Amazon employees express dismay, anger about sudden return-to-office policy

Amazon employees connected Tuesday continued to dependable disconnected astir CEO Andy Jassy's precocious announced return-to-office mandate, including spamming an interior website with messages conveying their absorption to the caller policy.

A radical of tech workers created a Slack transmission and drafted an interior petition pushing back connected the mandate, which requires them to beryllium backmost successful the bureau astatine slightest 3 days a week opening May 1. The petition urges Jassy and Amazon's enactment team, known arsenic the S-team, to driblet the mandate, conscionable days aft it was announced.

The radical has since amassed 16,000 members, and astir 5,000 employees person signed the petition arsenic of Tuesday night.

Employee dissatisfaction with the mandate spilled implicit onto the e-retailer's interior quality provender for employees, called Inside Amazon, wherever workers repeatedly commented connected a signaling of Jassy's caller each hands meeting.

"By arbitrarily forcing return-to-office without providing information to enactment it and contempt wide grounds that it is the incorrect determination for employees, Amazon has failed its relation arsenic earth's champion employer," according to screenshots viewed by CNBC. "I judge this determination volition beryllium detrimental to our concern and is antithetical to however we marque decisions astatine Amazon."

Employees began leaving those comments aft Amazon disabled staffers from "liking" oregon commenting connected Jassy's memo announcing the return-to-office mandate, according to 1 employee, who asked to stay anonymous. Each remark shows the poster's individuality and relation astatine the company.

Staffers who posted successful the Slack transmission said they were caught disconnected defender by the announcement. Many expressed vexation that they'd person to find arrangements for childcare, caregivers for aging parents, oregon perchance determination successful bid to beryllium wrong commuting region of the office.

One idiosyncratic said they'd precocious leased a car that with an yearly bounds of 16,000 miles assuming distant enactment was inactive an option; if they're required to travel into the bureau astatine slightest 3 days a week, they'll transcend that limit.

Others took the company's erstwhile flexible enactment stance arsenic an accidental to determination extracurricular large cities to find much affordable lodging and are present acrophobic astir their commute.

One worker invited Jassy to the Slack channel, which prompted staffers to promote their colleagues to beryllium liable and debar creating excessively overmuch of a stir, arsenic it could origin the institution to unopen down the channel.

Many staffers are putting the operation "Remote Advocacy" successful their Slack presumption successful bid to amusement their enactment for the petition.

In summation to conveying their concerns astir the mandate, the petition besides presents a fig of information points and studies highlighting the benefits of distant work, specified arsenic improved productivity, and the quality to pull and clasp apical talent.

Previously, Amazon had near it up to idiosyncratic managers to determine however often their teams would beryllium required to travel into the office. Jassy had besides embraced distant and hybrid work, predicting it would person a lasting interaction connected however radical bash their jobs.

Last week, Jassy acknowledged that calling employees backmost to the bureau would travel with immoderate challenges.

"We cognize that it won't beryllium cleanable astatine first, but the bureau acquisition volition steadily amended implicit the coming months (and years) arsenic our existent property and facilities teams creaseless retired the wrinkles, and yet support evolving however we privation our offices to beryllium acceptable up to seizure the caller ways we privation to work," Jassy wrote successful a memo announcing the mandate.

Several tech companies person reverted backmost to successful idiosyncratic enactment arsenic the pandemic has eased. Google and Apple have required immoderate of their employees to instrumentality to the bureau since past year, while Disney in January began requiring hybrid employees to beryllium successful the bureau 4 days a week.