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Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has sparked a fierce backlash among employees after announcing that they will now be required to spend five days a week in the office.
Jassy sent a memo to staff on Monday informing them of “a couple of changes we are making to further strengthen our culture and our teams.”
Part of that, he said, is returning to working in the office full-time, as was the norm before the Covid-19 pandemic.
Explaining the move, he said: “When we look back over the past five years, we continue to believe that the benefits of being together in the office are significant.”
Staff have flocked to internal Slack channels to protest the new rule, according to Business informationwho said employees are “on fire” with comments and reactions.
Referring to the multinational tech giant's famous leadership principles, one person rhetorically asked, “What happened to 'Strive to be the best employer on Earth'?”
“Please note that this is (in many cases) significantly more strict and out of touch than what many teams were operating pre-COVID,” another wrote on Slack. “This isn't 'going back' to how things were before. It's simply going backwards.”
Others have taken to social media to voice their complaints and concerns about the move.
“You mean to tell me you wouldn’t want to spend five days a week under fluorescent lights with no sense of time?” one X user sarcastically joked. “Some of you don’t want it badly enough.”
Another wrote: “Seriously Amazon! As soon as people start having a better work-life balance, you decide you want people back in the office five days a week. SMH!”
Others accused Amazon of making the change to avoid layoffs.
“Layoffs. No pay,” one message read.
“It is cheaper/easier than taking another route [round] “mass layoffs…” said another user.
The Independent has contacted Amazon for comment.
The new rule, which will take effect on January 2, 2025, comes seven months after Jassy announced that corporate workers would be required to work on-site at least three days a week.
He said in Monday’s memo that the “past 15 months that we’ve been back in the office at least three days a week have strengthened our conviction about the benefits.”
Jassy noted that if employees cannot reasonably get to work, for example if they have sick children, working from home remains an alternative option.
Amazon has been in the news for years with allegations of poor working conditions for its employees, particularly those working in warehouses.
A plant worker in India claimed warehouse workers were allegedly asked to work continuously without breaks to meet their targets on May 16.
In Birmingham, UK, more than 60 workers went on strike this year to demand wages and working conditions.
