It’s not me, it’s you: Jassy warns Amazon staff it might not work out if they’re working from home too much
Amazon chief executive Andy Jassy told workers “it’s probably not going to work out for [them]” if they don’t accept the company’s three-days-in-the-office mandate.
“It’s past the time to disagree and commit,” Jassy reportedly said in a meeting last week, referred to internally as a ‘fishbowl’.
“And if you can’t disagree and commit, I also understand that, but it’s probably not going to work out for you at Amazon because we are going back to the office at least three days a week, and it’s not right for all of our teammates to be in three days a week and for people to refuse to do so,” he said.
Insider, who first reported the meeting, said the meeting was held in to reinforce the three-day-a-week policy and express his frustration that a significant number of staff were not following it since it commenced in May.
In July, reports emerged that Amazon was “tracking and targeting” staff who were refusing to meet the three day in the office protocol, the Financial Times reported.
“As a leadership team, we’ve decided that we will be better for customers and for our business being in the office,” Jassy told employees.
He added that the senior leadership were unhappy with the company’s results when the majority of its staff were working from home during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Jassy said he did speak with 80 other CEOs before making the decision to advocate for an office-based policy saying “virtually all” of them preferred in-office work.
In a statement to City PM, a spokesperson for Amazon said it has never said that remote work would always be the norm, adding it had regularly communicated its position on working from home would evolve over time.
Jassey’s reported comments come as many of the world’s most influential businesses certainly seem to be shifting away from working from home.
In April, American bank JP Morgan Chase halted remote working for its senior staff. Just last week, Goldman Sachs did the same.
In the City, Lloyd’s of London boss John Neal said workers needed to move away from working only on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.