Amazon Boss Denies Return To Office Mandate Is ‘Backdoor Layoff’

The fractious mood among corporate staff at Amazon over the recent 5-day in-office mandate was on display again this week.

CNBC reported that Amazon CEO Andy Jassy at an all-hands meeting Tuesday had denied speculation that the company’s five-day in-office mandate was made to further reduce head count or appease city officials.

It comes after Amazon had in August 2023 clamped down on remote working amid some push back against its previous return-to-office mandate, and warned employees that their office presence (or lack thereof) was being recorded.

Return to office

Amazon followed this up in September when a note to staff from Jassy announced that Amazon would require employees to work in the office full time starting on 2 January 2025.

The company’s previous return-to-work stance had required corporate workers to be in the office at least three days a week, in line with policies at its tech peers Google and Meta.

At Microsoft, workers are expected to be in the office 50 percent of the time.

Then in October AWS CEO Matt Garman further riled Amazon employees at an all-hands meeting, after he defended AWS’s 5-day-per-week in-office policy, saying those who do not support it can leave for another company.

No backdoor layoffs

Now Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has reportedly addressed the issue and denied speculation that the five-day in-office mandate was made to further reduce head count or appease city officials.

“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,” Jassy reportedly said, according to remarks obtained by CNBC. “I can tell you both of those are not true.”

“This was not a cost play for us,” Jassy reportedly said at the meeting. “This is very much about our culture and strengthening our culture.”

Jassy reportedly acknowledged Tuesday that the five-day in-office mandate will be an adjustment for employees.

“I understand that for a lot of people and we’re gonna be working through that adjustment together,” he said.

An Amazon spokesperson cited Jassy’s memo to CNBC, announcing the 5-day in-office mandate.

The company provides a variety of benefits and services for employees’ commutes that vary by location but include free shuttles, subsidized parking, reimbursable public transit, subsidised ridesharing and bike-related costs, an Amazon spokesperson told CNBC.

Disgruntled staff

This issue over the back to the office recall has been ongoing for a while now.

In February 2023, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy had issued a return to the office order for the “majority” of the company’s 300,000-strong corporate workforce from 1 May 2023.

Disgruntled Amazon staff reportedly took to internal channels to protest, pointing out that Jassy had stated in September 2022 that Amazon would not follow others in the technology industry by ordering its corporate staff to return to the office, in a post Coronavirus world.

In May 2023 hundreds of Amazon staff walked out in protest of the company’s return-to-office mandate, as well as its layoff of 27,000 staff, and its environmental record.