Amazon isn’t only putting its foot down and reaffirming its commitment to returning to working in an office five days a week from January 2025—one of the company’s top execs is even claiming that employees are rejoicing at the mandate.
Matt Garman, the CEO of Amazon Web Services (AWS) unit, insisted that “nine out of 10” workers he had spoken to are looking forward to the new policy being enforced.
And if they’re not? “That’s okay, there are other companies around,” the head of the tech giant’s cloud computing business said in an internal call that’s been reviewed by Reuters.
Research suggests that many employees may do exactly that.
67% Of U.S. employers have already lost employees to remote work this year
Garman may be in for a shock: Despite his assessment that most workers are raring to return to their desks, reams of research suggest that many will be disgruntled and take up his offer to quit.
Already, 67% of U.S. employers have lost talent to competitors offering remote or hybrid work options in the past six months, according to a new report from Remote.
Globally, over 73% of employers across 10 countries, including the U.K., Germany and Japan, have faced a similar dilemma after calling time on remote work.
After all, they’re competing with the 70% of firms that have said they’re embracing—and even broadening—their remote policies. The same percentage of businesses have said that they’ve accepted hybrid working as the new norm.
You can already see this in action at Amazon: A handful of employees anonymously told Fortune that they had already contacted recruiters and interviewed for more flexible jobs just 48 hours after the tech giant announced it’s toughened stance on working from home.
“Honestly, I’ve lost so much trust in Amazon leadership at this point,” an exasperated working mom complained. “I’ve been updating my resume and portfolio, and rage applying to new jobs on LinkedIn.”
She’s not alone: The anonymous job review site Blind polled 2,585 verified Amazon professionals one day after its CEO Andy Jassy sent out the RTO memo and 73% admitted they are considering quitting in response.
Over a third said that they knew someone at the company who had already handed in their resignation because of the announcement.
Maybe that’s what Amazon wants
Amazon declined to comment on how it’s readying itself for a potential exodus of staff—or whether that’s what the $1.94 trillion tech giant secrently really wants.
While Jassy positioned Amazon’s changes—which also include a flattened hierarchy and no more hot desking—as a better, more collaborative way to work, some employees are adamant that it’s a thinly veiled headcount reduction.
After all, research recently found that a quarter of C-suite executives secretly hoped for some voluntary turnover among workers after implementing an RTO policy.
“It’s a rob Peter to pay Paul situation of short-term gains from voluntary layoffs in exchange for losing top talent and reducing productivity for years to come,” a Gen X program manager told Fortune.
