Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has said the company’s white-collar staff will be required to be in the office five days a week from January 2025.
A September 16 memo from Jassy to Amazon employees was shared on the tech giant’s website. In it, the CEO highlighted two key focus areas: organizational structure and set-up.
Regarding the former, Jassy referenced the number of managers Amazon has added in the past few years—something he said has created more layers and impacted the speed of decision making. Now, the company’s 30-strong senior leadership team has until early next year to increase the ratio of individual contributors to managers by 15 percent. The number of roles this might affect was not specified.
Meanwhile, the news that has grabbed the headlines is a return to full-time office presence from January 2, 2025. In February 2023, Amazon told staff to be in the office three days a week; Jassy said this had “strengthened our conviction about the benefits … of being together in the office” and there would be a return to the pre-COVID-19 set-up.
The move was largely criticized by Amazon staff on social media, with many viewing the mandate as a way of achieving staff cutbacks without having to pay severance. However, speaking to the local Washington state press, representatives from Seattle and Puget Sound— where Amazon has large campuses— said the move would be a positive for city center businesses.