Amazon to Require Workers Return to the Office Full Time

Nearly all Amazon employees will be expected to be in the office for five days a week beginning January 2025, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy announced in a memo issued Sept. 16.

Amazon employees have been working in a hybrid remote/onsite arrangement since 2023.

We’ve rounded up articles and resources from SHRM and other outlets to provide more context on the news.

‘Being Together’

Nearly all of Amazon’s office workers went entirely or mostly remote in spring 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic and associated lockdown orders began.

After the vaccine rollout in 2021, Amazon announced it would let its director-level leaders decide where their team members could work from. In 2023, Jassy announced that Amazon employees would be expected to be working in the office for at least three days a week.

Now, Jassy has decided that the company should return to the way things were before the pandemic.

“We continue to believe that the advantages of being together in the office are significant,” he said. “We’ve 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.”

(Fast Company)

How to Bring Remote Employees Back to the Office

To smooth the transition from remote to in-office work, company leaders should provide a reason for the change, give employees a say in how the change occurs, create connections between workers, and help them solve logistical problems, workplace experts say.

(SHRM)

Job Seekers Crave Remote Work, Even as Remote Jobs Decline

Job seekers are still very interested in remote work several years after the COVID-19 pandemic made it a temporary necessity, but the number of remote-work opportunities continues to dwindle as employers increasingly ask new hires to report to the office.

(SHRM)

Does Remote Work Hurt Productivity?

In this point-counterpoint, two experts debate whether remote work negatively impacts productivity. One says that remote work’s lack of socialization and structure can be harmful, while the other says that most employees embrace working from home and work more efficiently when given flexibility.

(SHRM)