Over 500 Amazon employees have called for a reversal in its return to office (RTO) mandate – and rejected calls to tender their resignations over refusing to comply with the new policy.
On Wednesday, members of an Amazon Web Services (AWS) unit sent a letter to its CEO, Matt Garman, in which they urged him to reconsider the company’s RTO policy. The workers rejected his claim that the rule had “broad support.”
The ecommerce giant has faced criticism in recent weeks for calling its employees back to the office, with reasons including collaboration, learning, and culture touted as the driving force behind the strict mandate. Across the tech sector more widely, companies are clamping down on employee flexibility – in spite of rich evidence that hybrid and remote working is better for productivity and morale. Unsurprisingly, this is driving a wedge between many workers and their bosses.
Amazon Workers Push Back on RTO Mandate
A group of more than 500 Amazon employees has railed against the company’s recent shift to office-based working. The group voiced their anger in a letter addressed to Garman, the CEO of its AWS unit, seen by Reuters, asserting: “We were appalled to hear the non-data-driven explanation you gave for Amazon imposing a five-day-in-office mandate.”
The news follows an October 17 all-hands meeting in which Garman said that nine out of 10 employees favored the policy – a claim that the group roundly rejects. They say that the comments are “inconsistent with the experiences of many employees,” and are “misrepresenting the realities of working at Amazon.”
This just in! View
the top business tech deals for 2024 👨💻
Garman went on to issue a stern warning to rebelling workers: “If there are people who just don’t work well in that environment and don’t want to, that’s okay, there are other companies around.”
Amazon Lays Down the Law
Issued in September, Amazon’s full RTO mandate – due to take effect in early 2025 – has proved highly controversial among employees, with many criticizing the decision to burden workers with “needless” commuting time and expenses when remote working has largely been effective.
To date, the company has enforced the policy by requiring employees to attend regional offices, move to Seattle, where its headquarters are based, or “voluntarily resign.” It has also drawn attention to its commuter benefits, elder care, and subsidized parking rates, which it offers to employees in a bid to take the sting out of its mandate.
Garman has expressed his excitement at the imminent change, while maintaining that hybrid working is not conducive to collaboration. “When we want to really, really innovate on interesting products, I have not seen an ability for us to do that when we’re not in-person,” he claimed.
Tech Companies Ruling with “Iron Fist”
This year, several big players in the tech space have put an end to remote and hybrid working policies, with the likes of Dell, Ubisoft, and Bolt making headlines in recent weeks. According to a ResumeTemplates study, 52% of business leaders plan to be stricter about returning to the office in 2025.
These announcements are rarely greeted with open arms. ResumeTemplates chief career strategist, Julia Toothacre, has attributed compliance issues to “companies [that] decided to rule with an iron fist, which resulted in a loss of trust.” As a consequence, many workers feel misled or lied to by higher-ups – and less inclined to follow their instructions.
Increasingly, businesses leaders are scratching their heads over how to enforce the rules without risking their employees’ ire. It’s certainly not an easy task, but with this latest outcry, Amazon is staking a claim for posterchild of how not to drag your staff back to the office.
