Frustrated Amazon employees have opened another front in their fight against the company’s return-to-the-office mandate.
On Wednesday, 523 employees in Amazon’s Web Services division sent its CEO, Matt Jarman, an open letter detailing their frustration with the new policy.
“Our time spent working remotely during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic proved that we can be effective, creative, and successful without being primarily in-person, and not drawing any lessons from that experience would be extremely disappointing, because Amazon will always be a global company.” , stated in the open letter.
In September, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy Announce That from January 2025, employees will have to return to the office five days a week. Amazon employees are currently expected to be in the office Three days a week. The move sparked a new wave of unrest at Amazon. Employees have previously expressed their dissatisfaction with each new policy requiring more days in the office through strikes, open letters and threats of resignation.
Jassy and Amazon’s senior leadership regularly point to the need to return to their positions to increase collaboration and innovation. Executives have reiterated their belief that these tasks are better performed through in-person rather than remote work.
The letter came in response to comments Jarman made to that effect during an all-hands meeting earlier this month.
“When we really want to innovate on interesting products, I haven’t seen an ability for us to do that when we’re not in person,” Jarman said in the comments. I mentioned by Business insider. “There’s no substitute for standing at the whiteboard and walking through what’s going on, brainstorming and pausing in the room next to you.”
The research on whether remote work or in-person work is better for a company is somewhat divided. There’s no doubt that flexible working is a desirable benefit that helps attract talent, retain current employees, and improve overall morale. However, the distance and lack of spontaneity caused by team members being apart actually hinders collaboration and innovation, according to a July study. published in nature.
The question then becomes how to balance these two competing realities. The open letter argues that an RTO policy that increases innovation, but results in employee displacement, would be self-defeating.
“Back-to-office mandates tend to push out more senior, tenured employees across the board, who may be better prepared to participate and provide insight into the whiteboard and brainstorming sessions you indicate,” the letter said.
Amazon spokeswoman Margaret Callahan said the company is notifying employees now so they have time to adjust to the shift in the new year. Callahan cited several resources aimed at making the process easier, such as commuter benefits and free memberships to services that provide caregivers.
Tense Amazon culture
Jarman said many employees he spoke with support returning to the office five days a week. During the meeting, Jarman told employees that “nine out of ten employees” he spoke with were “actually very excited about this change.”
The letter strongly criticized Jarman’s sentiments for being inconsistent with Amazon’s corporate culture.
“Not only are these comments inconsistent with the experiences of many employees, they indicate a complete abdication of AWS’ role as one of the world’s most innovative companies and a leader in our industry,” the letter said.
The changing nature of Amazon’s culture has been a growing topic of concern at the company. Amazon was once hailed as a model of a solid corporate culture with universal employee buy-in and the ability to deliver results. Some, both inside and outside the company, feel that the culture is moving away from its foundations of focusing on details and making data-driven decisions.
Returning to the office full time is a way to help correct this problem, according to Andy Jassy. “We have noticed that it is easier for our teammates to learn, design, practice and reinforce our culture” when they are together in the office, Jaci books In his September memo outlining the plan.
The decision to implement the new RTO policy failed to live up to Amazon’s culture because it was not sufficiently data-driven, according to the letter.
“Amazon claims to be a data-driven company, and statements that rely on ‘we believe’ and ‘I feel,’ or trumpets how many people are passionate about something to justify themselves, fail to meet our standard for making decisions on important issues,” the signatories wrote. “This impacts hundreds of thousands of the company’s employees and customers.”
The employees wrote in the letter that they “shocking“Because of the perceived lack of data used to inform the RTO rules.
“Your statements suggest that you either have not collected enough data to support your position but are moving forward anyway, or that you have seen data that suggests otherwise and are choosing to ignore it, or that you are motivated to support this policy, which you do not.” “To be honest with those we influence,” the letter continued.
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