New year, new workplace—or, rather, a return to the old workplace for many Amazon.com workers who'd been toiling remotely a couple of days a week since the pandemic. CEO Andy Jassy sent out a memo in September announcing that, barring extenuating circumstances or preapproved arrangements, employees would be expected to head into the office five days a week, and that mandate officially begins on Thursday. KOMO reports that the edict applies to about 350,000 workers throughout the company overall, with 55,000 or so located in Seattle, where Amazon is headquartered.
KIRO notes that in 2021, the company allowed managers to set parameters on remote working, but last year, employees were told they had to be back in the office at least three days a week. "When we look back over the last five years, we continue to believe that the advantages of being together in the office are significant," Jassy wrote in his September memo. "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."
Reaction is mixed to the new rule. "Downtown's largest employer bringing people back more frequently is a home run for downtown," says Downtown Seattle Association Jon Scholes. One employee who doesn't mind working in the office, however, says he's heard pushback. "I heard from many other colleagues that they don't want to come," Hardik Chugh tells KOMO. One immediate headache that may result from all of these new commuters in Seattle: excess traffic, which Washington's Department of Transportation will be monitoring, per FOX 13. (More Amazon.com stories.)
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