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October 18, 2024 โ 7:41 AM PDT
(Reuters) โ One of Amazonโs (AMZN.O) top executives defended the new, controversial 5-day-per-week in-office policy on Thursday, saying those who do not support it can leave for another company.
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Speaking at an all-hands meeting for AWS, unit CEO Matt Garman said nine out of 10 workers he has spoken with support the new policy, which takes effect in January, according to a transcript reviewed by Reuters.
Those who do not wish to work for Amazon in-office five days per week can quit, he suggested.
โIf there are people who just donโt work well in that environment and donโt want to, thatโs okay, there are other companies around,โ said Garman.
โBy the way, I donโt mean that in a bad way,โ he said, adding โwe want to be in an environment where weโre working together.โ
โWhen we want to really, really innovate on interesting products, I have not seen an ability for us to do that when weโre not in-person,โ said Garman.
The policy has upset many of Amazonโs employees who say it wastes time with additional commuting and the benefits of working from the office are not supported by independent data.
Amazon has been enforcing a three-day in-office policy, but CEO Andy Jassy said last month the retailer would move to five days to โinvent, collaborate and be connected.โ
Some employees who had not been previously compliant were told they were โvoluntarily resigningโ and were locked out of company systems.
Amazon, the worldโs second-largest private employer behind Walmart, has taken a harder line on returning to office than many of its technology peers such as Google, Meta and Microsoft who have two- to three-day in-office policies.
โIโm actually quite excited about this change,โ said Garman. โI know not everyone is,โ he said, noting itโs too hard to accomplish the companyโs goals with only the mandatory current three days of in-office work.
Garman said under the three-day policy, โwe didnโt really accomplish anything, like we didnโt get to work together and learn from each other,โ because people may be in offices on different days.
In particular, Garman said the companyโs leadership principles, which dictate how Amazon ought to operate, were difficult to follow with just a three-day-per-week requirement.
โYou canโt internalize them by reading them on the website, you really have to experience them day-to-day,โ he said.
One, โdisagree and commitโ โ which is understood to mean that employees can express grievances but then should dive into a project as outlined by leaders โ is not ideal for remote work, Garman said.
โI donโt know if you guys have tried to disagree via a Chime call,โ he said, referring to the companyโs internal messaging and calling function. โItโs very hard.โ
Reporting by Greg Bensinger; Editing by Sandra Maler
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