October 24, 2023
Amazon is giving managers the power to fire employees who refuse to comply with the company’s three-times-a-week return-to-office policy.
This is the strongest measure Amazon has taken yet to enforce its return-to-office mandate, which has been met with resistance from many employees.
According to updated global manager guidance obtained by Insider, managers are instructed to first hold a private conversation with employees who don’t comply with the three-times-a-week requirement.
If the employee continues to refuse to come in, the manager should hold another meeting and, if needed, take disciplinary action that includes termination of employment.
Amazon employees have expressed frustration with the return-to-office policy, arguing that they were hired as remote workers and that the mandate is a shift from a policy allowing individual leaders to determine how their teams worked. Despite employee backlash, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has said that the company is “not going to work out” for those pushing back against the office-attendance mandate.
In an email to Insider, Amazon spokesperson Rob Munoz said the company was seeing “more energy, connection, and collaboration” with the vast majority of employees in the office more frequently.
He added that Amazon’s relocation policy was affecting a “relatively small percentage of our team” and exceptions to the return-to-office mandate would be made on a “case-by-case basis.”
Managers are also asked to “assume positive intent” and “make high-judgment decisions” regarding individual situations, such as ascertaining whether employees have missed attendance requirements because they’re on paid time off or at home because of an illness.
The sources for this piece include an article in BusinessInsider.
