- Attendance Warning: Amazon US Employees Receive Email About Inadequate Office Presence
- Return-to-Office Trend: Amazon Joins Other Tech Companies in Requiring In-Person Attendance
- Concerns and Backlash: Some Employees Dispute Warnings, Highlighting Existing Tensions
After tracking their attendance, Amazon employees in the United States received a warning email for not spending sufficient time in the office.
Some workers were informed that they were “not currently meeting our expectation of joining your colleagues in the office at least three days per week.”
Amazon is not the first tech giant to abandon the flexible working norms instituted during the pandemic.
Disney has already done so, and Zoom has ordered personnel to report to the office this week.
In May, Amazon’s attendance policy for American employees went into effect, requiring them to “sign-in” to the office at least three days per week.
This week’s email was sent to employees who had been absent from the office fewer than three days per week for five or more of the previous eight weeks, or three or more of the previous four weeks.
Some employees claimed they received the email by mistake, which appeared to aggravate existing tensions within the company.
In June, some Amazon employees in the United States conducted a walkout to protest the return-to-work push.
They claimed leadership’s “short-sighted decisions” had lowered company morale to a “all-time low”.
Some employees questioned whether the warnings foreshadowed an even stricter attendance requirement in the future.
Amazon said the message was issued to policybreakers even though their building was ready for employees to return.
Amazon also acknowledged that in some instances, the warnings may have been sent in error.
While we have taken several precautions to ensure that this email was sent to the correct recipients. We acknowledge that there may be instances where we have made an error.
During pandemic-related lockdowns, many companies chose to employ remote workers. Due to the flexibility and autonomy, it affords workers, it continues to be far more widespread than before Covid.
Most organisations have adopted hybrid working, however some are altering their practises out of concern for productivity.
Andy Jassy, the CEO of Amazon, stated in a May memo informing employees of the new attendance requirements that the change would improve communication, career development, and corporate culture.
