Amazon‘s recent decision to mandate its employees to return to the office at least three times per week has sparked a revolt among its workers.
In a company-wide memo, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy announced that the company concluded that employees should be in the office the majority of the time, citing benefits to the company’s culture and workers’ ability to collaborate and learn from one another.
However, thousands of Amazon employees have expressed their discontent with the new policy. A group of tech workers created a Slack channel and drafted an internal petition calling for the mandate to be dropped. The petition urged CEO Andy Jassy and Amazon’s leadership team to reconsider the decision, citing the time savings from avoiding commutes and the flexibility of remote work arrangements as reasons for their preference.
Investors King understands that as of Tuesday night, the group has amassed 16,000 members, and about 5,000 employees have signed the petition. Almost 80% of those in the Slack channel claimed they would start looking for another job if the mandate is not dropped.
The workers’ grievances have been echoed by several petitions against the return-to-office policy, citing the potential for chaos and distractions. Amazon CEO Jassy acknowledged that calling employees back to the office would come with challenges, but he noted that the office experience would improve over time, with the company’s real estate and facilities teams working to enhance the new ways employees would want to work.
The disappearance of the COVID-19 pandemic has led several companies, including Amazon and Twitter, to opt for different post-pandemic workplace strategies. While some companies have chosen to stick with remote work, others have insisted that returning to the office is the best option. Many companies are now adopting a hybrid approach.