‘Probably not going to work out’: Amazon CEO’s message to remote employees

One thing you don’t want to hear a leader saying to their staff is, “it’s probably not going to work”.

Not only does it suggest the obvious – that people are facing the very real prospect of losing their jobs – the phrase also lacks authority in its indecisive use of the word “probably”.

But that’s just how the CEO of Amazon, Andy Jassy, put it to US workers regarding the tech company’s work-from-home policy, stating that they’re “probably” not going to make it unless they commit to coming into the office.

Amazon’s May 2023 policy states that staff must get to the office three times a week. It follows, and in many cases leads, other tech companies in issuing return-to-work mandates, including Twitter (now X), Google and Meta. Even Zoom got in on the office party, telling staff that they would be required to be in the office twice a week, earlier this month.

But Jassy is clearly losing patience with his employees who are still not returning to the office for the set number of days required. He shared the latest “probably” statement via an internal memo, according to Insider, noting his frustrations that some employees were failing to meet the official Amazon policy.

“It’s past the time to disagree and commit,” the internal memo read. “ If you can’t disagree and commit … 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.”

Amazon’s three-day-a-week policy replaced previous policies that enabled individual teams to decide on working from home. Issuing the announcement on the company blog in February, Amazon said, “It’s easier to learn, model, practice, and strengthen our culture when we’re in the office together most of the time and surrounded by our colleagues”.

Jassy also said in that February note that “collaborating and inventing” is easier in person, where ideas happen more freely. He shared his own experience of the most productive brainstorming sessions where he’s witnessed people getting “excited and blurting out new ideas”. He noted the value of interjecting that occurs in meetings, claiming that interjecting doesn’t have the same impact in virtual meetings. And he also shared the power of the physical “whiteboard” and the breakthrough moments from people staying behind in a meeting. He also described the power of walking back to an office with another colleague, of meeting in lifts, and overall from the “serendipitous interactions”.

Yes, there certainly is power in working together, in person. We are human, after all.

And yet, being human, we also have different levels of needs and responsibilities, as well as different approaches and styles. Jassy’s justifications appeared to suit a particular type and kind – one who has the confidence to interject, the time and space to “stay behind,” and the proximity to be able to get to a place of work with the energy to achieve and compete in all of the above.

His justifications were also anecdotal, specifically describing them as his observations.

Three years of the pandemic changed these things. People adjusted their routines. They moved further out from offices, and they settled into new approaches.

Clearly, not all workers are on board with the return to work mandate, with 30,000 signing a petition in May against it, and another 1,000 issuing a walkout. As that petition read: “Amazon’s top-down, one-size-fits-all RTO [return-to-office] mandate undermines the diverse, accessible future that we want to be a part of”. A number of Amazon employees have also taken their grievances to Reddit and social media sites for discussion on their legal rights, especially as some say they were hired in 2022 under the guise of taking a fully remote role. They also demand data justifying the return of the work benefits, which Jassy has outlined.

Amazon has cut more than 27,000 job cuts globally this year, following a trend from other tech businesses also. It has more than one million employees worldwide. Its own diversity reports state that it has made year-on-year progress in the four years to December 31, 2022. Its ‘people managers’ worldwide have grown from 27.8% female to 31.7% female, while “senior leaders” have moved from being 20.4% women to 24.5% women.

They are slow and incremental changes, but they could very well go backwards with this latest, passive threat from the CEO.

Evidence shows that a lack of flexibility limits the type of workers offices attract and that work-from-home mandates are preferred by certain groups (like white men) over other groups.

Meanwhile, a 2022 Gallup poll highlighted the real risk of “quiet quitting” and presenteeism, with threats about returning to the office leading to distrust, disengagement and fear.

In Australia, 87% of employers have now implemented mandatory office days, with one in five (19%) requiring staff to be in the office five days a week, according to August research by Robert Half.

But these return-to-the-office rules are seeing employers losing team members. Robert Half finds that almost one in three (31%) of employers have lost at least one employee due to office mandates, with 40% anticipating resignations.

Meanwhile, many may disagree with the benefits of in-person work that Jassy has outlined. A May 2023 survey by market research firm The Harris Poll found that 69% of current or former remote workers in the US said they value the independence they gain from remote work more than the professional benefits of in-person work. Three-quarters of those surveyed also said they can speak more freely in a flexible workplace.

Yes there’s power in human interactions. But so too is there power in diversity, which is enabled by choice and autonomy over how and where we work, as well as recognition that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to being a productive, happy and collaborative employee.

This article was first published by Women’s Agenda.