AWS employees are stepping up their efforts to reverse Amazon’s return-to-office (RTO) mandate, writing a letter saying they are “appalled” by the decision.
Amazon sparked controversy when CEO Andy Jassy announced a full RTO mandate, requiring employees in the office five days a week. The company further exacerbated the issue with poor communication, with some employees finding out about the decision via news articles instead of management.
In what has become a common theme with Amazon’s RTO mandates, employees are accusing executives of once again making decisions without any data supporting the benefits.
“We were appalled to hear the non-data-driven explanation you gave for Amazon imposing a five-day in-office mandate,” the letter begins, as seen and reported by Reuters.
Employees were especially perturbed by AWS CEO Matt Garman’s assertion that nine of 10 employees he spoke with supported a full RTO mandate. Employees said the statements are “inconsistent with the experiences of many employees” and are “misrepresenting the realities of working at Amazon.”
In his comments, Garman made clear that employees who were unhappy with Amazon’s decision should quit.
“If there are people who just don’t work well in that environment and don’t want to, that’s okay, there are other companies around,” said Garman.
“By the way, I don’t mean that in a bad way,” he added. “We want to be in an environment where we’re working together.”
Amazon Refuses to Acknowledge the Data
It’s easy to understand why employees believe Garman’s statements are misleading. The data has consistently shown hybrid work leads to happier employees, and those employees work harder than employees who are required to be in the office five days a week.
In fact, according to a study by Microsoft, employees working remotely worked an average of 10%. Similarly, a Chinese study before the pandemic showed that remote workers are approximately 13% more productive than in-office employees.
“I think it’s because people are motivated to keep the arrangement, and so that motivation drives the productivity. They want it to work,” said Tammy Allen, a distinguished professor of psychology at the University of South Florida.
“I think 80 [percent], 90 percent of employees are very responsible and work well whether they’re at the home or the office,” said Matthew Bidwell, an associate professor of management at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Despite the evidence showing the benefits of remote and hybrid work, Amazon executives have continued to push for a return to the old ways, all the while admitting they have no data to support their decisions.
“I think it’s just time, it’s time to disagree and commit. We’re here, we’re back — it’s working,” said Mike Hopkins, SVP of Amazon Video and Studios, about a return to the office. “I don’t have data to back it up, but I know it’s better.”
Jassy doubled down even more during a previous RTO mandate, attempting to liken the company’s lack of data to support such mandates with the innovative decision to launch AWS.
“There was no data when we were deciding to pursue AWS, which was quite different from the rest of our businesses at that time, that we were going to be successful. In fact, most people thought it was nuts internally and externally,” Jassy said during an internal meeting.
“Those were judgment decisions by our leadership team,” Jassy continued. “And that is what’s happened here. As a leadership team, we’ve decided that we will be better for customers and for our business being in the office.”
Amazon Has Destroyed Employee Trust
Beyond the lack of data to support the benefits of RTO mandates—not to mention the data supporting the exact opposite—Amazon’s approach to the entire issue has destroyed its employees’ trust in the company. Early on in the pandemic, Amazon embraced remote work and reaped the benefits.
The letter sent to Garmin linked to a company blog post from 2020 in which Garman touted how effectively AWS was running with its employees working remotely. The letter went on to accuse Garman of breaking “the trust of your employees who have not only personal experience that shows the benefits of remote work, but have seen the extensive data which supports that experience.”
The issue is further amplified by the fact that Amazon made promises to employees when hiring them, assuring them they would be able to remain remote. In many cases, employees who joined the company under those conditions live too far away to make commuting feasible, while others have family or health factors that similarly impact their ability to be in the office.
Unfortunately for the company, its pattern of reneging on previous promises is directly undermining some employees’ willingness to make any kind of sacrifices to meet RTO mandates.
“I was not complying,” an employee named Ben said about the previous three-day-a-week mandate, citing a three-hour commute as the reason.
“I decided not to make life choices as Amazon can fire me at will anyway, and I do not want to make long-term life changes because some manager decided I should start going to the office when I was hired virtual and promised I could work from wherever I want,” he added.
“My months of struggling to make three days a week are over, and I know that my time at Amazon has to end,” an employee named Laura said after the five-day mandate.
“Honestly, I’ve lost so much trust in Amazon leadership at this point,” she adds. “I’ve been updating my resume and portfolio, and rage applying to new jobs on LinkedIn.”
Other Big Tech Companies Are Not Following Amazon’s Example
As further proof of Amazon’s misguided attempt to roll back the clock and return to pre-pandemic norms, the company’s two biggest rivals have reaffirmed their commitment to hybrid work in the wake of Amazon’s decision.
Scott Guthrie, executive VP of Microsoft Cloud and AI Group, reassured staff that Microsoft had no intention of implementing a full RTO mandate as long as employees remained productive.
Similarly, a Google VP responded to a question from employees during a recent “TGIF” (Thank God It’s Friday) monthly meeting. The VP said the company’s existing system was working, and no changes were planned. CEO Sundar Pichai added that the existing system would continue as long as remote and hybrid employees remained productive, echoing Microsoft’s approach.
With a Blind survey showing that some 73% of polled employees are considering a job change in the wake of its RTO mandate, Amazon may soon find itself unable to retain or attract the talent it needs to remain competitive at a time when Microsoft and Google are making major inroads against its cloud business.
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