Frustrated staff waiting for an update on Amazons return to office battle wont glean much from CEO Andy Jassys latest announcement: its almost identical to a memo sent out in February.
Staff at the e-commerce giant were first informed that they would be expected to return to the office three days a week from Maybut according to leaked internal documents seen by Insider, some corporate sites wont be ready for employees until September.
Previously, staff at the company had been told bosses had no plans to require people to come back, with Jassy telling the Code Conference in Los Angeles in September 2022 he wanted to proceed adaptively as we learn.
That all changed in February 2023, when bosses at the firmreferred to internally as the S-teamdecided office-based staff should be at their desks for the majority of the week, beginning in spring.
The news went down badly with staff, with more than 28,000 employees joining a Slack channel titled Remote Advocacy. Almost as soon as the rebellion group was launchedwith an accompanying petitiona pro-office channel was created, arguing that going back to the office was exciting and enjoyable.
Jassy, who has led the company for two years, wrote in his 2022 letter to shareholders released on Thursday: The energy and riffing on one anothers ideas happen more freely, and many of the best Amazon inventions have had their breakthrough moments from people staying behind after a meeting and working through ideas on a whiteboard, or continuing the conversation on the walk back from a meeting, or just popping by a teammates office later that day with another thought. Invention is often messy.
It wanders and meanders and marinates, he added. Serendipitous interactions help it, and there are more of those in-person than virtually.
Standing his ground
Employees could be forgiven for a sense of déjà vu, as Jassys words almost exactly echo the defense of the policy he published in a staff memo earlier this year.
On Feb. 17 he wrote: The energy and riffing on one anothers ideas happen more freely. In the more productive brainstorm sessions Ive been a part of over the years, people get excited and blurt out new ideas or improvements to prior proposals, quickly advancing the seed of an idea, and leading to the broader group getting energized and feeling that its onto something.
And, a lesser-known fact is that some of the best inventions have had their breakthrough moments from people staying behind in a meeting and working through ideas on a whiteboard, or walking back to an office together on the way back from the meeting, or just popping by a teammates office later that day with another thought, he added.
Office confusion
The reiteration of the policy does little to illuminate staff trying to prepare to return to their deskswho dont even know if their offices will be open.
According to an internal memo titled Building Readiness Dates, obtained by Insider, offices in the likes of New York and Austin have been given a readiness date of September 1.
Sites in Cupertino and East Palo Alto reportedly wont open in September, while offices in Tempe and Atlanta are earmarked to open by July 1.
Our offices around the world have been and continue to remain open while our real estate and facilities teams work to make the office accommodating for everyone, Tim Hobden, a spokesperson for Amazon, said.
Our goal is to ensure our offices provide a welcoming experience for our employees and while the dates for full return will vary by location, well continue to keep employees updated and share new information when its available.
The company added 70% of global locations have been given a readiness date but did not confirm if it was within the May deadline, adding most of the global offices will be ready by September.
