Online giant Amazon has told all its staff to get back to the office five days a week and cancelled routine remote working.
Just one month ahead of a new employment rights bill in the UK – which will see flexible working as a default for anyone starting a new job – Amazon has ended its hybrid work policy, which currently allows staff to work from home two days a week.
The firm only introduced remote working due to restrictions during the Covid 19 pandemic and the change to 100% in office will come into effect from January.
Amazon’s chief executive Andy Jassy said: “To be better set up to invent, collaborate, and be connected enough to each other… We’ve decided that we’re going to return to being in the office the way we were before the onset of COVID. We continue to believe that the advantages of being together in the office are significant.
“We’ve observed that it’s easier for our teammates to learn, model, practice, and strengthen our culture. 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. Our expectation is that people will be in the office outside of extenuating circumstances.”
The firm employs more than 1.5 million people worldwide and this announcement was made in a memo to staff entitled ‘strengthening our culture and teams’.
It included an end to hot-desking in the US, although it will continue in most of Europe, and the fact staff could still work from home in circumstances such as sickness or a sick child, a house emergency, travelling for work or the need for a more isolated environment.
Mr Jassy said in his memo: “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
With a company of our size and complexity, the work won’t be trivial.”
Remote work peaked during the pandemic and many companies started recalling staff in 2022, but the return has been incomplete and staff have resisted the return full time.
Jassy’s announcement comes as the UK government prepares to publish a new employment rights bill next month, which recognises the benefits of working from home.
Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds told the Times newspaper that the government wants to end the ‘culture of presenteeism’ and the new bill will ‘boost productivity’.
He said there was a balance to be struck, but flexible working arrangements could help businesses recruit from a wider pool of people.
