RTO mandate is not to drive voluntary turnover, says Amazon CEO

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has refuted suggestions that the company’s return-to-office (RTO) mandate is an attempt to force attrition or appease city officials.

At an all-hands meeting on November 5, he said, “A number of people I’ve seen theorised that the reason we are doing this, it’s a backdoor layoff, or we made some sort of deal with a city or cities.”

“I can tell you both of those are not true. You know, this was not a cost play for us. This is very much about our culture and strengthening our culture,” reported Reuters.

From January 2 onwards, Amazon employees will have to return to the office five times a week; those who do not comply have been told they will be “voluntarily resigning” and locked out of company computers.

Last month, Matt Garmen, CEO of Amazon Web Services, claimed that nine out of 10 employees spoke with support the RTO policy, while suggesting that those who do not can find alternative employment.

“If there are people who just don’t work well in that (in-office) environment and don’t want too, that’s ok, there are other companies around.”

READ MORE: RTO will not increase workplace collaboration, Amazon told

Despite Amazon’s assurances that their RTO mandate is not designed to drive voluntary turnover, employees may have grounds to be concerned.

According to a study conducted by Bamboo HR, nearly one in four (25%) VP and C-suite executives and one in five (18%) HR executives admit they hoped for some voluntary turnover when employees are compelled to adhere to RTO policies.

Some of them are likely to get their way too, with 28% of employees who are currently working remotely saying that would consider quitting their jobs if RTO mandates are introduced at their companies.