Amazon’s new mandate that requires employees to work in-office for five days a week, continues to ruffle feathers. Andy Jassy, the CEO of the tech giant, has refuted claims that Amazon introduced the contentious in-office mandate as a means to cut down on its employee strength and pacify authorities. “A number of people I’ve seen theorise that the reason we were doing this is a backdoor layoff or we made some sort of deal with the city, or cities, and that’s why we were having people come back and be together more often [.] I can tell you both of those are not true,” Jassy was quoted as saying by CNBC. Amazon first announced the new five-day, in-office mandate in September this year. Previously, employees were only required to work from the office for a minimum of three days per week. The new mandate has not gone down well with Amazon employees who argue that they are equally productive working from home or in a hybrid work environment as compared to an office. Over 500 staffers working for Amazon Web Services, the big tech company’s cloud computing business, signed a letter questioning the necessity of a five-day, in-office mandate. “We urge you to reconsider your comments and position on the proposed 5-day in-office mandate,” the letter said. “Remote and flexible work is an opportunity for Amazon to take the lead, not a threat. We want to work for a company and for leaders that recognise and seize this moment to challenge us to reinvent how we work,” it added. Amazon has given employees till January 2, 2024, to comply with the new policy. It also said that employees are eligible to receive a variety of benefits such as free shuttles, subsidised parking, reimbursable public transit, subsidised ridesharing, and bike-related costs. However, workers are still sceptical that the mandate is part of Jassy’s continued cost-cutting efforts by indirectly forcing them to quit. A total of 27,000 Amazon employees have been laid off since 2022, as per reports.
