Frustrated staff waiting for an update on Amazon’s return to office battle won’t glean much from CEO Andy Jassy’s latest announcement: It’s almost identical to a memo sent out in February.
Staff at the e-commerce giant were first informed that they would be expected to return to the office three days a week from May—but according to leaked internal documents seen by Insider, some corporate sites won’t be ready for employees until September.
Previously, staff at the company had been told bosses had no plans to “require people to come back,” with Jassy telling the Code Conference in Los Angeles in September 2022 he wanted to “proceed adaptively as we learn.”
That all changed in February 2023, when bosses at the firm—referred to internally as the S-team—decided office-based staff should be at their desks for the majority of the week, beginning in spring.
The news went down badly with staff, with more than 28,000 employees joining a Slack channel titled “Remote Advocacy.” Almost as soon as the rebellion group was launched—with an accompanying petition—a pro-office channel was created, arguing that going back to the office was exciting and enjoyable.
Jassy, who has led the company for two years, wrote in his 2022 letter to shareholders released on Thursday: “The energy and riffing on one another’s ideas happen more freely, and many of the best Amazon inventions have had their breakthrough moments from people staying behind after a meeting and working through ideas on a whiteboard, or continuing the conversation on the walk back from a meeting, or just popping by a teammate’s office later that day with another thought. Invention is often messy.
“It wanders and meanders and marinates,” he added. “Serendipitous interactions help it, and there are more of those in-person than virtually.”
Standing his ground
Employees could be forgiven for a sense of déjà vu, as Jassy’s words almost exactly echo the defense of the policy he published in a staff memo earlier this year.
On Feb. 17 he wrote: “The energy and riffing on one another’s ideas happen more freely. In the more productive brainstorm sessions I’ve been a part of over the years, people get excited and blurt out new ideas or improvements to prior proposals, quickly advancing the seed of an idea, and leading to the broader group getting energized and feeling that it’s onto something.
“And, a lesser-known fact is that some of the best inventions have had their breakthrough moments from people staying behind in a meeting and working through ideas on a whiteboard, or walking back to an office together on the way back from the meeting, or just popping by a teammate’s office later that day with another thought,” he added.
Office confusion
The reiteration of the policy does little to illuminate staff trying to prepare to return to their desks—who don’t even know if their offices will be open.
According to an internal memo titled “Building Readiness Dates,” obtained by Insider, offices in the likes of New York and Austin have been given a “readiness date” of Sept. 1.
Sites in Cupertino and East Palo Alto reportedly won’t open in September, while offices in Tempe and Atlanta are earmarked to open by July 1.
“Our offices around the world have been and continue to remain open while our real estate and facilities teams work to make the office accommodating for everyone,” Tim Hobden, a spokesperson for Amazon, said.
“Our goal is to ensure our offices provide a welcoming experience for our employees, and while the dates for full return will vary by location, we’ll continue to keep employees updated and share new information when it’s available.”
The company added that 70% of global locations have been given a “readiness date” but did not confirm if it was within the May deadline, adding most of the global offices will be ready by September.
