Employees working remotely or located in smaller remote offices are being told they may have to return to what the company calls its “main hub” locations, including Seattle, New York and San Francisco, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported Friday (July 21).
Reached for comment by PYMNTS, Amazon spokesman Brad Glasser said in an emailed statement: “There’s more energy, collaboration, and connections happening since we’ve been working together at least three days per week, and we’ve heard this from lots of employees and the businesses that surround our offices. We’ll continue to look at the best ways to bring more teams together in the same locations, and we’ll communicate directly with employees as we make decisions that affect them.”
Amazon doesn’t have an exact definition for its main hubs, opting to define it team-by-team instead, according to the WSJ report. In communications to staff, they are being given a certain amount of time to move to their main hubs or where their bosses or teams are located, regardless of their proximity to other Amazon offices.
Amazon had already mandated earlier this year that employees work from offices at least three days a week, per the report. “It’s easier to learn, model, practice, and strengthen our culture when we’re in the office together most of the time and surrounded by our colleagues,” Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said at the time.
In a Feb. 17 message to employees regarding the company’s return-to-office plans, Jassy said: “Of course, as there were before the pandemic, there will still be certain roles (e.g. some of our salespeople, customer support, etc.) and exceptions to these expectations, but that will be a small minority.”
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PYMNTS research has found that, economy-wide, 58% of consumers were working in an entirely remote or hybrid work environment, splitting their time between working at home and at the office, in November 2022.
That percentage was up from 53% a year earlier, in November 2021, according to the report “12 Months of the ConnectedEconomy.”
Similarly, the Wall Street Journal reported in May that nearly 60% of companies allow employees to work from home at least part of the time.
