[cnbc.com – 2024.09.18] Amazon has become the latest major company to mandate a full return to in-person work, post-pandemic.
Starting Jan. 2, corporate staffers will be expected to be in the office five days a week, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy wrote in a memo to employees on Monday, unless they can cite “extenuating circumstances” or they have been granted an exception by their manager.
The decision marks a significant shift from Amazon’s earlier policy, which required employees to badge in three days a week.
In his memo, Jassy said Amazon has observed that it is easier for employees to “learn, model, practice and strengthen” the company’s culture, and brainstorm, when they work together in person. “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,” he said.
Amazon’s peers may ‘move in lockstep’
Amazon’s move could prompt other companies to introduce stricter in-office requirements for employees by the end of 2024, says Dan Kaplan, a senior client partner at Korn Ferry.
“CEOs rarely take a bold stance on return-to-office without consulting their peers first,” he says. “Whenever there’s an announcement like this, there are usually plenty of other business leaders who are prepared to move in lockstep right behind them.”
Amazon joins several other companies including Citigroup, Walmart and UPS in tightening return-to-office requirements in recent months.
Such mandates, however, haven’t encouraged more desk workers to resume their commutes. During the first week of September, offices across the U.S. were still only about half as full as they were before the pandemic, according to data from Kastle Systems.
Just one-third (33%) of U.S. companies require employees to come to the office five days a week, according to recent data from Flex Index, a platform that tracks companies’ flexible work policies. Under 10% of tech companies with more than 1,000 employees have such a requirement.
Brian Elliott, an executive advisor on workplace flexibility, has been saying the concept of spending five days a week in the office is “dead” for months even before Amazon’s announcement. His opinion hasn’t wavered.
“We might see other smaller tech companies follow Amazon’s lead, but most will continue sticking to some kind of hybrid arrangement,” he says. “A top-down, one-size-fits-all office mandate can lead to a lot of resentment among workers.”
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