Amazon seeks new ways of working by ending WFH

When employees are in the office together, it is easier to learn, model, practice, and strengthen a company culture that encourages collaboration and invention, said Andy Jassy, CEO of Amazon.

In a written memo to employees, Jassy highlighted that learning from one another is easier in-person and teams tend to be better connected to one another when they see each other in-person more frequently.

He also announced that come May 1 this year, employees would be required to be in office at least three days a week, although those in customer support and sales roles would have the option to continue working remotely.

Jassy wrote, “It’s not simple to bring many thousands of employees back to our offices around the world, so we’re going to give the teams that need to do that work some time to develop a plan. We know that it won’t be perfect at first, but the office experience will steadily improve over the months (and years) as our real estate and facilities teams smooth out the wrinkles, and ultimately keep evolving how want our offices to be set up to capture the new ways we want to work.”

READ: Amazon’s WFH strategy lets employees stay performance-focused

Amazon joins the growing list of tech companies who have reversed work-from-home (WFH) strategies that were widely implemented at the height of the pandemic. The tech giant had in October 2021, implemented a pandemic-inspired WFH strategy driven by a three-pronged approach.

This included offering teams the freedom to work however they see fit. The key, Amazon said then, is how employee perform their work instead of where do their work.