Andy Jassy, the CEO of tech behemoth Amazon, has stated that the company’s corporate employees will need to be present in the office five days a week starting from January. Prior to this, Amazon had maintained a three-days-a-week office attendance policy. The firm believes that being together in the workplace drastically enhances collaboration, knowledge sharing, and culture-building.
Jassy asserted that the past five years have reinforced their belief in the benefits of physical office-based working, citing better connection within teams, more effective collaboration and brainstorming, and smoother teaching and learning processes. He added that while there may be some exceptions in extraordinary situations or where remote work has already been agreed upon by team managers, the norm would generally be five days in the office.
Prior to COVID-19, working from home two days a week was not prevalent at Amazon, and this trend is anticipated to persist. Amazon, which employs over 4,000 staff in Ireland through its AWS business and has amplified its retail presence post-Brexit, has also expressed an intention to minimise management layers. The company has tasked its internal teams to strive for a 15% increase in employee-to-manageriator ratio by Q1 2025. Reduced bureaucracy, greater autonomy, and faster decision-making that benefits customers are expected dividends of this strategy.