Amazon is requiring its employees to return to the office full-time.
In a note published by the e-commerce giant on Monday, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, who took over from founder Jeff Bezos in 2020, said the move to end the company's hybrid model was intended to “be better prepared to invent, collaborate and be connected enough to each other and our culture to deliver the very best for customers and the company.”
He noted that the three-day-a-week policy, introduced in 2023, had only reinforced the idea that a full return was necessary.
“Looking back over the past five years, we are still convinced that the benefits of being in the office together are significant,” says Jassy.
The change will take effect from January 2025. The company will still take into account extenuating circumstances, such as caring for a sick child and pre-approved work-from-home or hybrid arrangements.
Amazon joins a growing list of major US companies returning to a five-day office policy, including Boeing, JP Morgan Chase and UPS.
However, according to data from FlexIndex, a firm that tracks corporate office policies, the majority of U.S. companies still offer hybrid plans.
The data shows that larger companies are leading the way in encouraging more full-time employee policies.
Interestingly, Jassy said he wants Amazon to operate as if it were “the biggest startup in the world,” a sentiment often emphasized by Amazon founder Bezos.
“That means you have a passion to keep inventing for customers,” Jassy said, “a strong sense of urgency (most big opportunities are a race!), high ownership, rapid decision-making, frugality and thriftiness, deep collaboration (you must be inseparable from your teammates in inventing and solving tough problems), and a shared commitment to each other.”
Jassy also announced a move to reduce “bureaucracy” within the company, hinting at unintended consequences of Amazon’s aggressive hiring after the pandemic reopening — and potentially opening the door to layoffs. Jassy asked employee units to increase “the ratio of individual contributors to managers” by at least 15% by the end of Q1 2025.
“As we’ve grown our teams as quickly and substantially as we have over the last few years, we’ve understandably added a lot of managers,” Jassy said. “In that process, we’ve also added more layers than we had before. It’s created artifacts that we’re interested in changing.”
An Amazon spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
