Amazon orders corporate staff back to office full-time

Online retail giant Amazon has ordered its corporate employees back to the office after nearly five years of flexible remote work.

In a staff memo on Monday, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said all full-time Amazon employees are expected to return to the office five days a week starting in January.

“We’ve decided that we’re going to return to being in the office the way we were before the onset of COVID,” he wrote. “When we look back over the last five years, we continue to believe that the advantages of being together in the office are significant.”

Mr. Jassy said that while some employees will receive remote work extensions, most will be expected to be present in the office full-time.

Amazon was one of the many companies to close its offices during the COVID-19 outbreak of 2020 and was one of the first to welcome its employees back. In 2023, Mr. Jassy announced that the firm would require staffers to be at the office at least three days a week, allowing for two days of remote work. He wrote that the hybrid work model strengthened his conviction to get everyone back to the office full-time.

“We’ve observed that it’s easier for our teammates to learn, model, practice and strengthen our culture; collaborating, brainstorming and inventing are simpler and more effective; teaching and learning from one another are more seamless; and teams tend to be better connected to one another,” the memo reads. “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.”

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The return to office mandate may not be popular among corporate staff, many of whom have gotten used to working remotely. After Amazon ordered its workers to return part-time to the office last year, a group of Seattle employees staged a protest.

Hybrid work continues to be popular among U.S. workers while employers remain skeptical. Around 53% of employees reported working in a hybrid environment in the second quarter of this year.

Corporations like Boeing, JPMorgan, Chase, UPS and Dell have begun recalling their workers back to the office but have stopped short of requiring all staff to return full-time.

For more information, visit The Washington Times COVID-19 resource page.