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Amazon staff could lose jobs if they don’t return to office
https://www.whatjobs.com/news/amazon-news/amazon-staff-could-lose-jobs-if-they-dont-return-to-office
By Nithya Bose in Amazon News, posted August 31, 2023
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has warned staff "it's probably not going to work out for you" if they don't return to the office for at least three days a week.
This comes as various tech giants, including Google and Meta, have mandated a return to office for most of their staff.
In a recent internal meeting, Jassy expressed frustration with some employees not adhering to the company's three-day-a-week office attendance policy.
Read More: Amazon Puts Pressure On Workers Who Aren’t Meeting In-Office Demands
He said: “It’s past the time to disagree and commit.
“If you can’t disagree and commit … it’s probably not going to work out for you at Amazon because we are going back to the office at least three days a week.”
Amazon had previously allowed individual teams to determine whether in-office presence was necessary.
However, this changed when the leadership decided regular in-office work would enhance the company's culture and foster more effective collaboration.
Big tech is pushing staff back to the office
Other tech firms are also tightening their remote work policies.
Read More: Google Pushes In-Person Work With New Attendance Policy
Zoom, which saw a surge in popularity during the pandemic, now requires employees to come into the office twice a week if they live within 50 miles of the office.
Google mandates at least three in-office days per week, asserting that in-person collaboration is irreplaceable.
Facebook parent Meta has instructed non-permanent remote workers to be in the office for three days each week.
It cites the benefits of collaboration and energy production from in-person work.
Several Big Tech firms have initiated this shift back to in-person work after making major job cuts, admitting their overexpansion during the pandemic.
Read More: Zoom Calls Employees Back To The Office
According to layoffs.fyi, over 230,000 tech workers worldwide have been laid off this year, compared to 165,000 the previous year.
In March, Amazon announced plans to cut 9,000 additional positions on top of the 18,000 job cuts announced in January, despite employing 1.5 million people globally.
Jassy's “past the time to disagree” statement alludes to significant internal resistance to the stricter stance on remote work.
Pushback against office return
In May, nearly 30,000 Amazon employees signed an internal petition against the return-to-office mandate.
They expressed concerns that it undermined the company's vision of a diverse and accessible future.
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Additionally, Amazon workers participated in a global walkout organized by Amazon Employees for Climate Justice and a remote work advocacy group.
They protested the company's slow progress on climate goals and the return-to-office mandate.
Recently, reports emerged that some Amazon employees in the US faced tracking and penalties for not meeting the three-day-a-week office attendance expectation.
Amazon declined to comment on the matter.
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