The U.S. tech giant Amazon is reverting to its pre-pandemic policy and will require corporate employees to be in the office five days a week starting next year, the company's CEO Andy Jassy announced on Monday.
Jassy said in a message shared with employees that the company's leadership had been thinking in recent months about how to better "invent, collaborate and be connected enough to each other" to deliver the best results for customers and the business.
The CEO said that bringing employees back into Amazon offices five days a week instead of the three currently required was a way to address that issue.
"When we look back over the last five years, we continue to believe that the advantages of being together in the office are significant," Jassy wrote in the memo, which Amazon also shared on its website. The policy takes effect on Jan. 2, 2025.
Like many other companies, Amazon's corporate employees worked remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the company saw massive gains from a boost in online shopping. In 2021, the tech giant implemented a policy that allowed leaders to determine how their teams worked.
In February 2023, Amazon asked all employees to return to the office for three mandatory days, resulting in some protests from workers.
A few months later, Jassy said employees who were unhappy about the change should learn to "disagree and commit." He also issued a subtle threat, saying it was "probably not going to work out" for those who refused to do so.
In his note on Monday, Jassy said the company has observed that it is easier for employees to "learn, model, practice and strengthen" Amazon's culture and brainstorm when they're together in person.
"If anything, the last 15 months we've been back in the office at least three days a week has strengthened our conviction about the benefits," he said.
