Amazon Districts, part of the Amazon Headquarters campus, right, in the South Lake Union neighborhood of Seattle, Washington, United States, on Sunday, October 24, 2021.
Chuna Kassinger | bloomberg | Getty Images
A group of Amazon employees is urging CEO Andy Jassy to reconsider his recent back-to-office mandate.
Last week, Jassy announced that Amazon would require the company’s employees to spend at least three days a week in the office starting May 1st. Amazon is undoing its pandemic-era flexibility toward remote working after Jassy and Amazon’s leadership team, known as the S-team, decided it would be easier for employees to collaborate and invent together in person, while also strengthening the company’s culture.
The move marks a shift from Amazon’s previous policy, updated as recently as October 2021, that left it up to managers to decide how often their teams need to work in the office. Since then, there has been a mix of remote and fully mixed work among Amazon’s white-collar workforce.
On Friday, employees created a Slack channel to advocate for remote work and share their concerns about the new return-to-work policy, according to screenshots seen by CNBC. Nearly 14,000 employees have joined Slack as of Tuesday morning.
The employees also drafted a petition, addressed to Jassy and the S-team, calling for leadership to drop the new policy, saying it “contradicts” Amazon’s positions on diversity and inclusion, affordable housing, sustainability, and a focus on the “Best Employer on Earth.” .
We, the undersigned, call on Amazon to protect its role and position as a global leader in retail and technology by immediately rescinding the RTO policy and issuing a new policy that allows employees to work remotely or with more flexibility, if they choose to do so, as their team and job role allows. ,” according to a previously reported draft petition Business interested.
An Amazon spokesperson again referred to Jassy’s blog post About back-to-office guidance.
The staff also referenced Jassy’s previous statements about plans to return to the office, in which He said There is no “one size fits all” approach to how each team works best and he has extolled the benefits of remote working.
The draft petition states, “Many employees have trusted these statements and planned for a life in which their employer does not force them to return to the office.” “RTO’s mandate shattered their trust in Amazon leaders.”
Employees who have moved during the pandemic or are assigned a remote job are worried about how the new policy will affect them, according to one employee, who asked not to be identified. Amazon’s headcount has swelled over the past three years, and it has hired more employees outside of its major tech hubs like Seattle, New York and Northern California as it embraces a more distributed workforce.
Amazon hasn’t addressed whether remote employees will be required to relocate, other than Jassy noting there will be a “small minority” of exceptions to the new policy.
The petition cites internal data showing that a large percentage of employees prefer to work entirely remotely with the option to sync monthly in the office, or prefer to work in the office for one to two days at most per week. He also points to research showing remote work increases productivity, allows companies like Amazon to reduce expenses and attract and retain top talent.
It also points out that returning to mostly in-person work can affect employees’ work-life balance, and can be particularly harmful to parents, minorities, caregivers, and people with disabilities. Employees also questioned the rationale behind Amazon forcing in-person work in all cases. For example, some employees who are part of global teams will only come into the office to continue virtual meetings, and may not even have a coworker with them, the petition says.
He watches: Andy Jassy talks about the benefits of telecommuting
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