Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has announced (opens in new tab) plans for many of the company’s employees to return to the office on a more permanent basis following a trial of hybrid working over the past three years.
In a message to the company’s 1.6 million workers, Jassy explained some of the benefits that he envisions as part of the updated return to office mandate, including several associated with productivity and even the knock-on effects within the broader community.
In recognition that changing thousands of office-based workers’ habits isn’t a simple move, Jassy has suggested May 1, 2023, as the revision’s effective date, offering up more than two months for plans to be drawn up by individual teams.
Amazon return to office
The notification to employees outlines many of the associated benefits, including the importance of workplace culture for professional development and social skills. Jassy stresses that more exposure to colleagues presents more opportunities to ask ad-hoc questions that they otherwise wouldn’t from behind their screens.
This lack of interaction, says Amazon and a number of other companies, puts newer workers at a disadvantage. Jassy explains:
“…our newer employees, especially those who have joined us in the past few years, stand to be most disadvantaged by not having the learning and mentorship opportunities from peers that many of us who joined much earlier had.”
More widely, Jassy expects local communities around Amazon workplaces to benefit from the additional economic boost that workers will deliver.
With this being an early notification, the company hasn’t worked out the exact execution details and will likely leave it up to smaller departments to find out what works best. Then there’s the fact that different roles require different working methods; corporate workers will likely see the largest effects. However, while the professional benefits are aplenty, the move may see workers who applied on the basis of a hybrid working setup feeling shortchanged.
