would be disproportionately affected by requiring them to work five days per week.
The report included stories of workers who described their obligations to family and work, as well as the impact that a return to full-time office would have. One worker said the nearest office was four hours away.
Workers said that the new policy “would break the trust of employees who not only have personal experience which shows the benefits remote work but have also seen the extensive data that supports this experience.”
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