Amazon orders workers back to office five days a week

Announcing the change in a memo to staff, the ecommerce giant’s CEO Andy Jassy said: “We’ve decided that we’re going to return to being in the office the way we were before the onset of Covid.”

The executive insisted that the move would help workers be “better set up to invent, collaborate, and be connected enough to each other”.

Amazon workers were previously allowed to work from home two days per week.

The online delivery firm said staff could still work from home under unusual circumstances, including having a sick child or house emergency, which was the case prior to the pandemic.

However, unless given an exemption, Jassy said: “Our expectation is that people will be in the office outside of extenuating circumstances.”

The change comes after Amazon informed its managers they could fire workers who refused to work in the office a minimum of three days per week in October.

New internal guidelines were implemented for supervisors at the time, detailing how they could dismiss staff who refused to follow the rule.

Retail Gazette