Starting January 2, 2025, Amazon employees have had to return to the office five days a week, in a move by the company to foster in-person team collaboration and maintain the company's culture. How's that been going?
Business Insider reached out to 70 employees to understand how the mandate was going 10 weeks into its rollout and heard back from 11 people — including some who reached out on their own accord, two who were supplied by Amazon, and two who quit their jobs over the mandate. Below are highlights from the report:
- “Five-day RTO has impacted how I think about my future at Amazon. The simple fact is that the expectations have changed, and my job isn't as good as it was two months ago.” John Guballa, 40, lives in Seattle, and was irritated that Amazon changed the rules after being hired as a hybrid worker, initially only required to work 3-days a week in the office. Guballa said he doesn't work closely with people in the same city and gets little value in terms of collaboration by being in the office.
- “With hybrid work three days a week, I had more flexibility to be a present parent AND a good employee; being in the office full-time, I sometimes have to prioritize being a present parent OR a good employee.” Grace Cleveland, 37, lives in Boston and leads global AI and privacy compliance at the company. One benefit she mentioned is being able to read more books during her one hour commute each day on public transportation. She also noted that it was harder to know what other teams were doing when working virtually, and that RTO has helped her team avoid doing duplicate work as other teams.
- “I'm very introverted and have hyperhidrosis, which means I have the sweatiest hands on the planet, so any social interaction involving handshakes would make me very anxious. I'm a lot more productive at home, where I'm not being interrupted by spontaneous social interactions.” Jason Murray, 31, was a senior art director at Amazon in New York who worked entirely remote for three years before leaving the company in January after the RTO mandate came into effect. He previously thought Amazon could be a company he stayed at forever, but it no longer fits his preferred way to work.
- “When I was previously at Amazon, it was really difficult to get the attention of my coworkers and managers via Slack and Zoom. It's really hard to connect with people when you can't see them… For me, RTO has been great. I've been able to form relationships with my teammates and with my manager, and I feel like I'm having a lot more visibility on issues that affect me.” This employee in his 30s previously worked at Amazon, and then returned after the five-day RTO announcement, citing it as a factor that encouraged him to apply at the company again. Hmmm, I wonder which person was supplied by Amazon for the interview. LOL.
- “I never would've accepted this job if there was any possibility of it not being virtual. My commute takes well over two hours each way and involves driving, taking public transportation, and walking… I've been more irritable and my wife and I have had more tension in our relationship.” This Amazon employee in his 40s lives more than 50 miles away from his nearest Amazon office and has worked remotely for over 10 years. He says he has nothing against working in an office, but it simply doesn't make sense for his role, as the majority of the customer-facing work he does can't be performed in the office.
Read the full report for more insights into how Amazon's RTO is actually going.