Amazon CEO denies full office mandate is ‘backdoor sacking’

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said at an all-hands meeting on Tuesday that the plan, which requires employees to be in the office five days a week, is not aimed at cutting headcount or pleasing city leaders, as many employees have suggested.

A controversial plan to have employees report to Amazon offices every day starting next year, instead of three days, has caused consternation among employees who say it is more restrictive than at other tech companies and will reduce efficiency due to time commitments. ways.

Workers who consistently failed to comply were told they would “voluntarily resign” and be blocked from accessing company computers.

“Some people I saw suggested that the reason we did this was because there were layoffs behind the scenes, or we had made some kind of deal with the city or cities,” Jassy said, according to a transcript of the meeting, with which was reviewed by Reuters. .

“I can tell you that both are not true. You know, for us it wasn’t a cost game. This has a lot to do with our culture and strengthening it,” he said.

An Amazon spokesman declined to comment.

Last month, Matt Garman, CEO of Amazon Web Services’ cloud computing unit, suggested that employees who don’t want to fully comply with office requirements could leave for another company, and said nine out of 10 employees he spoke with supported it change. .

That prompted a letter signed by more than 500 Amazon employees in which they implored Garman to reconsider the policy, noting that the company had done well working entirely remotely and that the new rule would impact employees with families or medical issues more than others.

“We were shocked to hear the non-data-based explanation you provided to Amazon regarding the five-day stay-at-home mandate,” the letter said.

Amazon responded at the time by saying it was providing commuter benefits and subsidized parking rates to help with return-to-office policies, among other things.

“It’s an adjustment,” Jassy said Tuesday. “I understand that this affects a lot of people and we are going to work together on this adjustment.”