RTO will not increase workplace collaboration, Amazon told

Mandating that employees return to the office on a full-time basis represents an outdated way of trying to solve new problems, suggested Annie Dean, VP, Team Anywhere, Atlassian.

Speaking to The Australian after Amazon announced that all employees must be in the office five days a week beginning January 2025, Dean dismissed return-to-office (RTO) mandates as ineffectual in increasing workplace collaboration or addressing what she calls ‘fake work’.

She said, “’Fake work’ is a phrase that Airbnb’s Brian Chesky used to describe activities that feel like work, but don’t actually create value for the business – and employees are drowning in it. They are lost in endless meetings and messages and spending so much time trying to get the information they need and coordinating their work that they get very little work done.”

“Office attendance does not fix fake work. Rigorously adopted set of working norms that increase coordination and improve communication and focus fix fake work.”

Calling Amazon’s RTO mandate an act of “wilfully endorsing the old way as a solution to new problems”, Dean said organisations should instead focus on pioneering new and more efficient modes of work.

Atlassian’s views are unlikely to resonate with Amazon, with CEO Andy Jassy writing in a letter to justify the return of permanent in-office work, “We’ve observed that it’s easier for our teammates to learn, model, practice and strengthen our culture; collaborating, brainstorming and inventing are simpler and more effective; teaching and learning from one another are more seamless; and teams tend to be better connected to one another.”

READ MORE: Returning to office will benefit you, Amazon tells employees

The increasing RTO mandates implemented by tech companies like Amazon also conflict with efforts in Asian countries like Singapore to explore the feasibility and practicalities of flexible work. From December 1 this year, all employers in Singapore must fairly consider formal requests from employees for flexible work arrangements (FWAs), under the new Tripartite Guidelines on FWA requests.

In response, Steven Sim, Malaysia’s Minister of Human Resources, said earlier this year that employees in Malaysia can formally request flexible work arrangements from their employers, who are obligated to respond to these requests within 60 days and provide written justifications for any denials.

“The Ministry of Human Resources (KESUMA) will continuously review and improve our labour policies and laws to support the 3Ks, namely welfare, skills, employee performance, and to enhance the country’s economic competitiveness,” Sim said.