Amazon mandates employees return to office five days a week

Amazon has announced a new mandate requiring employees to return to the office for five days a week. This move underscores the company's focus on fostering in-person collaboration and maintaining productivity levels. The decision shifts away from remote work flexibility and aligns with Amazon's emphasis on creating a cohesive workplace culture, encouraging staff to re-adapt to the traditional office environment.

Amazon is directing its corporate staff to work in the office five days a week, according to a memo from CEO Andy Jassy on Monday.

This decision represents a notable departure from Amazon's previous return-to-office policy, which required corporate employees to be in the office at least three days per week. Employees are expected to comply with this new mandate starting January 2, 2025.

Corporate staff must adhere to the five-day office workweek, except in "extenuating circumstances" or if they have received special approval from their organization’s S-team leader, Jassy clarified, referencing the senior executives reporting directly to him. Jassy highlighted that, prior to the pandemic, remote work two days a week was not guaranteed, and this will hold true moving forward, as the company expects employees to be in the office barring special circumstances.

Amazon also aims to streamline its corporate structure by reducing the number of managers, with the goal of “removing layers and flattening organizations,” Jassy said. Each S-team unit is tasked with increasing the ratio of individual contributors to managers by at least 15% by the end of Q1 2025. Individual contributors are employees who do not manage others. Each team will assess their structure as part of this initiative, with the possibility of identifying redundant roles. Any changes will be communicated at the team level, Amazon added.

During the pandemic, Amazon significantly expanded its workforce before Jassy became CEO and implemented widespread cost-cutting measures, including the company's largest layoffs in its 27-year history. As of the second quarter, Amazon had 1.53 million employees, a 5% increase from a year earlier, compared to the 14% workforce growth in the second quarter of 2022.

In his detailed message, Jassy explained that these changes are aimed at strengthening Amazon’s corporate culture and maintaining agility. He emphasized this by announcing the creation of a “bureaucracy mailbox,” a dedicated channel to identify unnecessary processes and redundant rules. “We aim to operate like the world’s largest startup,” Jassy wrote. “That means fo cusing on relentless innovation for customers, fostering a sense of urgency, maintaining high ownership, making fast decisions, being resourceful and frugal, fostering close collaboration, and committing to each other.”

Amazon shares saw a slight decline during afternoon trading.

Here is the full memo from Amazon CEO Andy Jassy:

Hi team, I wanted to share some updates regarding changes we’re making to strengthen our culture and teams.

First, I’m pleased with the progress we’re making across various areas. Stores, AWS, and Advertising are continuing to grow, while Prime Video and new investments like GenAI, Kuiper, and Healthcare are developing well. At the same time, we’re improving our cost structure and operating margins, which is no easy feat. Overall, I’m optimistic about our direction and appreciate the hard work and creativity of our teams globally.

Reflecting on my 27 years at Amazon, I never expected to stay this long. My initial plan, agreed upon with my wife in 1997, was to work for a few years and then move back to New York. The exceptional growth, customer obsession, and innovative culture kept me here. When I joined, we had $15M in revenue, and this year we’re projected to surpass $600B. However, the primary reason I’ve stayed is our culture—customer focus, collaborative innovation, fast decision-making, and minimal bureaucracy.

Our culture is unique and has been key to our success. However, maintaining it is a continuous effort. The scope and scale of our businesses, their growth, and the number of people we’ve hired over the last six to eight years challenge even the strongest cultures. Strengthening our culture remains a top priority for the S-team and me, and it’s something I constantly consider.

We want to operate like the world’s largest startup. This requires relentless innovation for customers, a sense of urgency, strong ownership, quick decision-making, resourcefulness, frugality, deep collaboration, and mutual commitment.

Two key areas the S-team and I have been discussing are: 1) Do we have the right organizational structure to drive the ownership and speed we need? 2) Are we set up to innovate, collaborate, and stay connected enough to deliver the best outcomes for our customers and business? We believe there is room for improvement in both areas.

Regarding the first topic, we’ve always prioritized hiring smart, mission-driven, and results-oriented individuals. We also expect those doing the detailed work to take ownership. As our teams have grown rapidly in recent years, we’ve added more managers and layers, which has led to inefficiencies. For example, pre-meetings before decision meetings or a longer line of managers reviewing topics before they move forward. Most decisions are reversible, and we want more team members to act swiftly without unnecessary layers, processes, or meetings.

To address this, we’re asking each S-team organization to increase the ratio of individual contributors to managers by at least 15% by the end of Q1 2025. Reducing the number of managers will streamline decision-making and flatten our structure. This will enable faster decision-making, enhance ownership, decrease bureaucracy, and improve our ability to serve customers better. Our PxT team will work closely with leaders to evolve our organizations in the coming months.

(As a side note, I’ve created a “Bureaucracy Mailbox” where you can report unnecessary processes or rules. While processes are essential for running effectively, we should identify and eliminate excessive bureaucracy. I will review these emails and take action where necessary.)

Regarding the second issue of improving innovation, collaboration, and connection to our culture, we’ve decided to return to our pre-COVID office arrangement. We believe the benefits of being together in the office, which I’ve outlined before, are significant. The last 15 months of hybrid work have only reinforced these advantages—teammates learn and strengthen our culture, collaboration is more effective, and teams are more connected.

Before the pandemic, not everyone was in the office five days a week due to occasional circumstances like illness or travel, and this flexibility will remain. However, it was not common to work remotely two days a week, and moving forward, our expectation is that employees will be in the office except under extenuating circumstances or if they have an approved Remote Work Exception.

We’re also returning to assigned desks in locations where that was the norm, such as in the U.S. headquarters. For regions that used agile desk arrangements before the pandemic, like much of Europe, those setups will remain unchanged.

We recognize that some employees may need to adjust their personal arrangements for consistent in-office work. To accommodate this, the new policy will take effect on January 2, 2025. Our Global Real Estate and Facilities team is finalizing plans and will share details as they are ready.

I want to thank our leaders and support teams for the work ahead in refining our organizational structure. Given our company’s size and complexity, this won’t be a small task, but I’m confident we can simplify and invent new ways of operating.

Our culture at Amazon is something I value deeply. We’re here because we want to make a difference in customers’ lives, innovate on their behalf, and solve problems quickly. I’m confident these changes will help us achieve these goals while strengthening our culture and teams.

Thanks, Andy

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Source: CNBC‍