Amazon CEO: It’s time to disagree with the back-to-the-office policy

Andy Jassy, ​​CEO of Amazon, opposes employees defying the company’s back-to-the-office policy, telling employees the “time to disagree” with it is too late.

During an internal question-and-answer session earlier this month, the Associated Press reported that Jassy told employees it was “too late to disagree” with the company’s back-to-the-office policy, which requires employees to be in the office three days a week.

Jacy’s remarks It was reported for the first time by Business Insider.

“If you can’t disagree and commit, it probably won’t work for you,” Jassy said, adding that it is not right for some employees to be in the office three days a week while others refuse to come, according to Jassy. AP reports.

“I do not agree and comply” is part of Amazon’s catchphrase Leadership principles and has often used Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. According to AmazonThe phrase means that “leaders are obligated to respectfully challenge decisions when they disagree with them, even when doing so may be uncomfortable or stressful,” adding that once a decision is reached, employees must “fully commit.”

the new The mandate of the office has been announced in February and went into effect in May, marking a shift from the Previous company policy This allowed team leaders to decide on their work location.

In the February announcement, Jassy said he and his team of senior executives, dubbed the S-Team, note that it is “easier to learn, model, practice and enhance our culture” when we are in the office with other employees. He said that communicating, collaborating, learning and inventing is easier and more effective when you are in person.

These reasons, among others, have led Amazon to conclude that employees should be in the office “most of the time,” Jassy said in February, or at least three days a week. He said that although there would be exceptions to the rule, it would be a “small minority”.

Amazon backed away from the idea that the earlier policy was supposed to be the norm, pointing to Jassy’s 2021 announcement where he wrote that the company “will continue to adapt.”

And in May, hundreds Amazon employees walked out of the company’s Seattle headquarters in protest of climate issues and the return-to-office mandate. The AP reports that the internal Slack channel advocating remote work has nearly 33,000 members.