This marks a shift from its current policy, requiring workers to come in at least three days a week, which was implemented in May 2023.
“We’ve decided that we’re going to return to being in the office the way we were before the onset of Covid,” chief executive Andy Jassy—Jeff Bezos' successor—told Amazon employees on Monday.
The company stated its current three-day-a-week policy has elevated the company’s culture.
“We’ve observed that it’s easier for our teammates to learn, model, practice, and strengthen our culture; collaboration, brainstorming, and inventing are simpler and more effective.”
The company is, however, making exceptions for certain personal and professional circumstances, including unwell children, family emergencies, and coding projects that require a distraction-free environment.
These changes will likely result in a backlash.
Amazon’s push to return to a pre-pandemic era workplace has already seen challenges from its global network employees—1.5 million worldwide—with the staff at its Seattle headquarters staging a protest partly due to the return-to-office mandate last year.
In fact, one anonymous staff member told colleagues, in an internal message seen by Business Insider, “This is not 'going back' to how it was before. It's just going backwards."
Abolishing work from home isn’t the only policy set to change. Amazon is also ending hot-desking at its US offices, bringing back assigned floor plans across the country, and removing layers of management to cut back on unnecessary meetings.
In his message, Jassy said he was making these changes as he believed corporate culture is being diluted by flexible work and too many bureaucratic layers.
“I continue to believe that we are all here because we want to make a difference in customers’ lives, invent on their behalf, and move quickly to solve their problems.
“I’m optimistic that these changes will better help us accomplish these goals while strengthening our culture and the effectiveness of our teams.”
