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Amazon is tightening up its work-from-home policy, and if you don’t like it, well, you may need to find another job. CEO of AWS (Amazon Web Services), Matt Garman, said on Thursday that employees who don’t want to return to the office five days a week can quit. In a recent all-hands meeting, Garman mentioned that nine out of ten people he spoke to were in support of the new rule. For the rest? He bluntly suggested they “find another company."
The new policy is set to start in January 2024, but it has already caused wahala among workers. Many argue that commuting every day is a waste of time and money, especially since independent studies don’t support the claim that working from the office is better. Amazon has been pushing for people to return to the office for a while now—three days a week was the previous rule, but it’s about to get tougher.
Some employees who didn’t comply earlier were locked out of the company’s system, essentially losing their jobs. Talk about being fired with style! The CEO of Amazon, Andy Jassy, said that the new rule will help the company “invent, collaborate, and stay connected." He believes working together in person is the secret to innovation. But honestly, not everyone is buying that gist.
While other tech giants like Google, Meta, and Microsoft are sticking to a more relaxed in-office policy (just two to three days a week), Amazon is clearly not playing. Garman believes that being in the office full-time helps people learn faster and be more productive. He even threw shade, saying that under the current three-day rule, nothing much was getting done. He also argued that their leadership principles are difficult to follow when people are not physically present in the office.
As Amazon continues to make moves that some workers find uncomfortable, others may start looking for companies that offer more flexibility. But for now, it’s clear that if you want to keep your Amazon job, better dust off that office chair!
