Amazon tells workers they must come to the office 5 days a week

The Amazon logo is seen on the exterior wall of the Amazon OXR1 fulfillment center in Oxnard, Calif., on Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2024. (Damian Dovarganes/AP Photo)

NEW YORK — Amazon is demanding that its corporate employees return to the office five days a week, a significant change from its current pandemic-era hybrid policy that requires them to be in the office just three days a week.

CEO Andy Jassy made the announcement about the new policy Monday, writing that the change will help its thousands of employees “invent, collaborate, and be connected enough to each other and our culture to deliver the absolute best for customers and the business.”

The new policy takes effect on Jan. 2, 2025.

Jassy has previously advocated that employees work in the office, writing that a physical presence improves company culture.

“It’s not simple to bring many thousands of employees back to our offices around the world, so we’re going to give the teams that need to do that work some time to develop a plan,” Jassy wrote in a previous 2023 memo.

He maintained that position more than a year later, writing in Monday’s memo that “we continue to believe that the advantages of being together in the office are significant” and that he’s “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 Amazon employees didn’t follow the current policy, it could hurt their chances of being promoted, and exceptions for working from home will be subjected to an additional layer of leadership approval.

Amazon has faced some employee resistance to this mandate. Last year, some corporate workers staged a walkout at its Seattle headquarters, citing multiple grievances, including the push to get workers back in the office at least three days a week. The walkout in May 2023 also occurred months after the company confirmed it was laying off some 27,000 workers over multiple rounds of cuts.

Although companies in certain sectors, particularly on Wall Street, have emphasized a full return, companies have largely let up on demanding that employees work five days a week in the office. Just four per cent of U.S. CEOs and four per cent of CEOs worldwide at the beginning of the year said they will prioritize bringing workers back to the office full time, according to a CEO survey from The Conference Board.

CTV News reached out to Amazon and they confirmed the new work conditions will also apply to Canadian corporate employees.

With files from CTV News