Amazon has told its employees they must return to the office five days a week from January 2025.
The online retail giant’s chief executive Andy Jassy announced the end of its hybrid working policy in a memo to employees.
He said the company had decided to “return to being in the office the way we were before the onset of Covid” and believes the move will mean it is “better set up to invent, collaborate, and be connected enough to each other and our culture to deliver the absolute best for customers and the business”.
Jassy, who had previously expressed scepticism towards remote working, has been allowing employees to work from home two days a week. However, he now insists the changes will help the business accomplish its goals “while strengthening our culture and the effectiveness of our teams”.
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The memo, sent on Monday (16 September), stated: “When we look back over the last five years, we continue to believe that the advantages of being together in the office are significant.
“I’ve previously explained these benefits, but in summary, we’ve observed that it’s easier for our teammates to learn, model, practice, and strengthen our culture; collaborating, brainstorming, and inventing are simpler and more effective; teaching and learning from one another are more seamless; and, teams tend to be better connected to one another.
“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.
“Before the pandemic, it was not a given that folks could work remotely two days a week, and that will also be true moving forward – our expectation is that people will be in the office outside of extenuating circumstances.”
Amazon, which has more than 1.5 million full-time and part-time employees globally, also announced plans to introduce a hot-desk policy in the US. It said agile desk arrangements will continue at locations that had followed them pre-pandemic, including much of Europe.
In revealing the implementation timeframe for the Amazon office return, the company said: “We understand that some of our teammates may have set up their personal lives in such a way that returning to the office consistently five days per week will require some adjustments. To help ensure a smooth transition, we’re going to make this new expectation active on 2 January 2025.”
Law firm Mayo Wynne Baxter warned that global announcements by US-based companies about employment practices “have to be taken with a pinch of salt” when it applying them in the UK.
Martin Williams, partner and head of employment at the company, said: “The extent to which Amazon will be able to apply this shift in work location policy will depend on the contractual arrangements they have in place. The same will also apply to any other company looking to change the way of working for those who are now used to working remotely.
“Many arrangements were put together rather hurriedly during the height of the pandemic. If not done so properly those arrangements may be hard to unpick. Any UK employer is best assessing the current arrangements through a legal prism before making a grandiose announcement about an intention to change.”
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