Amazon is making its employees go back to the office five days a week from January—sparking global panic among professionals that their employer may do the same. But really, research suggests that the tech giant’s CEO Andy Jassy could backtrack on the toughened stance soon.
Flex Index analyzed office requirements at more than 9,000 companies (who collectively, employ more than 100 million people) and found that around half of U.S. firms asked workers to return to the office last January.
Yet, only a third have kept their strict five-day in-office mandates in place.
Now, 37% of employers offer hybrid working instead—up from 20% at the start of 2023.
Despite the increase in headlines around firms forcing their workers back to their desks, companies like Amazon are actually exceptions to the norm. In fact, the data shows that workplace location flexibility is generally on the rise.
Although 50% of businesses were already offering their employers some flexibility over where they work last year, that’s now increased to 69%.
As one worker consoled disgruntled Amazon employees on Reddit: “My company got real strict about RTO last year insisting on 3 days in the office and laying off fully remote workers. 9 months later they have dropped the policy.”
They make a valid point: Separate research has echoed that CEOs in the tech industry especially have spent the last year backtracking on their RTO mandates.
Just 3% of tech firms are now asking their workers to go into the office full-time—a significant drop from 8% last year.
A 5-day mandate may get employees in the office 3-days a week
Amazon’s toughened RTO policy comes as bosses around the world grapple with staff defying their hybrid policy.
In London, employers are asking staff to come in to the office for 3.1 days a week on average—employees are actually showing up only 2.7 days.
Likewise, in New York workers are being asked to work from the office for 3.7 days of the week—but are only showing up for 3.1 days.
The report from the think tank Centre for Cities highlighted that this pattern is followed in most major global cities, including Toronto, Singapore, and Sydney.
Amazon is no stranger to RTO-defiant workers: Around 30,000 employees signed a petition protesting the company’s three-day in-office mandate last year, and more than 1,800 pledged to walk out from their jobs to take a stand.
Since then it has attempted to reassert its authority by giving managers the green light to fire employees who fail to show face in the office three days a week and asking remote workers to relocate near an office—or resign.
However, just two months ago, the tech giant was still complaining of workers dodging the three-day in-office mandate, over a year later.
“The data shows clearly that many companies—including Amazon—set hybrid work mandates, knowing compliance will vary,” Daan Van Rossum, author of the Future Work newsletter and founder of FlexOS tells Fortune.
“They’re playing a negotiation game, asking for five days to get three, as employees have grown used to the autonomy and productivity that hybrid work offers.”
Ultimately, despite Jassy’s call for workers to return to “the way we were before the onset of COVID,” Daan Van Rossum highlights that “in the pre-pandemic office, most people didn’t show up 5 days a week. Even then, office occupancy was usually 70%.”
“I expect a loosening of the policy as this public display of ‘office nostalgia’ versus the expected reality of offices—that they will still be half-empty even after the mandate goes into effect—will be visible to everyone.”
Has your firm gone back on its RTO policy? Fortune wants to hear from you. Email orianna.royle@fortune.com
