Amazon workers due back in office three days a week

Amazon.com is asking employees to work from the office at least three days a week, scrapping a prior policy that left such decisions to senior managers.

The mandate takes effect May 1, Chief Executive Andy Jassy said in a memo posted on Amazon’s corporate blog. Jassy said there would be exceptions, including for some sales and customer support jobs, “but that will be a small minority.”

“Teams tend to be better connected to one another when they see each other in person more frequently,” Jassy said. “There is something about being face-toface with somebody, looking them in the eye and seeing they’re fully immersed in whatever you’re discussing that bonds people together.”

In asking employees to report to the office more frequently, Amazon, the second-largest private U.S. employer (after Walmart) joins the ranks of companies that are rolling back some of the work-from-anywhere flexibility offered during the pandemic. Apple, Alphabet and Microsoft now all require employees to work in the office a minimum number of days.

Amazon in October 2021 said managers could decide how frequently employees need to be in the office.

Attendance has been uneven since, employees say. The headquarters in downtown Seattle is bustling on some days and a ghost town on others. Some employees, especially those on dispersed teams, have been working in the office a couple of days a week; others have barely come in at all. An Amazon spokesperson declined to provide details on how many employees are going to the office.

Getting a significant number of personnel to return could boost the commercial districts around Amazon locations. Outside of downtown Seattle, where Amazon is by far the largest employer, the company is a major office tenant in the L.A. and San Francisco areas, New York and Austin, Texas, among other cities.