Amazon CEO Andy Jassy informed employees that starting May, staff must come to the office at least three days a week. Amazon says the office environment improves the learning, modeling and implementation steps and strengthens the company culture. However, Jassy said, “It’s something that connects people, being face to face with someone, looking them in the eye, and seeing that they’re completely immersed in what you’re discussing.”
Employees do not want to return to the office
Amazon employees, on the other hand, simply do not like the idea of returning to the office. More than 5,000 employees have even joined a Slack channel advocating remote work. In fact, the channel currently has more than 14,000 members. However, according to a survey conducted on the channel, 80 percent of employees say they would look for another job if they were forced to return to the office. Paul Vixie, vice president and engineer of Amazon Web Services, also joined the group, saying that there was much that was still unknown and asked employees to remain calm.
Similarly, many companies that announced their plans to return to the office received similar reactions from their employees. While Apple employees started a petition to avoid returning to the office, Tesla employees reported that they were in favor of working remotely. It seems that a compromise will have to be struck between employees and companies.