Amazon defends 5-day work from office policy: “We’re trying to get…”

Amazon announced a full return-to-office mandate last month, asking employees to work from office 5-days-a-week like pre-Covid 19 era. This led to many employees expressing frustration, however, the company’s top human resources executive has reportedly defended the new policy.
According to a report by The Information, Beth Galetti, Amazon’s senior vice president of people experience and tech, has said that Amazon’s full return-to-office mandate has been announced because young employees have been asking for in- office work to gain mentorship from their colleagues.
At The Information’s Women in Tech, Media and Finance conference on tech, she said that the move is a return to Amazon’s pre-pandemic approach, where workers showed up in person but still had flexibility to attend to family and other matters.
“We’re trying to get back to that,” she was quoted as saying.
Galetti’s comments are in line with Amazon CEO Andy Jassy’s take on the new policy.
“Before the pandemic, not everybody was in the office five days a week, every week. If you or your child were sick… if you needed a day or two to finish coding… people worked remotely. This was understood, and will be moving forward as well,” Jassy said.

AI-powered solution for employee feedback

Apart from this, Amazon is reportedly embracing new ways of working. As a part of this, the company is also building a generative AI “culture coach” to give employees feedback, the executive said.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy’s memo on work from office mandate

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy sent a memo on the new work from office policy, saying that employees must return to the office five days a week from January 2. He emphasised that returning to the office makes it easier for employees to collaborate, brainstorm, and strengthen company culture.
Some employees, however, pushed back against the new return-to-office policy, citing concerns about commutes, housing costs, and work-life balance. Critics suggest this may lead to a wave of resignations as employees seek out companies with more flexible work arrangements, terming it “stealth layoff.”