Amazon has equipped managers with a new dashboard that tracks not just whether corporate employees show up to office, but exactly how many hours they spend there, according to an internal document obtained by Business Insider. The move significantly escalates workplace monitoring at the e-commerce giant, which already enforces one of tech’s strictest return-to-office policies — a five-day mandate that kicked in January 2025.CEO Andy Jassy had announced the policy in September 2024, saying he wanted Amazon to “operate like the world’s largest startup” where teams could better “invent, collaborate, and be connected enough to each other.” He dismissed speculation that the mandate was a “backdoor layoff” or cost-cutting exercise, insisting it was “very much about our culture.”Now, the company has tools to enforce that vision. The dashboard, which started rolling out in December, shows managers how often employees badge in, how long they stay, and which buildings they work from. It updates daily at 5 pm PT and tracks data over a rolling eight-week period.
Amazon’s attendance system flags ‘Low-Time Badgers’ and ‘Zero Badgers’
Amazon’s attendance system identifies three categories of employees. “Low-Time Badgers” are those whose weekly median time in office is less than four hours per day, averaged over eight weeks. “Zero Badgers” don’t badge into any Amazon building during that span. “Unassigned Building Badgers” badge into a different building than their assigned one more than half the time.An Amazon spokesperson told Business Insider that such tools have been available for over a year to help managers identify team members who may need support working from office.Amazon began cracking down on “coffee badging” last year, informing some teams they needed to be in office for at least two to six hours for their attendance to count. One employee compared the crackdown to being treated “like high school students.”
Samsung, Dell and other tech giants using similar badge tracking
Amazon isn’t alone in using badge data to enforce return-to-office policies. Samsung has rolled out similar tools showing “days and time in building” metrics. Dell informed hybrid staff it will track on-site presence via badge swipes and could factor attendance into performance and compensation. Bank of America and JPMorgan have also implemented tracking dashboards visible to senior managers.
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